Void(27)

“I don’t like to agree with the necromancer, but he has a point. We should just make her a problem,” Render replied speculatively. “It shouldn’t be hard. We can just get her worked up. Make her life here a living hell. She’ll crack eventually, and then the headmaster will have cause to kick her ass out. Problem solved.”

A bat suddenly flew right past my face, making me flinch back. I swallowed the scream on my tongue so that I didn’t alert the guys to my presence.

“Sounds easy enough. I still want to figure out her powers though. We need to get my brother switched back,” Gritt replied.

“Then you better work fast,” Quade said before stepping away from the group and moving to head back toward the academy. “Because with what I have planned for her, she won’t last a fucking day.”

I gulped at the surety in Quade’s tone. Part of me felt terrified, and the other part of me wanted to prove him wrong. “Headmaster Torne would be proud,” Render said before following after Quade. “We’re actually working together.”

“Yeah, don’t get used to it,” Gritt grumbled before walking off in the opposite direction, toward my cabin.

If that asshole was planning on peeping through my windows at night, I was going to lose my shit.

I stayed on my branch for a good ten minutes longer, until my legs and back were sore from the awkward angle. Keeping my ears perked for any sound, I didn’t descend the tall tree until I was sure that no one was still hanging around. The need for risk in my soul had disappeared, leaving me exhausted. Now, all I wanted to do was to go back to bed, but that lingering worry that Gritt was still nearby had me anxious.

I carefully descended the tree, landing on the balls of my feet with a spring. Then I slowly started back toward the feral cabin, smiling in relief when I saw the front porch with the broken door and busted wood paneling. “Home sweet home,” I whispered to myself before taking another step toward it.

“I wouldn’t get too comfortable there if I were you,” a deep voice resonated from behind me as a hand clamped down around my mouth. A scream lodged in my throat, but I couldn’t get it past the barrier of his hand. “Why were you hiding in the trees, Void? You like to gossip with the fucking birds?” Gritt asked, his rough stubble scratching against my ear as he spoke.

I tried to shove his hand away, but when he didn’t let go, I tilted my shoulders back, arching my spine and flailing around to try to get out of his hold. My movements didn’t work though. He was too strong. All I was doing was rubbing my ass against his hardening dick.

“Stop that,” he grunted.

I went impossibly still, my amulet shaking with need. Opening my mouth, I bit down hard on his fingers, but he didn’t even budge. “Feisty, aren’t you?” he asked. “I could smell you up there, you know. Did you think you could actually spy on us and get away with it? I bet it got you hot, thinking you were so fucking smart.”

His free hand wrapped around my waist, and it felt like concrete was holding me in place. Fear-filled bubbles floated in my stomach, bursting against my gut. “I wanted you to hear how much you’re not wanted, Void. I want you to know that we’ll do anything to break you,” he said, his voice a gruff whisper against my ear. “You’re going to figure out how to switch those powers back, and then you’re going to crawl back into whatever fucking hole you came from. Think about that when you sleep tonight.”

He suddenly let go of me, and I spun around to face him, molten anger and anxiousness coursing through my veins. The Void was whispering to me. Take off your necklace. Show him how strong we are. I reached my hand up to touch the clasp, feeling like I was holding my index finger over the trigger of a gun. “I’m not scared of you,” I stuttered, feeling lame for sounding so weak.

“That makes two of us,” the shifter replied before spinning around, giving me his back as he walked away.

I stood there seething, my necklace crushed in my hand as I rolled his cruel words around in my head. I felt disgusted with myself for even considering giving into the Void’s hunger. I wouldn’t be the monster that they painted me as. I refused to fail.

I didn’t want to be here, but I was. And I had every damn intention of proving those asshole paragons wrong. I was going to learn how to control my powers if it was the last thing I did, even if just to wipe the smug fucking looks off their faces.





Chapter 7





I woke up sore but well rested, and I sat there waiting like a good little puppy until Render came to collect me. If they wanted to bully me into leaving, they would have to fight for it. I resolved to do everything they said—to be the epitome of perfection while keeping my head above water. I was here for a purpose, and even if I wasn’t wanted, I was going to take advantage of that. I craved to know more about my abilities—more about this world I’d been exiled from. So I was going to learn as much as I could. Besides, I’d been tormented before. I could handle this.

At least, that’s what I kept telling myself.

The dining hall was so different from any other cafeteria I’d ever been in that it was laughable. It was nothing like my human school with buffet tables and plastic trays. And Mrs. Coxcomb’s was a rich prep school, so it wasn’t like it had been that bad to begin with. Still, Thibault’s was way above and beyond.