Chapter 27
SADIE
This was the most stupid idea I’d ever had, and I'd never had a shortage of stupid ideas. But even though my burns had been healed, and my pain eased, I couldn’t forget how Beaufort spent the whole demonstration iterating and reiterating how deadly silver was to a wolf.
Even though I was pain free, what if the silver was killing me, right now as I laid in bed and listened to the sound of Elix’s breathing even out?
I climbed out from the covers as silently as possible, but I wasn’t worried about waking Elix.
If I managed to sneak away from two werewolves, my new wolf stealth would aid me here, too.
Silently, in the dark, I climbed out of bed.
I was already fully dressed; Elix hadn’t thought anything of me sleeping in a long-sleeve shirt and thick, fur-lined leggings, nor the coat I’d slung over my bed frame instead of putting it away.
I’d just made it to the door, my fingers curled around the cold handle, when noise behind me made me freeze.
I waited, hairs standing on the back of my neck, for Elix’s pen to scribble over paper, for her to ask what I was doing, sneaking out when there was a killer loose in the academy.
But it never came, and when I turned, it was to see Elix scoop her coat from under the covers where she’d apparently stashed it.
“You’re sneaking out?” I asked, frowning.1
Elix startled so hard her mouth parted on a silent scream. She exhaled roughly when she saw me, and flicked on a lamp so she could write. You’re sneaking out, too?
“Secret rendezvous,” I lied. “You?”
Same. It’s not official. Don’t tell anyone.
“I’ll keep your secret if you keep mine,” I replied, uneasy to find Elix wasn’t as straightforward as I’d wrongly assumed.
A hard stone settled in my stomach, curdling everything around it.
Because I’d seen Elix’s green eyes drop to the paper too quickly, and she was about to bite her lip before she stopped herself. Because she was lying.
But I had my own secrets to keep, and if mine got revealed, the slayers of this twisted academy would murder me. Would they even treat me to an execution on the lawn for all to watch, or would they kill me where I stood?
Be careful, Elix wrote, a furrow between her pale brows.
“Yeah,” I murmured. “You, too.” Wherever you’re going.
Sneaking out of the academy was a piece of piss; sneaking through the grounds was far less so.
I pinched my wrist to keep myself focused, even as my mind wanted to drift to the sight of Elix lying to my face.
I needed to keep my wits about me, or any of the faculty and groundskeepers setting up a marquee and what appeared to be a ballroom floor in the middle of the lawn would spot me.
Was it a good idea to have us dance over those deadly circles, where we could as easily drown in blood as be blinded by sudden light? Maybe that was a feature, a new way to thin out the ranks of weak slayers. Good thing I wouldn’t be dancing with anyone.
I gave the grounds a wide berth, using my new enhanced hearing and light footsteps to keep myself silent.
“—not sure this is a good idea,” Sidonie’s voice reached my ears. I looked over to see her flick her wrists in the direction of the marquee in the middle of erecting itself via magic. Blood magic; the same power Rev used to incapacitate and murder me with.
I froze, my breathing suddenly shallow, quick. I was frozen, trapped. I was—with a wrench, I lifted my foot to prove I could. You’re safe, you’re in control.
“With a murderer loose,” Sidonie added.
“All the more reason to encourage our slayers to stay,” Laura Mortem finished, her tone leaving no room for arguments. “There’s talk of some of the families pulling their students from the academy. The Hunter’s Ball is a distraction, and one we sorely need until the killer is found.”
I guess the families didn’t care so much about their kids dying when they lost a battle or training session.
Couldn’t have weakness in such noble lines, after all.
I thought of Rev’s dickhead father, and imagined a whole patriarchal society of elitist, verbally abusive assholes.
They probably saw us dying in training as strengthening their bloodlines.
But their family lines being thinned out by a killer who murdered the weak as well as the strong… a different thing entirely.
God, I hated rich people.
“It won’t come to that,” Sidonie said, an air of optimism in her voice. “Everything will be fine, you’ll see.”
I wondered if Mortem rolled her eyes the way I did.
I picked up my feet again and didn’t stop until I’d reached the far side of the grounds, close enough to the edge Rev and her henchwomen shoved me off that my breathing picked up.
I didn’t try to control it; the academy was far behind me now, and no one was around to hear.
Which was good, because I wasn’t quiet about sliding down the hill, first in tentative fits and starts, then screeching when my feet slid from under me. My heart lunged into my throat as air whipped past and—I landed on the ground three feet below.
Well, that was embarrassing.
Impact went up my spine and my brain took a carousel ride around the inside of my skull, but I was alive. Not even hurt, unless you counted the bruise already throbbing at the base of my spine, right above my ass.
Leaves rustled on the proud, old trees around me, and goosebumps swept down my arms. I could have sworn those trees were laughing at me—until they fell silent.
Every leaf on the branches around me went utterly still.
I got carefully to my feet, turning on the spot and scanning the dark spaces between trunks.
Someone was here. Someone was watching me.
It showed how awful my life had become that I hoped it was Verne and Leander, even with all their obsessive strangeness.
“Show yourself,” I hissed, turning, searching. “Coward.”
But all that answered me was the echo of my own voice, and the silence. I didn’t hear steps retreating, but whoever was watching me must have backed away because the trees resumed their whispering. Quieter, and more subdued than normal, but enough that I eyed the nearest one suspiciously.
“Are you… talking?”
I half expected it to answer, but of course it didn’t. I gave my head a serious shake and began walking in the direction of the cottage. At least, I hoped it was in the direction of the cottage.
The sensation of being watched faded, the tingles leaving the back of my neck, but I couldn’t slow my panicked heart. When rough footsteps crossed my path up ahead I stopped dead, all my emotions crashing together until I shook. Tears stung my eyes.
If another wolf found me, someone from a different pack, would they spare me because I was a shifter or kill me because I’d come from the academy?
My heart thrummed a panicked beat, and I hurried on quivering legs to shelter behind a thick tree trunk.
No matter how I tried to control my breathing, to steady my heart so the wolves who lived in this forest wouldn’t hear it, I couldn’t calm myself.
I wasn’t a killer with years of composed experience; I was a scared human who just wanted to go home.
But I wasn’t sure where home was anymore.
I covered my mouth with both hands, a ragged noise leaving me with every breath, my fear so strong it eclipsed everything else.
When a figure broke through the shadows onto the worn path I’d been following, silvery light from the moon caught on a messy knot of dark, wavy hair, a pale face tight with an intense expression, and a muscular body rife with violence.
I exploded out from behind the tree and didn’t stop running until I smacked into him.
A whimper scraped free of my throat, and my knees almost gave out. Safe, an instinct promised, my wolf echoing the sentiment. I was safe now.
For an instant arms came around me, safety flooded my soul, and I squeezed my eyes shut. Then he shoved me away with a growl, and I raised my shaking hands to my face, scrubbing tears away.
“Someone was watching me,” I rasped. “Following me.”
Lainsz’s gaze was so hard it could cut diamond. “You lured another fucking slayer into our forest?”
“I didn’t mean to.”
Whatever he heard in my voice, he sighed instead of laying into me. I wondered if he knew a single harsh word would break me right now.
“Follow that path,” he muttered, his stare harsh as it travelled over me, seeing every smear of dirt that clung to my leggings. “Verne and Leander are on their way.”
Panic seized me by the throat, and my common sense was crushed to dust. I lunged after him, grabbing the sleeve of the dark jacket he wore. “Don’t.”
His thumb and forefinger grabbed my chin, tightened until it hurt. “Having an attack of conscience? Don’t want me to walk into the trap you’ve set? Worried I’ll slaughter all your killer friends?”
“I don’t want to be alone,” I replied quietly, and it cost me to say it aloud, to admit it to him of all people.
Lainsz’s mouth thinned, eyes unreadable and so pale they were pure ice. He dropped my jaw like I’d burned him and muttered, “Stay behind me. If you get in my way, I’ll kill you, no questions asked.”
I didn’t thank him; I was terrified but I had some pride to cling to, so I followed him in silence as he patrolled the path and the dark clusters of trees between the cottage and the academy on the hill overlooking us.
There was no sign of anyone, but Lainsz grunted as he paced the spot where I knew I’d been watched.
“Someone was here,” he confirmed, making my stomach flip then twist into a compact knot. “Not a vampire. Could be a twin or a human.”
I let my breath out in a rush and it shuddered, betraying how afraid I was. Ideally, I’d never let this prick know my fear, but right now he was my comfort blanket. My scowling, murderous, muscly comfort blanket.2
“Can you tell if they’re from the academy?” I asked, creeping closer and daring to meet his eyes. While it was nice to not have to crane my neck back to make eye contact, the sudden severity of those piercing ice blues made my heart stutter, and I glanced away.
His reply was biting. “What do you think?”
“I don’t know,” I snapped. “I was human until fucking yesterday. I know about as much about a wolf’s range of smell as I do about the surface of your seven—fucking—moons.”
The very corner of his mouth flickered, and I saw red at him laughing at me. “Are you having a meltdown over the moons?”
“Yes!” A prolonged, week-long meltdown. “Yes, I fucking am. Who needs seven moons? That’s—that’s a shocking display of excess.”
Now he was definitely laughing at me. I moved to shove him, or punch that derisive expression from his face, but my wrist was caught in a firm grip, and I jumped at the brush of lips to my knuckles.
“What happened?” Verne asked, tucking my hand into my side.
Lainsz smirked at Verne, then rolled his eyes at Leander as he strode closer, his hand moulding to my cheek and taking me by surprise. “Your mate,” Lainsz sneered, “threw herself at me, wailing like a fucking banshee.”
“I did not wail,” I argued, each word bitten off.
“I may have cried, silently, but there was no wailing involved. Dick,” I added for good measure, ignoring the tight hurt in my chest at the your in ‘your mate.’ “And there were extenuating circumstances. Someone was following me. And I was burned by silver this aftern—”
I blinked, and Verne was so close I could see every individual fleck in his brown eyes. “Lainsz, Leander, do a sweep of the forest and check for intruders.”
“I’m not leaving you alone with—” Lainsz tried to argue. Verne’s growl cracked through the forest and I jumped—and Lainsz nodded, falling silent.
He and Leander slunk into the shadows, the latter with a lingering glance at me. I found Verne watching me with an unreadable expression.
“Come with me,” he instructed, and I reluctantly followed, feeling like I was in trouble.