I snarl, catching her off guard with an uppercut. “They aren’t fucking listening.”
She narrows her eyes after blocking me. “How is that my fault?”
“What is it about you, huh?” I ignore, throwing a left hook which she ducks. “You got a magic pussy or something? How else could a worthless, powerless, human-born nobody get two Heirs and the moratus dragon chasing after her?”
“How about you gofuck yourself,” she hisses, deflecting my right cross. “Maybe you’ll find whatever crawled up your ass.”
I glare at her as we separate. “I’m sick and fucking tired of hearing about it every goddamned day.”
“That sounds like a you problem, not a me problem.”
I fake her out “You made it my fucking problem when you started going after my friends.”
“I’m not going after anyone.” She stills, and quirks her head. “Wait. Are you… jealous? Is that what this is?”
I come at her with combo of strikes and surprise her with a kick, and she jumps back. “There’s nothing to be jealous of, becauseyou’renothing. You’re fuckingnothing,” I growl.
She hangs back as my words sink in. Other students have started to catch on to our argument and circle us, but I tune them out.
With a steady voice, she looks me dead in the eye. “I amnotnothing.”
When my mouth opens, the words I’ve heard since I was a kid crying in front of his little brother’s grave come rushing out. “You.” I strike out, only for her to block me again. “Are.” strike. Block. Again. “Nothing.”
“It’s time you learned this lesson, witchling. You only have yourself to blame.” Calanthe shouts out from where the class has surrounded us. I can’t see Carrick anymore—no doubt Calanthe and her minions found some way to get rid of him.
Nyx gives me a hard look. “Enough. I’m not going to stand here and take this shit,” she throws her padded mitts into the mud. “You’re not worth it.”
You’re not worth it.
Her words play on repeat in my head. Over and over and over again.
She’s not wrong.
I’m not worth anything. Not my family name, not my friends.
Not her.
Stupid. Stupid stupid stupid?—
Blinded by my desperation to make it stop, to make the words stop, I launch myself at her, but she rolls away just in time to avoid the brunt of my attack. I manage to trip her though, but not even her kicks can shake my grip around her ankle. We scramble in the mud, and when she arches her back, trying to create distance between our bodies, we both realize?—
“Are you fucking hard right now?” she hisses, fingernails digging into my arm when our hips grind together as she struggles to get away. “What the fuck—” in my shock, her elbow catches me my surprise and knocks my head back. As I grab her arm and roll us over so that I’m straddling her stomach, the crowd around us has grown, blocking us from view.
“Shut up. Shutup!” I hiss, grabbing her wrists when she tries to hit me and squeezing until her bones grate in my grasp.
“Get the fuck off me!” she shouts, but my weight knocks the breath out of her. “Get off!” No one hears her.
I just need it tostop. I don’t know how to make it stop.
I shake her and her eyes widen. Everything fades into the background. My chest heaves and heart races—and then it stutters in my chest.
Her pupils widen, and from their depths, a pulsing red glow begins to swallow the black. Blood begins to spread from her irises, flooding the white of her sclera until even the veins around her eyes darken under her pale skin.
My heart stutters again as pressure blooms from the center of my chest outward, seizing my lungs in its grasp until I can’t draw breath. My skull starts to pound as my ears ring and the world tilts. I shake my head, trying to rid myself of the sudden dizziness and confusion. The movement throws me off balance and I slump to the ground, staring up towards the darkening sky as my muscles cramp and seize. When my head lolls to the side, I see everyone around us has collapsed as well. I lose focus when a red haze clouds my vision and starts to fade in and out, but whena dark shadow blocks the stars, I use the last of my energy to face it.
As Nyx stands over me, the last thing I hear is an ear-piercing scream.
And then I’m nothing.
