Page 182 of Glutton for Punishment

Dean Bellows gave me no choice but to take on extra potions tutoring sessions with Maddox, who has enjoyed torturing me about how the tables have turned in our study dynamic.

Maddox, meanwhile, has gone quiet on the political front in my presence, though I know he’s using whatever dark channels he prefers to search for any sort of record about dual faction powers.

For the first time, I’m not the only one holding the pieces.And honestly, I should have known better. Because that’s the exact moment the universe decides to remind me I’m its least favorite—and everything goes spectacularly, inevitably tits up.

I wake to pounding on my door.

An urgent, relentless force that snaps me awake so fast that my body is already moving before my mind wakes up. I sit upright, disoriented, heart already kicking hard against my ribs.

“Holly?” I call. But her bed is empty.

The pounding thumps again. “Arwen. Open the door.”

There’s panic in Maddox’s voice, and it slices straight through the fog of my half-sleep. I’m up before I know I’m moving, dragging a sweater over my head, tripping toward the door. The lock fights me for a second before it clicks and I haul the door open.

Maddox stands in the doorway, bracing his white-knuckled hands against the frame, breathing hard.

“It’s Amaya,” he says. The name alone sends vibrations of horror through my body.

“She has them. Holly. Tabby. Cleo.”

The world tilts as the breath leaves my lungs. The sudden, sickening horror of it settles into my stomach like a weight.

“How?!” I spit out.

“There’s no time to explain everything,” he says, voice tight. “We need to go. If we leave now, we can still catch them.”

That snaps me into motion. Survival instinct overriding everything else.

I’m already pulling on jeans, grabbing my boots, my sword from combat class, my dagger from under the mattress. My hands are steady, but my mind isn’t. Picturing all the ways Amaya could hurt them on repeat. I shove the thought down hard as I follow Maddox out into the corridor.

We move fast. The academy is eerily quiet, corridors dimmed under lockdown protocol, everything echoing. Maddox leads me through side passages I’ve never been through before. When we break through the last exit, the site of the forest behind the academy stretches out ahead of us, dark and endless.

For a moment, my mind drifts back to last year. Running through these same woods.

I push the memory away, following Maddox, who is already moving toward the tree line. He’s got a small flashlight in one hand, barely enough light to carve a path through the dark, but he doesn’t hesitate. We run for several minutes before he slows to a walk towards a large shadowy object.

Maddox flashes his light over it, and I see it’s an ATV.

“Maddox, how did this get here? How are we getting out of the academy lockdown? Where are we going?”

He meets my eyes, and I struggle to read his expression. “There’s no time. Just trust me, Arwen,” he says. “We need to go. Now.”

He revs the engine, and the ATV lurches forward so fast that I barely have time to grab the side bars before we’re flying down the trail. Trees blur past us in dark streaks. The air whips against my face, stealing my breath as we race toward Academy Hollow. My pulse pounds harder with every passing second.

Maddox’s jaw locks tight. His hands are rigid on the steering wheel. Something about it feels wrong.

I glance at him again. “How do you know we’re going in the right direction?”

No response. Not even a glance in my direction. The uneasy feeling in my stomach grows.

The path ahead forks just before Academy Hollow comes into view. Instead of continuing toward it, Maddox veers sharply left as my grip tightens on the handlebars.

“Maddox? Tell me where we are going right now. I need to know the plan,” I say firmly.

Still no response.

The moment we breach the academy wards a cold, biting wind whips through my hair. The familiar sense of protection disappears and leaves my skin prickling with unease.