Even that didn’t help. Whoever had kicked me was strong because it felt like I spun in the air at least once before I hit the floor on my side.
Pain shot up and down my body like lightning. My eyes were open, my backpack on the floor, the book, my sketchbook,even the throwing-up bag Lida had given meoutside. I must have not done the zipper all the way in my panic.
Laughter around me.
My ears rang, but I pushed myself up with all my strength, shaking still. Anger made me see red, especially when I noticed Anika had my sketchbook in her hands—and she was taunting me with it, laughing as she held it up, mocking me.
Fire in my veins, rushing together with my blood. I was on my feet before I knew it, and I was charging for her. I didn’t care where we were or who she was or who was watching—I was going to make her bleed.
Someone moved from my side when Anika yelped and moved back, using my sketchbook like a shield. But my body knew exactly what to do now that I was on high alert, how to duck and swerve and spin around to avoid whoever was trying to stop me, grab my sketchbook from Anika’s hands as she let out another scream and pull down with all my strength.
Sparetime save me, I didn’t think. I didn’t want to. My sketchbook slipped from her hands, and I swung it as hard as I could—right at her face.
She spun around three times, all the way to the reading desk, and fell against it while others gasped. I turned around to warn them to leave me alone one more time, or I was going to fight. They wanted to know what was wrong with me? I’d gladly show them—and I only needed my sketchbook.
Unfortunately for me, there were still five of them, and the moment I turned around, someone pushed me from the left, and someone else pushed me from the right, and I lost balance.
The room spun. Levana was in front of me, grabbed my shoulders to straighten me up, then slammed her hands onmy chest with all her strength within the second. She looked at me like I was a monster—worse than a clockbeast, and Russ was waiting right behind me to slam his foot on my ankle at the right second.
I fell again with a small scream, but my sketchbook was still in my hands. As soon as they came for me, I was going to use it. I wouldn’t stop, I wouldn’t run—I was going to fit until they knocked me out cold.
So I turned on my back and waited for Russ to try to grab me. He was coming and I was ready, eyes wide open and on him, muscles locked tight.
But then he just…disappearedfrom my view.
A blink, and the noise in my head faded all at once. Another scream, and I looked to the side to find Russ on the floor with a knee to his chest and a hand around his neck.
March’s hand.
Everything stopped for a tick.
“Do you want to die, Diamond?”
“March, get off him!”
Anika was trying to pull him back by the arm, but she could have been trying to pull back a marble pillar for all March moved.
Levana was on his other side. “He can’t breathe, March—stop!”
I sat up, disoriented, unable to look away from March’s profile. He lookedpossessed,his muscles strained, his breathing deep, even.
Meanwhile, Russ was choking, trying to take his hand off him, his knee, but March was a big guy. He refused to budge.
My sketchbook was in my hands. I dragged myself to the side, the need to call his name battling with the anger, the rage inside me that wanted him to finish Russ off. Just snap his neck and be done with it, see ifheliked being offedjust in case.
But the girls screamed and they got through to March, thankfully, and he removed his hand from Russ’s neck, but not his knee yet.
He finally looked at me then, and his eyes were bloodshot, and his hair looked wilder and darker than usual, and he lookedbiggersomehow. Like his anger had inflated his shoulders.
My heart stopped. He held me together and broke me apart at once. I was relieved and embarrassed and enraged—and I was empty at the same time.
Then March turned to Russ again. “I see you near her again, I will break your leg.”
A simple statement—like he was telling the guy to meet for dinner. His voice was calm, just over a whisper, and he didn’tsoundangry. He just sounded like he meant it.
Then he stood up.
I did, too.
