36. Nora

36

NORA

A knock came at my door in the middle of the night. My eyes flew open and I frowned, sitting up. It sounded again, this time far more urgent.

“Alec?” I whispered.

I’d expected him to come home after classes ended today, but he’d been absent. Part of me worried that he was tired of me, even if the last few days had been truly blissful in a strange, twisted way.

I rolled out of bed and rushed down the stairs. I opened my door, but it wasn’t Alec on the other side.

“Dr. Woulfe, I need to speak with you. A tragedy has occurred.”

The Dean stood there, his face pinched with concern. His body language did not match his expression. Alarms rang through my mind as I took in his flushed cheeks, his stiff posture, and the way his eyes narrowed like a hawk’s.

“I need to change before you come in,” I said. I slammed the door on him abruptly.

Fuck. What the fuck had happened? Alec, what did you do?

I rushed back up the stairs and went to the window, looking out at the greenhouse. The light Alec always had on was nowhere to be seen.

The knock rapped urgently.

I cursed under my breath and tore off my nightdress, changing into a pair of pants and a turtleneck. I drew my hair back into a bun and dug out a set of boots, pulling them on.

I ran back down the stairs and threw the door open again. “What happened?” I asked.

“Louis is dead,” he said. “I need to question you.”

Alec, gods damn it.

“How did he die?” I asked.

“Let me in,” the Dean insisted.

“No,” I said. I didn’t trust him. Not only that, why was he alone? Since when did the Dean question people about murders? “I will come with you. But I am not allowing you into my tower. We can go to the university.”

His jaw set. “Very well. We will go back to the university.”

The walk back was probably one of the most awkward encounters I’d ever experienced. The wind cut through my clothing, but the Dean’s occasional icy glare was even sharper.

My heart pounded as I followed him up the staircase to his office. A cold draft sent a shiver through me. My stomach twisted, already my mind searching for a way out. A weapon of sorts. Something to defend myself with. I certainly didn’t trust the Dean, not after everything that had transpired.

He unlocked his office door. I followed him, noting how he closed it. Noting how he locked it.

“What do you need from me at this hour?” I asked, facing him as he moved. He reminded me of his son right now.

“We need to know your whereabouts for the last twenty- four hours,” he said. He went to his desk and struck a match, lighting a candle. Warm light flooded the office, shadows dancing around us. “Louis is dead .”

“I have been at home,” I said. “I went to bed before midnight.”

“Before then,” the Dean said sharply.

He thinks it’s me. He thinks I’m the monster. The way he glowered at me as he waited for me to answer, going around his desk to sit on his throne.

Shadows crawled over him. My pulse quickened as he steepled his fingers together, his lips curling into a menacing snarl. “Professor Briar is missing. He has not been seen at the greenhouse, nor is he at home.”

“Oh. Have you been to his home?” I asked pleasantly.

His eyes flashed.

Either the Dean was the world’s biggest fool, or he knew exactly what was going on.

If he knew, then he knew about Alec. He knew what Alec was. As a member of The Hunt, I just couldn’t quite piece together why he would allow Alec to carry on like this. I thought about what the creature had told me about it being unnatural with Alec, like there was a connection holding him here. What was it? He’d been here longer than me, so it couldn’t have been our bond.

My hands curled into fist down at my side. I stalked to his desk, leaning over it until my face was right in front of his.

“You know. You have to know what I'm talking about,” I whispered. “Stop playing games with me and tell me the truth.”

His expression turned from masked to the face of a man who was far more intelligent than I gave him credit for. “You fit everything needed. No family, a woman , easily forgotten. We accepted you to this university with the intention to sacrifice you to our violent, powerful god.”

Heat prickled the back of my neck, rage licking up my spine. I thought about the corpses around the table at Alec’s townhouse. The body of the professor in the upstairs room.

They had intended for me to end up there too. Another body, another Thorns tragedy.

I leaned back slightly, taking in every sharp object on his desk from the corner of my eye.

“What happened the night of the dinner party?” I asked. I moved my hand to a set of scissors.

His hand grabbed mine, pinning it down before I could take the scissors.

“You tell me, Nora,” he said. His lips twisted into a cruel smile. “What happened that night? Why did he spare you? He’s never rejected a sacrifice before. The sacrifices keep him partially human.”

We were never meant to be human. Alec’s words as a monster came back to me now. “I don't know,” I growled, yanking my hand away from him. I pulled the scissors with me. “I don't remember. In fact, Alec doesn't remember either. Why don’t I remember?”

“That, I do not know,” he said. “There have been many mysteries that have unfolded since you showed up here.”

My heart pounded in my chest, the hair on the back of my neck rising. “Are you the one controlling him?” I asked. “How? What are you doing to him?”

“No one can truly control him,” he whispered. “He is a god amongst men. He is violent, malicious, and capable of granting one of us power beyond our comprehension. We sacrifice to him, our great benefactor. We offer him whatever he desires.”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “The sacrifices. You said they keep him partially human. Explain yourself. If you knew Alec was the monster all along, why have him question students over your son’s death? ”

He snarled. “Years ago, The Hunt found a way to bring our god to the life of men. By offering him sacrifices, we were able to use magic to keep him that way. To control him. Do you know what it’s like to have a god walk beside you? To know that he is blissfully unaware of his true power?” He rose from his desk and opened a drawer, drawing out a knife. “Losing three members of The Hunt was a tragedy, but it’s happened before. It wouldn’t have been the first time the god struck down those unworthy. But he spared you, and for that, I cannot understand. He has never rejected a sacrifice. Then…” His voice trembled, his breaths becoming rapid. “He betrayed me. He took my son. He took my son. ”

“So, his townhouse is just a graveyard. You were aware of it. You knew that Alec was the monster too,” I said.

“He’s not a monster, he’s a god .”

“I don’t believe in gods,” I whispered. “But I do believe in men who are evil.”

He gnashed his teeth. “How absurd, you are. You think you’re so smart, but you can’t even understand the greatness that surrounds you. The power .”

“What has he ever given you?” I asked. “What has this worship ever brought you? Why do such a thing?”

“You don’t understand.”

“I’m starting to,” I said. “Why doesn’t he know who he is?”

The Dean shrugged. “Perhaps his own hatred created this altar ego of himself, the humanity. Not that Alec Briar is very human . Have you ever watched him cut apart a specimen, Nora? This man you’re trying to protect would gut you.”

“He would never harm me,” I said. “Why did you have him question the students with me? If you’re so angry over the death of your son.”

“Because it drove him to work for the poison faster. Alec sought to create a poison that could kill all monsters. A great weapon against himself without realising it. Do you know how much power I would have with that poison?” He lifted the knife with a cruel smile. “It’s not enough to keep him human. I want to destroy him. I want to take everything he is and become him. I want to become a god . The other members of The Hunt aren’t worthy, but I am. I deserve this. I am the chosen one.”

My hand curled around the scissors. “I want you to know that I killed your son,” I said. “Not Alec. It was me who murdered him in the maze. He attempted to rape me and I used your family’s knife to stab him over and over.”

The colour drained from his face and he began to shake.

“You see, bringing me here was a mistake. Thinking I am weak was a mistake. Believing Alec was the only monster in your midst was a mistake. I am going to do the same fucking thing to you that I did to your son. I am going to rip you apart,” I snarled. “You may think you’re a god, but I promise you are just a man.”

I used the shock of the truth of his son’s death to my advantage. I lunged across the desk, driving the scissors into the side of his neck. He grabbed hold of my wrist and I yelped as he twisted hard, but the scissors had already sunk in. His other hand swiped to the side, knocking the candle to the rug on the floor.

“ Monster ,” he gasped at me.

Blood spurted over me as he sank to the floor. I slid over the desk, knocking papers and objects off as I pulled the scissors free. Flames began to catch, creeping over the carpet and the things that had fallen.

He turned onto all fours, cupping his neck as he tried to crawl away.

Fire burned in my mind, eating away the edges of my memory as blood pooled around him. Watching him crawl away fueled a sadistic part of me. I stepped over him and grabbed the back of his head.

“I am so sick of men like you thinking you can do anything,” I whispered. Heat filled the room as more fire started to catch. “Enjoy your place in hell.”

I stabbed him again with the scissors on the other side of his neck. He choked, gurgling echoed as more blood drained out. He kicked and squirmed until his muscles went slow. He collapsed under me.

He was dead.

And I’d killed him.

Faint shouts echoed from outside the room. I stared at his unmoving body, the cold murder settling over me like a warm blanket. I didn’t feel nauseated. I didn’t feel sick. I only felt like I’d done the right thing. Fire and shadows, blood and vengeance.

I remember now.

I remembered the night of the dinner party.

My breaths became sporadic, my vision dotting as it all came back.

The door to the office burst open. Harold stood in the doorway, his eyes darting from the flames to me and then the Dean. He glared at me in a way I’d never seen, so different from the man that had welcomed me in at the pub my first night at St. Thorn.

“She killed the Dean!” he shouted.

I smiled.

I’d killed more than just the Dean.