Page 46 of Wrath of One
My mother’s statue still stands, while the others are nothing but scattered remains. “I wonder if they’ll rebuild them.”
“I fucking hope not.” Saint skips ahead, kicking up dirt with his leather boots. “My only regret is that I never got to spray paint a mustache on my ancestor’s statue before it was destroyed.”
Phoenix rolls his eyes. “You only knew about the statue’s existence for less than twenty-four hours.”
“Precisely enough time for me to want to scribble facial hair onto its stupid face.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t be so hard on your family,” I tell him, my eyes straying to where Heaven and Sasha are huddled together and then again to where his father cradles his mother to his chest as she mourns the lives lost. “The vampires did come to help, after all.”
Saint makes an impatient sound. “What I don’t understand is how, through all of this shit storm, are these fucking ankle bracelets still functioning?” He shakes his foot, where the glowing bracelet that marks him as a criminal to supernatural society glows.
“Probably would have fallen off the moment the angel statue broke,” Malek observes, ever the scholar. He’s not wearing his glasses anymore… or clothes—not that I’m complaining about that. He looks lighter, younger, but still as exhausted as I feel.
Saint flashes us a mischievous smile and skips over to the statue, picks up a rock, and throws it at the monument.
I sigh. “Saint.”
“I’m just joking. But not really. We just saved the world; I think we can be finished with the bullshit that is the Academy of Six.”
“We do deserve a vacation.”
“Miss Castillo, I’m so glad I found you.” Professor Henn suddenly appears before us. Her hair is in disarray and her clothes are askew. Her eyes go momentarily to the hand Syko’s holding, and her face flushes. She looks over all of us and immediately averts her eyes away from Malek’s nudity. “Mister Ramirez, please, have some decency and put some clothes on. Things have gone astray, but the world hasn’t gottenthatwild for you to be so—” Her eyes widen as she takes one more look. “Soincredibly naked.”
He uses two hands to cover his dick from her view.
“What did you need, Professor Henn?”
She clears her throat. “Yes, Miss Castillo. In the aftermath of all this chaos, I have spoken to the board of directors of Academy of Six.”
When the fuck did she have time to call them with the place in fucking shambles?
“This oughta be fucking good,” Phoenix grumbles sarcastically.
The professor shoots him a glare for the foul language but turns her attention back to me. “I’ve been arguing your case for leniency. You did start this, after all.”
Phoenix and Syko grip onto me tightly.
“However, it appears that for years the authorities have been searching for the many faces and identities of Lucian Morningstar, and as you have eliminated that threat to our world, they are willing to discuss the terms of your and your companions’ freedom.”
Freedom.
Never has another word sounded so sweet.
“Freedom?” Syko asks, like he doesn’t know the meaning of the word. We’ve been here for two years, and the concept is strange. What will we do with our lives beyond these walls?
Hog Dog’s Shack isn’t going to take me back now.
“Thank you, Professor Henn.”
She smiles and walks away. My hands slip away from theirs, and I press them to my beating heart.
Freedom. Freedom from shitty lunches, freedom from gym, freedom from ankle bracelets, freedom from this place.
I whirl around to stare at the academy’s massive structure. It’s barely standing. In such a short time, the demons nearly destroyed the building completely. Bricks litter the ground among the blood and gore. This place was terrible, with teachers who didn’t care and students who couldn’t thrive without competent professors.
“What’ll happen now?” I wonder aloud.
Will the Prods left here be thrown into real jail without a real opportunity of reforming? And what about the Prodless? They have their whole lives ahead of them and just need an extra push to reach what they’re capable of.
