6

E veryone is to be seated and silent in the canteen by noon. At the strike of half past the hour, I think my professors might blow the entire castle up given how noisy and late people are. Chairs are kicked over, groups laugh and chatter between them, and someone is smoking what I can only assume is the Quarrierton Academy version of a cigarette.

The lights flicker. “Silence!”

No one listens as I rest my elbows on the table, my chin in my palms. Apparently, being powerful will not grant you power over fifty-odd magical students. Well, magical bar one. Me.

Dane and his group of hooligans walk in, or more like swagger, and the hall falls into a still quietness. It irks me that they’re praised for no reason. They have the looks, sure, and the shitty attitude to go with them, but being the offspring of professors shouldn’t make them so special.

I might bring up my lunch—everyone is ogling them like they’re fresh meat and they’re all starving for a piece. Dane does look good, in all fairness. His hair is a curly mess on his head, his shirt is partially unbuttoned—no tie—and his hand is tucked into his pocket.

The rolled-up sleeves draw my attention to his forearms, and I gulp away the irritating notion to watch the way the veins bulge through his tanned skin.

I look away as his gaze finds mine. Hopefully his mind-reading weirdness can’t reach away over here. If so, he just got an eyeful of his own hand around my throat.

Smooth, Sera. Smooth.

Annoyingly, Orsen notices the table the twins and I are sitting at, points in our direction, and smiles at Mel. We all groan in unison, and Poppy’s head connects with the table dramatically. She hates them all, and Orsen tends to tease her about her partner. He also tells her that he’s her future brother-in-law.

“Whatever he says, it’s a lie.”

I give Mel a look. “What did you do?”

“Nothing,” is her reply. “Whatever Orsen says, don’t believe him. I didn’t kiss him outside of the class tasks, and I definitely did not feel his fingers inside me in the middle of the forest.”

Poppy grimaces.

My eyes narrow. “I thought you hated liars.”

She glares as he reaches us, leaning his freakishly large hands on the table. “Good morning, ladies.” Orsen tilts his head to me. “Human.”

I roll my eyes then avert them when Dane sits directly across from me. His foot hits mine, and I tense all over, like his black vines are wrapping around my body again. Instantly, my heart rate speeds up, and I need to clear my throat to stop any sounds from forcing their way out.

“Go away,” Mel says, but Orsen sits beside her, nudging her shoulder with a wink.

“You weren’t saying that last night, ice queen.”

Dane scoffs. “Please don’t go into detail again.”

I’m extremely grateful I haven’t had much in the way of detail yet.

Mel shakes her head, but I know she enjoys this. She looks at Orsen, fights a smirk, and slaps his leg under the table.

I want to laugh with them, something to lighten the mood. It’s been nothing but doom and gloom the past few weeks. Bad news after bad news after bad news.

Stuck on an island with magical, mythical creatures. A bully who’s told me on more than one occasion that he wants to kill me—who follows me around the castle, breaks into my room to ask me how to use a mobile phone, and gets hard when he sees me in my sleepwear.

I can feel Dane’s eyes on me, but I don’t look his way. Nerves consume me, but not the terrifying kind.

The feeling vanishes, as does every voice in the hall, and the history professor clicks her fingers. “When you are asked to be silent, you will all be silent!”

I try to mutter under my breath, but no words come out. One of the professor’s strengths is that she can remove everyone’s voice. We can all breathe and give each other looks of confusion, but no sound can be heard throughout the hall.

If a handful of pins were to drop, I’d hear them hit the ground.

Dane seems unbothered. As if he’s used to this behavior.

She smiles. “Great. Thank you for giving me your undivided attention. Shall we begin?”

For the next few minutes, she walks around with a scroll, calling out names and marking them off the register as hands raise to show their presence.

“Seraphine Winters.”

Involuntarily, my arm snaps up. Pain snakes around my bicep and wrist, burning, and settles when she sees me.

She nods, smiles, and marks my name off.

Once everyone’s names have been called out, Headmistress Dalton rises from her chair, addressing us all as her wonderful students.

She walks to our table, and Dane ignores her as she rests her hand on his shoulder and speaks about safety measures within the academy. He tenses under her firm grip, his cheeks turning red, and for some reason, I feel the tension of his muscles in my own, the embarrassment, the need to get away.

I frown, and he glances at me, shaking his head slightly, as if to stop me from making it obvious I can feel what he feels.

I want to mouth, What was that? But I know not to. She’ll see, and knowing her brutality, she’ll demand to know what’s such a secret.

But how did I feel all of what he was feeling? And how did he know?

Mrs. Dalton clears her throat, releasing Dane and folding her arms in front of her. “Most of you are aware of what happened this morning. I want you all to know that we are taking action and putting security measures in place.”

I tilt my head, looking over at the twins. Words don’t work, but I mouth, What happened?

Poppy graciously slices her finger across her neck, tilts her head, sticks out her tongue, and crosses her eyes.

Gosh.

In the short time I’ve been here, a few people have been murdered in the most barbaric of ways, so what’s different this time? I guess their immortality only goes so far if people can be killed on this island.

“I will be questioning each student who attended the history room, and if I find you suspicious, you will be sent to the dungeons. Death here is a consequence of bad behavior, not a hobby to keep you busy when you’re bored. If I find another butchered student, I will punish each and every last one of you.”

Professor Mallory, head of martial arts and weaponry training, gets to his feet. Every girl in here instantly drools at the sight of him. In all fairness, he’s a tank given how muscular he is. Tall. With the brightest, bluest eyes ever. And he’s handsome. Really, really handsome.

But he’d snap a neck without even blinking.

I’m a tad scared of him. He’s asked me a lot about being mortal, and sometimes, when he’s teaching me a fighting stance, his hand lingers far too long on my hip. He always partners with me, saying that I’d be snapped in half if I were with someone else.

Also, he and Dane don’t get along, which makes him my favorite person. From afar, at least.

“I will be leaving a magical signature around the island. If someone steps out of line, I will be notified.”

Gentle pressure releases from my neck, and I cough, hearing a few others do the same. Some students are mumbling words, and someone lets out a sob.

Mrs. Dalton speaks again. “From now on, you will have a designated partner. You cannot walk the grounds without them by your side.” Dane’s mother watches me as she adds, “No one will refuse their pairing.”

Kill me. Now.

Dane and I requested we be paired with other students for our classes but were denied. This is definitely aimed at me.

Her eyes stay on me as she moves across the hall, then she looks at her son. “Your partner will also be the only student permitted to be in your dorm room. On weekends, you will decide between the two whose room to sleep in together.”

Orsen whispers into Mel’s ear, and she elbows him in the ribs.

Mrs. Dalton goes on to explain the new rules around the castle.

One student is killed, and we all need to suffer like this? No, there’s more to this story. Something else must have happened for the teachers to go to such extreme lengths.

Mrs. Dalton then excuses us all, telling us to check the scroll hovering by the door on the way out.

Dane is walking behind me. I nearly trip up as he leans down to whisper in my ear, “I need to talk to you.”

“Then talk.”

“Not here,” he replies as we wait in line to exit the room.

Students have stopped to argue about their pairings, but no one is paying them any attention.

“Nope,” I respond. “Talk here or go away.”

He growls, and something warm slithers up my spine before disappearing. “Stop being difficult. I know you can feel me.”

“That sounds wrong.”

“I don’t care. It’s true.”

I continue to ignore the person who wants me dead. When I reach the door, I glance at the scroll, roll my eyes, and turn to Dane. “I’m going to slap your mother.”

He goes to retort but then sees the scroll. Our names are side by side. His teeth grind as he glances back at me.

I shake my head. “Deal with this.”

And I follow the twins out of the room, away from the glaring man with shadows pouring out of him, twirling around him like a tornado.

We’re screwed. I already knew who I was going to be paired with. But seeing our names again, I’m more than pissed off. He won’t be setting foot in my room, and we definitely won’t be sleeping in the same dorm on the weekends, and that’s a promise.

It’s getting out of hand now. Why do they keep partnering us up?

He mentioned his mother said it was important. But why? He even went as far as writing to the professor of human relations, asking her to change the pairing without informing his mother.

Denied.