“I have a problem being restrained,” I admitted through gritted teeth. “It’s a trigger for me.” Before she could stop me, I spun around and smashed my hands against the edge of the sink, trying to loosen the binds.Nothing happened except sharp pains ricocheting up my arms. A few more taps and it was clear that this was no normal material. I could not break it, tear it, or wiggle my hands free from it.
Shaking, I faced her again and found sympathetic eyes on me.“Fuck. Sorry, girl,” she said gently. “I wish I could remove them, but all I can do is promise we’ll get you to the Academy as soon as possible.”
She reached down and grabbed the bag I’d dropped earlier and then wrapped an arm around me, hauling me closer as we walked out of the bathroom. Outside the temperatures seemed to have dropped even further. The wind was howling, bringing small particles of ice and snow. My jacket was in my bag, and I couldn’t reach it with my hands bound, but luckily I’d always had a pretty high tolerance for temperatures.
“How are we getting to the Academy?” I asked, somewhat resigning myself to the fact that I was not getting out of this. Not yet anyway. I couldn’t even move my hands. I would literally do anything to get these bindings removed—so I had to play along with her for a little while longer.
And … speaking of these bindings, they were so bizarre that a part of me was starting to believe what she was saying.The words kept running through my head: vampire, shifter, fey, and magic user … supernaturals … academies … prisons…
What the fuck had my pink hair gotten me into?
2
Ilia led me toward a nearby car. It was too dark for me to make out the model, but it was huge and looked expensive. She yanked the back door open and then turned to help me climb in—my bound hands made balancing quite the adventure.
I’d had my hands restrained exactly like this once before, and the memory of that was making it difficult for me not to panic. My head was pounding, terror scratching incessantly at my insides. It was only through pure force of will that I wasn’t screaming hysterically.
I needed a distraction. Anything. “Are we driving all the way to the Academy?” I asked her again, breathless but coherent. Surely a school filled withvampireswouldn’t just be on a normal Detroit street.
“Step-through,” she replied quickly as she pushed me across and slid in next to me.A what now?
Wait … if she was in the back with me…
I turned to the driver seat, and when huge brown eyes met mine, I let out a short, startled scream.
“Shut her up,” it growled.
What in the fuck…?
It was too much for me, being tied like this while trapped in a vehicle withsome green freaking gremlin.Darkness pressed in around the edges of my vision.
“She’s going to pass out!” I heard Ilia yell. “Drive, Mossie. The step-through is not far away and we need to get there now.”
Mossie.Even in my hysterical state I still had enough coherency to wonder if the name was a tribute to its green skin and high, pointed ears.
Tires screeched as the car took off, and I focused on breathing in and out, filling my lungs over and over. As we skidded around a corner, I went sprawling across the wide back seat. Mossie was going too fast; if we stopped suddenly I was going to really regret not having a seat belt on.
Thankfully, when he slammed on the brakes, Ilia put a hand on my shoulder, stopping my face from smashing into the seat in front of me. I was then half lifted out of the car as freezing air howled around me again. I shook Ilia off, not wanting to be helped.
“Maddison, I’m not your enemy,” Ilia said as she shouldered my bag—it contained all of my worldly possessions.
“Bet you say that to all your kidnap victims,” I shot back.
Mossie jumped out of the car and joined us. I scooted around the other side of her, putting as much distance between the gremlin and me as I could.
“I’m not a gremlin,” he said in his raspy voice. “I’m a goblin. There’s a difference.”
I almost tripped over the flat ground. “You read my mind?” I whisper-yelled. “Do you know how fucking rude that is?”
Mossie grinned at Ilia, pointed teeth filling his mouth. “She seems to be adjusting to the supe world already. A human’s first question would be how did I read their mind, but not Maddison.”
“It’s Maddi,” I said stiffly. No one called me Maddison. “And I just assumed grem— goblins can read minds.”
He flashed me a look, one that I couldn’t decipher on the foreign features of his face. His skin looked leathery, tough with raised bumps across his cheeks and nose. The green was like a leaf from a rainforest tree, with lighter khakis across his ears. He was no taller than four feet, but he was nimble and looked strong.
I’d never seen anything like him outside of the movies, and staring at him was really helping to distract me from the fact that I was still bound.
“We can only read thoughts that are projected at us,” Mossie explained as we moved farther from the car. “If you’re thinking somethingatme, or sometimes even about me, then I might pick up on the thought.”
