Chapter 1
Bells
Three minutesinside the Academy walls, and I knew it would be the worst day of my life. To be fair, I had only been living it for seven days, but it had been one hell of a week. As I stared up at the gothic castle, its stony spires looming above me and the great iron gates at my back, it hit me. This really was a prison. A beautiful prison, but a prison nonetheless.
As if the two burly angels flanking either side of me--and the shackled bracers on my wrists--weren't enough of an indication.
"Go on," the angel on my right said in a surprisingly gruff tone. I might not have had any memories of my old life, or what I'd done to land myself a not-so-prestigious spot at the Atwood Reform Academy, but I still had some assumptions about what angels would be like, and the ones I'd met since waking up had already dashed all of them.
Then again, maybe they were kinder to humans than whatever I was. The verdict was still out.
I took a deep breath and walked up the steep steps leading to the castle doors. The angel on my left knocked three times and the echo across the iron surface of the doors seemed to reverberate through me. A second later, the doors swung open and two heavily armed guards--probably more angels, if the unnaturally light hue of their eyes was any indication--looked down at me.
"Name," the first grunted.
"Bells," I answered. He raised a fair eyebrow. I shrugged. "That's all I've got." It was the name that had been carved into the underside of the silver ring on my right hand, the only semblance of my life before that was left to me. It was probably a nickname, but still. Of all the things the Agency had erased from my mind, it seemed strange to leave me something as powerful as a name.
The guard looked to the angel at my right, as if he didn't believe me. The angel just shrugged, and they passed me off. The great doors slammed shut behind me, hard enough to make me jolt.
The chains hanging from my wrists rattled as the blond angel grabbed my arm and waved something that looked like a crystal wand over it. The enchantment that had flared up the moment the bracers were sealed activated once more, flashing a familiar blue before the bracers popped open. I rubbed my forearms, since the metal was tight, if not cruelly so.
"Mark," the angel demanded, holding out his hand.
I turned my hand over for his inspection, and he studied the silver engravings on the inside of my wrist. His eyes widened and he glanced up at me, then back at the intake papers he was holding, like he wanted to be sure he wasn't getting me mixed up with someone else. It wasn't the first time I'd seen that reaction. I had no more of an idea about what the mark meant, or how it had come to be imprinted on my skin, than I did about anything from my former life, but I knew one thing: it made angels look like they were about to piss themselves.
There didn’t seem to be anything particularly menacing about the mirrored diamonds with a diagonal slash through them, but I could only imagine it meant something terrible to garner the reactions it did.
I was led down the great hallway, my footsteps echoing across the stone floor as I approached the administrative offices. They looked pretty normal, save for the fact that there were no windows.
There was a pretty blonde girl at the desk, presently distracted by something in front of her. She glanced up and smiled pleasantly when I came in, putting down the pen she’d been chewing on.
"You must be new. Can I help you?" she asked, her soft green-blue eyes studying me intently. She raised her eyebrows in surprise as her gaze fell on the mark on the inside of my left wrist.
Evidently, it wasn't just the angels who had concerns about it. Then again, I wasn't really sure what she was. She looked perfectly human, which I had to assume was the default in the world outside, considering that was what the angels compared me to for being powerless. I knew better than to assume she was human just by appearances, though.
"Hi. I'm Bells," I said, anticipating her reaction. I should probably just have gone with Isabel or something, but it didn't feel right and the name, along with the ring, were my only ties to whatever lay behind me.
Of course, if it had landed me in this place, maybe the angels were right. Maybe I was better off not knowing.
"I'm here to get my schedule and room assignment?" I said. I just hoped my roommate wasn't a demon or something worse. Given the way my week was going, I probably shouldn't have hoped at all.
"Nice to meet you, Bells. I’m Maddie,” she said in a polite tone, even though she was still staring at my wrist. She managed to compose herself and opened a filing cabinet. She thumbed through the folders until she got to mine and pulled it out.
"Here we go," she said, pulling out a glossy tri-folded brochure that made the Academy look a hell of a lot nicer than it looked in reality. She unfolded the brochure on her desk and turned it around so I could see it. "This lists the different classes and paths you can choose from. For example, we have a training class every day for those on the military path. The paths are, well, ways out of the Academy. Successfully graduating at the end of a path will show the school you've been reformed."
She pulled out another paper and looked over it, thoughtfully chewing the tip of her pen again. "Let's see... you'll be in block number 408, with... oh. I'm sorry. I mean... um... Amari Hillsinger, and there's nothing at all wrong with that." She gave me an undeniably apologetic smile. "Amari is a vampire. They can be difficult to get along with--although, to be fair, as a shifter, I'm biased."
I blinked. Things weren't looking good for my new room assignment. And I wasn't sure how I felt about the prospect of being roomed with a vampire, seeing as I was human, for all intents and purposes. At least as far as anyone around me could tell.
"A shifter?" I asked. "You mean like a werewolf?" I had already heard a few mumbled conversations among the angels keeping watch outside the heavily guarded room I'd woken up in. It was somewhere between a laboratory and a prison, but it was the only home I'd known for the first week of my new life, and it was looking better by the second. At least Maddie seemed nice enough. I was afraid everyone at school was going to treat me with the same wariness as the angels, but she just seemed curious.
Maddie tilted her head slightly, frowning. "You don't know the difference?" she asked curiously. "We both turn into animals, but werewolves can lose control of themselves. They look more like bipedal beasts on steroids than wolves, anyway."
“Oh. Sorry. I didn’t mean any offense,” I said, feeling awkward for reasons beyond my ability to fully comprehend. I knew little about the school itself, except that the other students were all supernaturals who'd committed some crime or another, and had their past memories wiped. Even some of the staff. The only difference between the Academy and a supernatural prison, which I'd been informed was also a thing, was that the ones sent to the Academy were considered to have the potential to be redeemed. Redeemed for what, I still wasn't sure, and I wasn't sure Iwantedto know. Figuring out my own sordid past was going to be enough work.
“It’s fine,” she said with a bright smile that suggested all was forgiven. “They’re just a bit, uh, unpopular.”
“I guess I can see why.”
