Page 65 of Venomous Lies
As he slowly made his way up the stairs, I swore I heard a hint of hollow clanking with his every step. I wanted to ask him for details, but I couldn’t find it in me to question him.
Instead, my focus was on the smears of blood on the stairs and railing. The closer we drew to our suite, the greater they grew in size. Somehow, that didn’t prepare me for the state of her room. The shared suite was in disarray, but her room wasdestroyed.
Furniture shattered into countless pieces.
Glass blown out.
Everything was thrown around everywhere.
Isla had been viciously attacked, but she had put up one hell of a fight.
“Oh my god,” Zhara whispered, her voice and eyes back to normal as she took in the state of the room.
Ambrose ambled into the bathroom and came out with an empty expression.
“The shower door is broken, and even part of the sink is missing. If I had to guess, I’d say she used shards of the mirror as a weapon at some point. Could account for some of this blood.”
A hint of something out of place drew my attention. I squatted down and reached out, nudging it out from beneath a torn shred of bedding.
“There are syringes,” I said, carefully grabbing them and holding them up. “Two of them. I think I can confidently say these aren’t Isla’s.”
“Syringes?” Ambrose asked sharply, his long fingers grabbing them faster than I thought possible. “Shit.”
“What does that mean?” Zhara asked, but Ambrose was already out of the room.
“Let’s go. Now!”
I looked at the others, and even Bricriu appeared surprised by Ambrose’s quick exit. A moment later, we all rushed off to follow him.
The dorm was quiet, too quiet, something that hadn’t fully registered on my way upstairs.
My curiosity got the best of me, so I slowed down on the second floor, unable to help myself. I left the stairs and headed toward a room with the door slightly ajar.
“Echo?”
Ignoring Wells, I pushed open the door only for the ice I had embraced for so long to come rushing back full force. My humanity shut down as I studied the room, feeling like I was having some out-of-body experience.
“Echo, what are you…? Oh my gods,” Aizel muttered, stumbling against the wall.
“It just occurred to me that it was too quiet in the dorms,” I started to speculate. Walking further into the room, I crouched down to look over what was left of the students that had lived here. “How will the conservatory hide these bodies, I wonder.”
“Especially if all the rooms are filled with them,” Wells added on.
“They are.” Bricriu’s calm voice echoed in the space, power filling every word. “That would also explain why no one reacted to Isla being attacked.”
“Ambrose knows something.”
“Then let’s go find out what.”
Chapter 20
Isla
UNKNOWN
The light was gone.
Wait, no… There was the moon.
