“Don’t you dare say his name!” Her eyes flash, and her claws sharpen. “Fuck you! Fuck both of you!” With a sob, she runs away and disappears into the woods.
I take a deep breath and groan aloud. “We have to follow her.”
Callum nods. “I’ll hold the idol. It’s made of ice, so it won’t melt if I carry it.”
“Forget the fucking figurine.” I grab Callum’s hand and pull him after me. “I don’t care about winning anymore.”
“Are you sure?”
I swallow hard. “Yeah.”
If Aesir wants to play dirty, then we’ll play fucking dirty. His game is rigged, so we won’t play by his rules anymore.
“Let’s save our teammate and get the hell out of here.”
I’ve got a bone to pick with our fuckingprofessor.
Chapter 32
Sienna
The woods are endless.It turns out that even when no one is fucking with your sense of direction, getting lost is still easy as shit. Callum and I follow our teammate long enough that her tears run dry, and she stifles her sobs. I half expected her to shift back into her animal form, but after what happened to Graham, I don’t blame her.
If I watched my boyfriend get struck by lightning, shit, I wouldn’t shift, either.
“What do you think Aesir’s game is?” Now that I’ve had time to calm down, I can’t stop thinking about the purpose of tonight’s exercise. To bring students together? To test our abilities even more than the Winter Mating Games? Or to throw our failures in our face just like last time?
Getting Graham killed—althoughnotmy fault!—is surely a top failure of the year.
And I didn’t evenlikethe guy.
“I do not know,” Callum murmurs, easily keeping pace with me. “His intentions are as unclear to me as they are to you.”
“Well that’s just great.” I walk faster, eager to get this night over with. “Our only hope of graduating from this damn academy is at the hands of a sadist.”
“Vampires do not kill without reason, and if we are being technical, he did not...killGraham.” Brushing his hand across mine, Callum loops our fingers together. “I do not believe that was his intention.”
“But he still allowed it to happen.” I drop Callum’s hand as we reach our teammate, then grab her arm to pull her to a stop. “Hey. We’re getting out of here.”
She snarls at me as she turns around. “Fuck you. I’m not going anywhere with you.”
Goddammit.Clenching my jaw, I twist her arm behind her back until it nearly breaks. We both hiss in each other’s faces. “Yeah, you fucking are. Don’t make me knock you out.”
With a heavy sigh, Callum snaps his fingers and our teammate drops. Before she hits the ground, he sweeps her into his arms and grimaces. “She smells deplorable.”
“Give her a break. She’s been through a lot.”
“She is not nearly as capable as you,” he grumbles, holding her as loosely as he can without dropping her. “We should leave her behind.”
“We are not leaving our teammates.” I hold my hand out and grimace. “Graham excluded. He couldn’t be helped.”
“Sienna—”
A voice echoes through the forest, interrupting Callum. “Sienna!”
I spin around just as a dark shape rushes past me, damn near knocking me over. I stumble for a split second before Callum steadies me, abandoning our teammate to wrap an arm around my waist. She falls to the ground like dead weight, but as soon as Revyn emerges from the shadows, he skids to a halt and does the exact same to a redheaded boy slung under his arm. They both crash to the forest floor, neither of them making a sound.
“Get your hands off her!” Revyn bares his teeth and his eyes flash silver. “You’rebleeding.” His gaze roams my body andsnags on the bloodstains on my clothes, remnants of my kiss with Callum.
