Page 76 of Ava: Part Two

But she ignored both parts as she dragged her feet to her first class. A lecture on the importance of choosing the right cleaning product was the last thing she needed right now, but at least she would get to sit down.

“Miss Morgan.”

Her eyes widened as she turned back to the room she had just passed. Mr Patrick stood there looking more serious than she had ever seen him.

“A word, please.”

Not just a word. Several words. She felt her spirits lift a little as she walked into the empty lecture room and watched him chant a few words as he closed the door. She was getting answers today, whatever it took.

“You almost killed me!” she snarled.

“Yet here you are,” Mr Patrick said. “But you’re still going to die, Miss Morgan, if you don’t listen to me.”

Chapter 50

Avasteppedback.

She had known from the first day that she would die in this place, but hearing Mr Patrick say it hammered it in.

“Who wants to kill me?” she asked weakly.

But she already knew. What she didn’t know was why. Did they know what she had done?

“They know everything, Ava. I told you not to go into the forest. Everything in there belongs to them. Do you understand? They know.”

The sudden burst of energy that she’d had was depleted. She dragged her feet to the first bench and gently lowered her body. She felt no pain but still felt as if her body had broken into pieces.

If they knew, why was she still here? That was the number one rule of the academy. Never step foot into the forest.

“And that’s what’s been keeping me up at night,” Mr Patrick said.

“Stop that.”

She felt too drained to concentrate on shielding her thoughts.

“You’ve brought attention to yourself, Ava. I gave you that potion so you could spend the rest of the evaluations in the infirmary, but you still came back. It’s almost as if it didn’t affect you.”

It wasn’t a question, yet she could see many of them in his eyes, almost like he was still reading every little thought in her head. She thought of sheep. Of kittens and puppies.

“You can trust me, Ava. You’re not as good at shielding your thoughts as you think,” Mr Patrick sighed as he went to sit on the seat across the aisle from her.

“I shielded them from the Council,” she pointed out.

Or had she? Was this all happening because of her? Had she given them all the information they needed?

“I’m not like them. And I’d appreciate it if you kept that secret,” he said.

“Then what are you? You did the thing with that book; you read minds; I think you even disappear into thin air sometimes, and you’ve just enchanted this room, too, haven’t you?”

“Because you’re never alone. I don’t want to be overheard.”

She noticed that he didn’t answer her question. Mr Patrick knew a lot about her, but she knew nothing about him. It wasn’t fair.

“The world’s not fair,” he said. “And there is a whole world out there that the Council will never tell you about.”

“Will you at least just stop doing that? Can you turn it off or something? I can’t trust you if you keep looking in my head.”

She leaned back on the bench and felt even more drained than when she had woken up. Maybe she needed to go to the Infirmary instead of lessons.

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