“Make sure you keep up.” I pivot and head in the opposite direction, taking the longest route back to the dorms.
At first, we’re quiet on the way back, but I slow my pace soon after we begin the trek back. Although I don’t plan on walking beside her, I find I quite like feeling her eyes on me. Besides, she’s so small, she would have to jog to keep up with my normal pace.
“Why is this place so big?” she mutters under her breath.
Answering isn’t even a conscious thought, but I find myself replying, “Size equals strength.”
“Not always. I once encountered a female who was smaller than me, and she could uproot trees.” Her words are spoken conversationally—not like she’s trying to prove me wrong, but like she just wants to talk. It’s not something I’m accustomed to. No one chats with me.
Strangely enough, I want to continue speaking with her too, but I’m at a loss for what to say, other than answering her question about the institute. “Strength can be amplified by numbers, and this facility is large, fortified, and shielded with magic, which means it appeals to those who would like to amass more power.”
“What kind of shields?”
I look down and realize just how close she’s gotten to me. She could reach over and touch me with ease. “You’re too close,” I snap out with more intensity than I intended, and her face falls as her steps slow to drop behind me. My gut twists, and I get the urge to tell her it’s for her own protection, but explaining that my touch kills somehow feels like admitting I shouldn’t be near her at all, and I can’t do that. Instead, I answer her earlier question to ease the sting of my rebuke. “There are wards all over the grounds—magical land mines.”
“Do they keep us in or others out?” she asks, seemingly unbothered by my insistence on having distance between us.
“Why, are you hoping to escape?” I stop and face her when she doesn’t respond. She pauses several feet away from me, making sure to maintain distance between us. “It would be useless. There is no place you could go where you would not be found.”
BRIAR
There’s an unmistakable threat in Kage’s words, one I don’t quite understand since it seems personal, as if even the mention of leaving pissed him off. I have an entire conversation with him in my head, explaining not everyone wants to be enlisted at Ivy, and that all I really want is to be left alone, but I know it would be a waste of breath to say any of it out loud or a challenge I could never stand up to. It’s clear by the other female’s reaction to Kage that he’s powerful. I know all the tells, like the way she instinctually stepped away from him, the way her entire demeanor shifted when he showed up, and how she left as soon as she could get away from him. None of it comes as a surprise, though, since I’ve seen him stand up to Ziv.
“I’m just trying to learn,” I defend lamely, then deflect a little more. “I don’t really know what I’m supposed to be doing here.”
“What you will do is train.”
“For the games?”
“For survival,” he intones, then turns to resume walking. I trail after him like a lost little puppy, desperate to ask more questions but too afraid to push him. A breeze from an open window stirs his midnight hair and carries his scent to me. The spike of familiarity hits me again, just as it did when he got between me and the older female. I know his smell, but I can’t figure out why, other than to assume it was from the day he took me to the healer.
“Who was that female?” I ask.
“Mistress Corin, she’s an instructor.”
“For combat?”
He glances over his shoulder briefly. “No, her magic is nature based.”
“So she tutors others with nature-based magic,” I surmise. “Why is that area off-limits to students?”
“You ask a lot of questions,” he remarks, but answers anyway. “It’s not just off-limits to students.”
“Oh, does that mean she wasn’t supposed to be there? What wereyoudoing there?” The second half of my question escapes my thoughts, so I roll my lips together to keep from speaking again.
“I do as I please,” he replies without answering my question. “Think you can find your way back from here, or do you need me to draw you a map?”
I take in our surroundings, noting that the populated dorms are only a corner away. “I’ve got it,” I mumble, slightly embarrassed at the insult.
“Don’t go wandering around. It’s dangerous,” he warns, but I can’t help but wonder if it’s really a threat. He steps to the side, giving me ample room to pass. I try to look at it as if he’s doing me a favor, but I can’t help wondering if he just doesn’t want to get close to me.
Like a fool, I look over my shoulder and find him still watching me. The feeling is familiar, and I can’t shake the notion that he was following me earlier, despite his denial.
ZIV
Not even a bath at a curing pool washes away all the blood from my skin. As suspected, the urge to inflict more damage than Briar’s father could withstand was a hard-fought battle. Every time he lost consciousness, I wanted to tear the skin from his bones and allow maggots to fester in his open wounds, but I doubt the male would have survived it.
As it was, the healer had to stop my torture twice because I nearly killed him before I finally left, feeling completely unsatisfied with Gary’s screams. For now, I’ll have to be content with the knowledge that the low-level demon charged with keeping Gary alive will take nearly as much pleasure from tormenting him as I do.
