Void(26)

Giving up on sleep, I got out of bed and pulled on a pair of old sweatpants and sweatshirt from the bottom of my bag. The moment I went outside, it felt like I could breathe more easily in the cool night air. Energy coursed through me, and the urge to take a risk was almost as demanding as the Void. I was stuck between the two natures of myself, both competing for my attention. I spotted a tall tree, jogged over to it, and gripped a low hanging branch before pulling my body up to perch on it.

I grabbed the next branch and pulled myself up that one, too. Higher and higher I went, as dying leaves fell from the branches. Each movement jostled the decay. It was fall in Washington, where the school was located. Everything was in a state of transition. The grounds, the trees...me.

I hadn’t climbed in a while, so my arms shook with the strain as I kept going higher. Good. It added to the risk.

I pulled up the next branch, but it snapped the moment my hand grabbed hold of it. The weight of my body shifted at the lack of support, and I had to grab hold of the large trunk to stop myself from falling. “Shit,” I panted under my breath, but I plastered a smile on my face.

When I was a little girl, my mother used to catch me climbing trees in the middle of the night. She didn’t understand my need to test the limits. It wasn’t until Dad explained to her that it was his risk blood running through my veins that she stopped punishing me for it.

I missed my father. It had been a few months since I’d seen him, and I wondered what he would say about me being at Thibault Academy. He never much liked my mother’s way of doing things. He was never parental, but he loved me in his own way. Out of everyone, he cared about me the most, despite being mainly absentee.

Everyone else always wanted something from me. Reed wanted me in LA with him. My mother wanted me to give her back what I’d taken. The supers wanted me gone. Judge Braxton wanted me here. I was always told what to do and how to live. So sneaking away and taking crazy risks was one of the only ways I ever got to feel a sense of freedom.

I reached out and grabbed another branch, wrapping my soft hands around the wood before pulling myself back up. My hands cracked and bled from the rough climb, but I relished in it. Another step. Another pull. Splinters dug into my palms. The scrapes burned and pulled.

And still, I kept climbing.

This, I could control. Here, I was in charge of myself.

The risk was freeing. The pain was grounding. I felt alive when my lungs expanded with the cool, fresh air and real as I left hot prints of blood on the bark as I climbed. Pretty soon, I was standing on the top of the world, watching the grounds below, the full moon casting its white light and black shadows. I breathed in deeply, a small smile playing on my lips, letting the breeze push my light blonde hair around my face. My heart had the steadying thump thump thump of the physical push and delicious risk as I stood on a thin branch, overlooking the world.

I was considering climbing back down and finding a new tree to climb when a sudden movement to my right made me go still. I crouched down on the branch, eyeing the shadows on the ground below. From up here, voices traveled up to me, the sound carrying in the night.

“I can’t believe Judge Braxton is doing this,” a sinister voice growled. I’d heard that voice before.

“I can. Her power is curious. I think it’s smart to learn how it works so that we can effectively defend ourselves,” Quade responded in a pompous tone that made me want to jump down from this tree and beat his ass.

My hands curled around the trunk of the tree. They were obviously talking about me.

Someone scoffed. “Defend ourselves? Haven’t you noticed? She’s a nobody. She’s weak,” Render’s voice broke through, and I watched as four shadows stepped into the clearing below me.

“Weakness can be strength in the right light,” a singsong voice added before crouching low in the grass to poke at something. I squinted, trying to see who it was, my ears straining to catch every word.

“Weakness can also get you killed. She’s a liability. You know what her kind has done to shifters in the past. She’s already stolen powers from two, my brother included! And I’ve read that Voids get hungry. Feral, even. It’s not safe to have her on school grounds,” that familiar, gruff voice replied.

With a shock, I realized that it was Gritt, the angry shifter who had attacked me in the judge’s chambers. I cursed inwardly. This must be all four paragons. Of course he would be one of them. I should’ve known based on his age and level of power.

“We can’t do anything about it, Gritt. Judge Braxton wants her here, and Headmaster Torne said she can stay unless she becomes a threat to other students.”

“Then why not make her a threat?” that singsong voice asked before standing back up. “I have to go. There’s a necromancer in Philly that keeps bringing hookers back to life. Have to step in before he pimps them out to the humans. Sometimes being a paragon sucks corpses’ dry balls.”

“Gross,” someone said.

“Don’t think you’re getting out of babysitting duty, necromancer!” Render called at his back as the figure walked away. “Fucking necros,” he continued, this time in a lower voice. “They’re all a bunch of lazy fuckers.”

“You’re one to talk, vamp,” Gritt growled.

I frowned. Seemed the only thing these paragons had in common was their hatred of me.

“So what are we going to do?” Quade asked, bringing the conversation back to the problem at hand—me.