Shit. I tucked away my murder smile. “I need a weapon. Something small.”
“Only Hunters are allowed weapons on campus,” Clary said. “Ours were taken when we were Unwoven, so we can’t help you.”
“Yes, but…” Benedict sat up. “If it doesn’t look like a weapon…” He jumped up and hurried across the room.
I twisted on the sofa as he ducked into his room.
“I’m intrigued,” Dori said. “Nut?” She held out a bowl of peanuts to me.
I took a handful and shoved them into my mouth, chewing out my frustration.
Benedict emerged a moment later, something clutched in his hand. “Here, you can borrow this.” He handed me a hairpin with a shell design on the end. It was small and delicate, but the pin part was wicked sharp. “It belonged to my mother. It’s one of the few items I have of hers.”
I turned the pin over. I could coat the end in some of the toxin I had. It would only hurt someone if I jabbed it into them hard enough to draw blood. But…it was a keepsake. What if I lost it?
“I can’t accept this.” I tried to hand it back, but he gently covered my hand with his, curling my fingers over the offering.
“My mother is gone,” Benedict said. “She didn’t care enough to stay. If it can keep you safe, I want you to have it. So that you can stay. I want you to stay…”
A lump formed in my throat. “I… Thank you.” I wanted to hug him. Instead, I dropped my gaze. Get a grip, Ana.
“Okay, now that’s settled, how about we play some cards?” Dori said, breaking the strange tension.
“I’m in!” Clary said.
“Yep, me too.” Benedict reclaimed his seat.
Once again, all eyes were on me. I couldn’t allow myself to get too invested in these people. Nightsbridge wasn’t my home, and this trio…I could never be a real friend to them, but there was no denying that in that moment, there was nowhere else I’d rather be.
“What are we playing?”
* * *
I hadcounseling with Miss Snap first thing the next day. We’d switched our biweekly sessions to the mornings so we could have breakfast together. Mandy made the best scones, and our sessions had become the highlight of my week. Sometimes we just chatted about random things, nothing to do with classes or my feelings, and I’d learned that Miss Snap was an orphan. Her parents had passed away when she was fourteen, and she’d been forced to live with her aunt, a cruel woman who’d made her life miserable.
Mandy had made it her mission to help other young women like herself. She worked with an orphanage for almost a decade after she turned eighteen, helping children to find new families, while studying to be a counselor. Eventually, she petitioned to be recruited to Nightsbridge.
I feel that the children forced to be here need someone they can talk to about their fears and their doubts. Someone who doesn’t want anything from them. Someone who values them for who they are and not what they can do. I want to be a safe place.
Just like me, she’d chosen to come here. She’d explained that not all the staff here were conscripted. That some had volunteered to work here. Even though I was the only student here by choice, I wasn’t the only supernal here because I wanted to be.
Mandy Snap was a genuinely sweet woman, and I enjoyed our time together. I was eager to get to our session, focused on the building looming ahead of me, so I didn’t register the figures hurrying toward me until it was too late.
It was always quiet on the Main Building grounds before nine in the morning, so no one saw when I was grabbed and hauled off the path and into the bushes.
A hand covered my mouth. More hands on my body holding me tight as I thrashed and kicked—and then suddenly, I was free, crashing to the ground.
I scrambled up—but a blow to the head slammed me back to the earth. My ears rang, and the world swayed.
“Hello, Anamaya, I think it’s time we had a little chat.”
Tamina…
I slowly raised my throbbing head to look up at her and the three Phages surrounding me. I guess it had been too much to hope that she’d simply forget about Ruspin. But after three weeks of no contact, I could be excused for thinking that she had.
“Do your chats usually involve fists?”
Tamina shot one of her companions a glare. “Theo gets a little protective of me, don’t you, love?” Theo bared his silver-capped teeth in a snarl. “But no. We’re not going to hurt you. Consider this a warning.”
