Page 23 of Wolf Trial

It wouldn’t be the first fight I’d got into with a bully, and I was sure it wouldn’t be the last, but as our paths intersected, I wondered if I should have run the other way when I saw them. It went against everything that made me me, but maybe a retreat was smarter.

Because Reverie—Rev, as I’d heard them call her—brought her finger to her mouth and whatever I thought she was going to do, it wasn't to draw blood and flick that blood at me.

“Missed,” I taunted, my heart hammering as if she’d attacked me.

“No, I didn’t,” Rev taunted right back, crimson eyes alight when I tried to take another step and found my foot glued to the old stones.

My pulse thrummed faster. I fought, pulling at my legs, but both of them were stuck to the floor. And it hit me like a brick to the head: these weren’t like the bullies I’d dealt with. These were vampires, with a dark sort of magic I hadn’t begun to grasp yet. Rogue had used it to heal my scratched eyes, but what else could it do?

Rev flicked her wrist again, and this time the blood did land on me; it hit my chest and splattered against my shirt, and I watched, motionless, as the stain spread.

The corridor rippled in my vision, the tapestries all blurring together until they were a smear of black and red. All at once, I couldn’t make out Rev’s features, or see Oona’s satisfaction or Maveline’s silent unease.

Rev let out a quick breath. Excitement, I realised when she said, “Get her.”

CHAPTER 13

SADIE

“No one,” Rev snarled, a woman possessed, as Oona and Maveline gripped my arms and dragged me fuck knows where. Cold air slapped my face, so we were outside at least. What were they going to do—throw me in a training arena and let it destroy me? There was an arena of blood, I knew. An arena of total darkness, too. The kind that would drive me to pure insanity, and that was before these three psychopaths did whatever they intended. “No one talks to me the way you did yesterday. I’m going to show you why that is.”

I’d already decided I needed to give these lunatics a wide berth, keep my head down when we were in the same sessions, cross the fucking corridor to avoid them. I could admit when I was beaten, and I was completely outmatched. But I couldn’t open my mouth to say any of that. Blood magic had sewn my lips shut, prevented me from screaming for help, or just insulting them the way my idiotic inner voice wanted to.

“You’re new,” Oona said viciously as they dragged me over a flat stretch of grass I didn’t recognise, my vision limited since I couldn’t turn my head, “so maybe you don’t know. But Reverie is nobility. Her father is a lord. She’s the queen of this academy, and she deserves respect. Worms like you need to be taught a lesson.”

Thought I was a slug, I wanted to quip, but my lips being locked put a dampener on my snark-for-survival tactic. Oh god, if I couldn’t be snarky, did that mean I wasn’t going to survive?

“Maybe we should leave her here,” Maveline spoke up, her voice beautiful but tentative, small. Like she wasn’t accustomed to speaking her mind. With such powerful personalities like Oona and Reverie, I wasn’t surprised. And what kind of name was Reverie, anyway? Shouldn’t someone with that name be sweet, kind, and unable to hurt even a fly? This reverie was a grade-A maniac. “That’ll teach her a lesson.”

“Leave her where anyone can find her?” Oona scoffed. “Blood and silver, you’re bad at revenge, Mav.”

“We’re dropping her over the boundary as planned,” Reverie said, and her word was clearly law because the other two shut up. By default, I shut up too, but that didn’t stop me screaming, throwing insults and curses at them inside my head. It didn’t stop me fighting the whole way, even if my body was as stiff and unwieldy as a mannequin as the henchwomen did Rev’s dirty work.

The temperature dropped; that was my only clue that we were approaching the boundary.1 A chill ran over my skin, prickling my arms until I wanted to shiver. And god was that an awful sensation; being desperate to shudder but frozen, completely debilitated.

End them, an inner instinct raged at me.

Run, a different, scared voice urged. Run far, far away.

But how the fuck did I run when I couldn’t twitch even my little toe? I couldn’t even roll far, far away, let alone run.

“If we leave her over the boundary, blood-drugged like this…” Maveline began, her voice so hushed I barely heard her over the sudden howl of the wind that bit at my nose, scratched my cheeks.

“Are you saying her insults should go unpunished?” Oona challenged, ever the well trained dog. It was amazing how I could hear Rev’s words and her pert mouth didn’t even open.

“Of course not,” Maveline argued, vehemently. “No one’s allowed to talk to Rev like that. But if the wolves find her like this, she won’t be able to defend herself. Even if they don’t, how will she find her way back to the academy?”

Reverie turned, so I got a full view of her slow smile, the satisfaction in it. Yeah, I’d really wounded her pride yesterday when I said she was an insecure nobody.2

The air turned even icier as Oona and Maveline slowed their pace, and I renewed my battles to get my hands to work, my legs to kick out, my mouth to scream when I realised the boundary was an edge.

“Rev…” Maveline tried again.

“If you don’t like it, Mav,” the ringleader snapped, as cold as the frost that clung to the leaves on the trees that dominated my view, “then leave.”

The implication that she’d be leaving their little clique forever wasn’t lost on any of us.

“Sorry,” Maveline murmured, tightening her grip on my arm. “You know I trust your judgement. I just don’t want Mortem to be a bitch about this like she was with that Phillipa girl.”