Page 47 of Wolf Trial

I was still distracted, my mind pulled in a dozen different directions as I lifted the vial for Rogue to pour the silver into. Pain—sudden and startling. My whole body recoiled.

“Blood and silver,” Rogue cursed as the liquid spilled over the rim of the file and tripped down my fingers. The heat was instant, the pain excruciating, and only years of keeping my suffering hidden where it wouldn’t inconvenience anyone gave me the strength to lock my jaw and trap my scream.

But a wail escaped even as I fought to silence it. No one could know I was in pain, that the silver was pure agony. Any sound of pain was a death sentence.

“Shit,” Rogue hissed, carefully placing the silver and instruments out of reach, and grabbing my wrist. Tears tripped down my face at the pain. It felt like my fingers had been burned to the bone, and there was no flesh left.

“Professor,” she called, urgency and worried in her tone.

“No,” I managed to whisper even with my jaw locked.

“You need to go to the healer,” Rogue said firmly, all the amusement and teasing from her expression and her eyes hard as diamond. “Her fingers are burnt,” she explained when Beaufort stalked over, frowning at the state of my hands and then the tears on my face.

The room began to tilt, the pain so bad that when I blinked, blackness clung to my sight for long seconds.

If Beaufort suspected I was a wolf last night, now here was proof. I hadn’t even lasted a week before death caught up to me.

But really, hadn’t Gran killed me the second she sold me? Hadn’t I been on borrowed time since I passed out at our dining table? If I’d refused to join the Academy, I would have been killed. If I’d failed the first training session, I would have been murdered. It was only a matter of time before death caught up to me.

Unable to summon the will to fight, I closed my eyes and waited, even though a part of me screamed that I was making it too easy for them.

But Beaufort didn’t proclaim me a wolf in front of the entire classroom. He sighed heavily, as if I was a nuisance, and said, “Not another one. Get her out of here. To the healer, to her room, I don’t care. And Sadie, until you can be trusted to manage basic instruction, I don’t want to see you back in my classroom.”

I couldn’t say if I nodded. The pain was so bad it obliterated everything. I thought I had known pain, with period cramps so bad they kept me in bed for days, curled up like a shrimp. I thought that was an eight on the pain scale, but I was severely mistaken. This was the sort of pain that would kill me.

“You’ll be fine,” Rogue soothed as she guided me out of the room, me stumbling over my feet. “Burns hurt like crazy, but they heal quickly, and they’re common enough in classes that we have all the things on hand to treat them. I promise you’ll be fine.”

I’d evaded exposure this time, but how much longer could I keep doing this? Not a year, not even for ninety thousand. A term, then. That would give me twenty, more than enough to set me up at home. But even the thought of doing this for a few more months made me want to scream.

Or maybe that was just the silver burn, and the pain spiking, too much to bear. I wanted to go back to the cottage and curl up in Verne’s bed. Even now, when they were the reason this hurt, I wanted to go back.

And like the pain, the longing was a sensation that grew until all I could think about was being held through this pain. The only thing that got me through the walk to the first aid room was imagining arms around me. I craved it with a desperation that was dangerous.

CHAPTER 27

SADIE

This was the most stupid idea I’d ever had, and I'd never had a shortage of stupid ideas. But even though my burns had been healed, and my pain eased, I couldn’t forget how Beaufort spent the whole demonstration iterating and reiterating how deadly silver was to a wolf. Even though I was pain free, what if the silver was killing me, right now as I laid in bed and listened to the sound of Elix’s breathing even out?

I climbed out from the covers as silently as possible, but I wasn’t worried about waking Elix. If I managed to sneak away from two werewolves, my new wolf stealth would aid me here, too. Silently, in the dark, I climbed out of bed. I was already fully dressed; Elix hadn’t thought anything of me sleeping in a long-sleeve shirt and thick, fur-lined leggings, nor the coat I’d slung over my bed frame instead of putting it away.

I’d just made it to the door, my fingers curled around the cold handle, when noise behind me made me freeze. I waited, hairs standing on the back of my neck, for Elix’s pen to scribble over paper, for her to ask what I was doing, sneaking out when there was a killer loose in the academy. But it never came, and when I turned, it was to see Elix scoop her coat from under the covers where she’d apparently stashed it.

“You’re sneaking out?” I asked, frowning.1

Elix startled so hard her mouth parted on a silent scream. She exhaled roughly when she saw me, and flicked on a lamp so she could write. You’re sneaking out, too?

“Secret rendezvous,” I lied. “You?”

Same. It’s not official. Don’t tell anyone.

“I’ll keep your secret if you keep mine,” I replied, uneasy to find Elix wasn’t as straightforward as I’d wrongly assumed. A hard stone settled in my stomach, curdling everything around it. Because I’d seen Elix’s green eyes drop to the paper too quickly, and she was about to bite her lip before she stopped herself. Because she was lying.

But I had my own secrets to keep, and if mine got revealed, the slayers of this twisted academy would murder me. Would they even treat me to an execution on the lawn for all to watch, or would they kill me where I stood?

Be careful, Elix wrote, a furrow between her pale brows.

“Yeah,” I murmured. “You, too.” Wherever you’re going.