“It’s important to me. You’ve got to get out of here.”
“No.”
“We could all go in different directions, confuse them, hide in the pleasure garden tunnel.” His aristocratic features remained hard, resolute. I pounded my fist against the window frame. “Why won’t you save yourself?”
“Because I’m cut from the same cloth as my father. I’m a monster, Hazel. I need to be controlled.” Trey pressed his lips to mine, stealing a breathless, desperate kiss. Wood splintered as someone rammed the door. He tore his lips from mine and shoved me out the window. “Go. Now.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
I swung my leg over the glass panel and stepped out onto the ledge. The stone sloped sharply away. I strangled a scream as my foot slipped off. I grabbed the drainpipe running alongside the window and hugged it as my body swung out over thin air. I was three stories up. If I fell, I wouldn’t have to worry about what Vincent Bloomberg would do to me, cuz I’d be splattered across the cobbles like a life-sized Rorschach test.
Oh well. At least it would hurt the god.
The drainpipe groaned under my weight. I tried to kick out my foot to snag the nearest tree branch, but all that succeeded in doing was swinging me around so I was facing into Trey’s dorm room. The door cracked down the middle and fell open. Ms. West stood in the corridor, flanked by Courtney, Tillie, John Hyde-Jones, and a circle of senior Eldritch Club members.
They stormed into the room. Vincent grabbed his son by the throat as Ms. West lunged at Quinn.
Go. Now.
My stomach lurched and shoulders screamed as I swung my body around the pole. Mom would probably be good at this. Pole dancing was always her specialty. I flung out my hand and grabbed the nearest branch, swinging myself into the tree like a cartoon monkey.
SNAP.The branch broke just as I slammed into the trunk. I wrapped my free arm around the tree, dropping a few feet before I was able to slide into a fork. My breath came out in ragged gasps as I leapt down the branches, ignoring the pointy bits that dug into my flesh. I jumped onto the lawn and raced past the visitor lot, now filled with cars, and across the field.
Cold wind whipped around me. My legs burned, but I didn’t slow down until I hit the rose bushes at the bottom of the fields. Thorns snagged on my stockings, tugging at me like claws, trying to drag me back. The soaps jabbed against my legs. I hoped they hadn’t broken.
Fuck. I left the phone on the table.It was out of battery, anyway. I had to hope Zehra didn’t need to message me again.
Blood whooshed in my ears. My chest heaved but I kept on running, running, running. I didn’t even care anymore what they did to me. Let them toss me into the void. I’d fight that fucking Great Old God all the way down to hell. But if I could stop this happening to others…
This ends with me. I will be the last.
…if only I could do more. If I could give the students of this school a chance to live their lives again… Faces from Ayaz’s files flashed in front of my eyes, all those voiceless scholarship students, chosen because they had no one to fight for them.
Until now.
Trees flew by in a blur, the ocean rising up between them as I neared the edge of the cliffs. The ground rumbled beneath me, rolling and pitching under my feet.The god’s wrath?I didn’t stop to find out. I skidded to a stop as the rock ledge came into view, the same one the guys had used to shelter me from the club all those weeks ago. I dived behind the stones and slithered between the crack, fumbling in my pocket for the lighter. I flicked it on, illuminating the edge of the entrance. I turned myself around and slid backward into the hole. My foot slipped on the edge. My fingers lost their grip, and I half leapt, half tumbled onto the shelf below.
I landed hard on my side. The lighter flew from my hand, bouncing on the stone and flickering out. The cavern plunged into darkness.
No. No. No.
I couldn’t beherein the dark. The darkness hid the shadows, the oppressive weight of hatred, the call of the god that wanted to have me all to himself.
Panic rose in my chest. I felt around me, searching for the lighter, begging the darkness for some solution. Fear crept through my veins. A strange heat pooled in the palms of my hands, zigzagging across my fingers. I held up my hand, running the tips together, trying to make sense of the burning, living heat that scorched the inside of my skin.
The heat bubbled against the surface. I cried out as my hands burst into flame – orange glowing orbs piercing the gloom.
Light flared, then died back. I held up my hand, watching with awe and horror as flames rippled over the surface of my skin. The heat warmed my face and yet my hands weren’t burning. All I felt was a faint sizzle through my veins – the kind I got when I kissed one of the guys.
Or when I started the fire that burned the slithering creature.
From the darkness, a tall flame darted in front of my face, sending me reeling.The lighter!I stared as the flame from the lighter fell, becoming a small orange pinprick.
What? How is that possible?How is the lighter burning without me touching it? How are my hands on fire?
I must’ve spilled lighter fluid on myself. I’ve gone into shock. Any moment now that’ll wear off and the pain will begin.
But it didn’t. Instead, as I watched, the flames on my hands shrunk away of their own volition, seeming to dissolve into my skin, leaving only the flame of the lighter.
