Page 48 of Wolf Trial

Sneaking out of the academy was a piece of piss; sneaking through the grounds was far less so. I pinched my wrist to keep myself focused, even as my mind wanted to drift to the sight of Elix lying to my face. I needed to keep my wits about me, or any of the faculty and groundskeepers setting up a marquee and what appeared to be a ballroom floor in the middle of the lawn would spot me.

Was it a good idea to have us dance over those deadly circles, where we could as easily drown in blood as be blinded by sudden light? Maybe that was a feature, a new way to thin out the ranks of weak slayers. Good thing I wouldn’t be dancing with anyone.

I gave the grounds a wide berth, using my new enhanced hearing and light footsteps to keep myself silent.

“—not sure this is a good idea,” Sidonie’s voice reached my ears. I looked over to see her flick her wrists in the direction of the marquee in the middle of erecting itself via magic. Blood magic; the same power Rev used to incapacitate and murder me with.

I froze, my breathing suddenly shallow, quick. I was frozen, trapped. I was—with a wrench, I lifted my foot to prove I could. You’re safe, you’re in control.

“With a murderer loose,” Sidonie added.

“All the more reason to encourage our slayers to stay,” Laura Mortem finished, her tone leaving no room for arguments. “There’s talk of some of the families pulling their students from the academy. The Hunter’s Ball is a distraction, and one we sorely need until the killer is found.”

I guess the families didn’t care so much about their kids dying when they lost a battle or training session. Couldn’t have weakness in such noble lines, after all. I thought of Rev’s dickhead father, and imagined a whole patriarchal society of elitist, verbally abusive assholes. They probably saw us dying in training as strengthening their bloodlines. But their family lines being thinned out by a killer who murdered the weak as well as the strong… a different thing entirely.

God, I hated rich people.

“It won’t come to that,” Sidonie said, an air of optimism in her voice. “Everything will be fine, you’ll see.”

I wondered if Mortem rolled her eyes the way I did. I picked up my feet again and didn’t stop until I’d reached the far side of the grounds, close enough to the edge Rev and her henchwomen shoved me off that my breathing picked up. I didn’t try to control it; the academy was far behind me now, and no one was around to hear.

Which was good, because I wasn’t quiet about sliding down the hill, first in tentative fits and starts, then screeching when my feet slid from under me. My heart lunged into my throat as air whipped past and—I landed on the ground three feet below.

Well, that was embarrassing.

Impact went up my spine and my brain took a carousel ride around the inside of my skull, but I was alive. Not even hurt, unless you counted the bruise already throbbing at the base of my spine, right above my ass.

Leaves rustled on the proud, old trees around me, and goosebumps swept down my arms. I could have sworn those trees were laughing at me—until they fell silent. Every leaf on the branches around me went utterly still. I got carefully to my feet, turning on the spot and scanning the dark spaces between trunks. Someone was here. Someone was watching me.

It showed how awful my life had become that I hoped it was Verne and Leander, even with all their obsessive strangeness.

“Show yourself,” I hissed, turning, searching. “Coward.”

But all that answered me was the echo of my own voice, and the silence. I didn’t hear steps retreating, but whoever was watching me must have backed away because the trees resumed their whispering. Quieter, and more subdued than normal, but enough that I eyed the nearest one suspiciously.

“Are you… talking?”

I half expected it to answer, but of course it didn’t. I gave my head a serious shake and began walking in the direction of the cottage. At least, I hoped it was in the direction of the cottage.

The sensation of being watched faded, the tingles leaving the back of my neck, but I couldn’t slow my panicked heart. When rough footsteps crossed my path up ahead I stopped dead, all my emotions crashing together until I shook. Tears stung my eyes.

If another wolf found me, someone from a different pack, would they spare me because I was a shifter or kill me because I’d come from the academy?

My heart thrummed a panicked beat, and I hurried on quivering legs to shelter behind a thick tree trunk. No matter how I tried to control my breathing, to steady my heart so the wolves who lived in this forest wouldn’t hear it, I couldn’t calm myself. I wasn’t a killer with years of composed experience; I was a scared human who just wanted to go home. But I wasn’t sure where home was anymore.

I covered my mouth with both hands, a ragged noise leaving me with every breath, my fear so strong it eclipsed everything else.

When a figure broke through the shadows onto the worn path I’d been following, silvery light from the moon caught on a messy knot of dark, wavy hair, a pale face tight with an intense expression, and a muscular body rife with violence. I exploded out from behind the tree and didn’t stop running until I smacked into him.

A whimper scraped free of my throat, and my knees almost gave out. Safe, an instinct promised, my wolf echoing the sentiment. I was safe now.

For an instant arms came around me, safety flooded my soul, and I squeezed my eyes shut. Then he shoved me away with a growl, and I raised my shaking hands to my face, scrubbing tears away.

“Someone was watching me,” I rasped. “Following me.”

Lainsz’s gaze was so hard it could cut diamond. “You lured another fucking slayer into our forest?”

“I didn’t mean to.”