“… all ah want is for them to leave me alone,” Courtney cooed in a sing-song voice, affecting Loretta’s accent. “Ah don’t even want to be at this school. Ah only came because Grandma made me, because being invited to a rich white school would help her to regain face after what Mama did. But they’re never going to stop tormenting me. There’s only one escape ah can see, and it looks brighter and bright every day.”
My heart leaped into my throat. Somehow – probably with the aid of the copy of the room key – Courtney and Tillie had got their hands on something private Loretta had written. Now they were reading it out for the whole school.
My eyes met Loretta’s, and what I saw there sickened me even more than what the monarchs had done. Loretta looked serene, completely at peace, as if what was happening to her right now was destined to be. I saw what happened to a person after the bullying and belittling become too much – Loretta believed the lies they were telling about her. She accepted that she was nothing.
It made me sick. It made me see red.
“Oh, Mama!” Courtney wailed, reaching a crescendo as the students around her rolled about with laughter. “Ah wish you would talk to me. Ah wish ah could be with you right now. Why did you have to leave? There’s no point to any of this without you—”
Courtney spun around as she read. Her eyes met mine, glinting with triumph.
No.
I’m not letting this go on.
Courtney was only doing this because of me, because she was still pissed about the party, because she realized she couldn’t hurt me the way she wanted to, so she was going after someone who she could crush completely.
“Oh Mama, ah just want to be with you again—”
I marched up to Courtney and snatched the book from her hands. “That doesn’t belong to you.”
“Silly gutter whore,” she smiled. “Everything in this school belongs to me. Everything in thisworldbelongs to me. Face it, I’m just better than you in every way. The sooner you and your pathetic little friends understand that, the better off you’ll be.”
“Hazel,” Loretta said, her voice flat. “It’s okay. I don’t care.”
You should care.I wanted to scream at her.You can’t just crawl into a ball and give up because of what they say.
“We’ve all learned some very important things about our classmate, Loretta,” Courtney said sweetly, addressing the gathered students. “I know we all wish her the best for her latest endeavor. Loretta has failed at everything else in her life. Let us hope that she will find the strength to succeed at this.”
“Kill yourself, kill yourself!” Students chanted. I grabbed Loretta under her armpits and dragged her away. Courtney’s hyena laugh echoed off the corridor.
“That’s it,” I growled, pulling Loretta toward the faculty wing. “We’re reporting them.”
Loretta wrenched her arm away. “No.”
“Loretta, they are literally telling you to kill yourself. That’s beyond just normal bullying. That’s fuckingabuse. The teachers have to do something about this. They have to—”
“Just leave it alone,” Loretta grabbed the journal from my hands, her face flaring to life. “Leavemealone. I wish you’d never come to Derleth! Everything was fine before you came.”
Clearly it wasn’t, if that was the kind of stuff Loretta was writing. I watched her shuffle away, her head hanging low.Shit, she’s in a bad place.
The sliver of guilt that had been with me since I saw Quinn ripped at my chest. I shared a room with Loretta. I should have seen that she was depressed, but I’d been so busy with my own revenge plans and daydreaming about Trey and Quinn and Ayaz—
Ayaz. Where was he?
He hadn’t been in the crowd tormenting Loretta, which was interesting. He loved a good torment as much as the next monarch. He must still be with the headmistress.
I jogged down the hall, searching for the classroom Quinn mentioned. I paused at the door, but the lights were out inside so I couldn’t see a thing through the small glass panel. I pushed opened the door. “Ayaz, are you in here? We were supposed—”
The words died in my throat.
Ayaz had Ms. West bent over the desk, her black gown rolled up over white hips. Her graceful neck arched back in ecstasy as he plunged his cock into her.
Chapter Twenty
Shut the door.
I commanded my body to move, but it refused to obey. I was frozen in place, forced to watch Ayaz’s cock slide in and pull out, long and sleek and dark and glorious. His hands gripped the headmistress’ hips and my body tightened, flushing at the thought of his fingers tangled in my own hair, that long cock sliding between my legs—
