Page 13 of Escaping Hallow Hill Academy
And I hate that I know she’s right.
* * *
Rachel Ray looks distinctly unimpressed by me as I meet him at the front of the Academy. I got lost in the halls at least five fucking times and regret not getting a tour when I had the chance, if only to give me the opportunity to learn escape routes from the inside. If my lack of punctuality has anything to do with his disdainful expression, he can suck a big one, because I don’t care.
“Your weapons.” He holds out a bundle of pathetic looking items. Bow and arrow, steel daggers and holsters, and a gun.
A fucking gun.
My arms cross against my chest, pushing up my breasts for his viewing. He doesn’t even glance down. “Where’s my sword?” I demand.
“The headmistress has confiscated it.” He thrusts out the weapons again, but I don’t take them.
“I want my sword.”
His eyes roll upward as if to say “Heaven help me.” I fight back a snicker. He will find no heaven here in Krist’s academy.
Only hell.
“You cannot have it.”
I arch a brow, unspoken words fluttering between us. I can do this all day, little Baker. Wouldn’t even fucking flinch.
Marcen sighs. “Give me a moment.” Then he disappears.
When he comes back later, it’s without those travesties he called weapons and with my own sword. Damios hums in my presence, and I can’t get to it fast enough. Fastening it to my waist, I breathe a sigh of relief from the tension in my body. Without my blade, I feel an integral part of me missing, and now that it’s back in its rightful place, my whole body sings in a way where I can almost ignore that they have me collared like a fucking mutt.
I crack my fingers. “Right, so now what?”
Marcel gestures to the front doors of the Academy. “You have your list. Find them and kill them, then come back.”
My eyes narrow on him. I can’t trust anything here, though. This is just one more thing to set me on edge.
“Yeah, I like to know who I’m killing before I do the actual killing.” He doesn’t know how this works, obviously. All my kills are assholes. Those deserving of death. Whatever light I have left in my soul is because of that reason alone. I don’t fuck with the innocent. So, unless those five names on the list that’s burning a hole in my ass pocket are murdered, robbed, raped, or are the scum of the earth, then I won’t be sticking my blade in anyone tonight.
“The men and women on that list are threats to this Academy, andthatis all you need to know.”
He is so pretentious.
My eyes roll so far back to my head that it looks like I’m having a seizure. “Fine,” I grit out from my clenched teeth. “Whatever. Let’s go murdering.”
* * *
Iwas not going to get to murdering.
Fucking dumb fucks.
I can’t believe they let me loose. The ironic part of this whole situation is that I would have stayed. I would have done whatever the fuck they asked, but they had to go and fucking drug me and shackle me like a damn animal. Like a fucking prisoner.
It’s a mistake they’ll live to regret.
I prowl the streets and the shadows like I’m one of their spectral forms myself. I’m used to the darkness, to hunting in the shadows. I can easily find my targets. All I have to do is mutter the names on that list and a quick finders spell would guide me straight to them. I could have their heads hand-delivered on a platter to Krist’s office if I want.
Too fucking bad I don’t.
I’m making a run for it, and this fucking collar isn’t going to stop me.
I find a pane of glass in a shop window and study the collar encircling my skin. It’s a complicated-looking device, but they’re fucking idiots if they think I can’t break out of it. I’ve been breaking into locks since I was a child, and this is no different.
