Page 43 of Escaping Hallow Hill Academy
Fucking dipshit warlock.
He can’t imagine the power he’s given me by leaving me here by myself.
I dart over to the desk, rummaging through everything on the top, careful not to touch or open any vials. Been there, done that in my life. Last time I rummaged through someone’s belongings, I accidentally broke a vial with dark liquid. I almost grew tentacles for fingers.
It was inconvenient, to say the least.
The papers on the desk seem to be sorted by language, many of which I don’t recognize. Must be some demonic languages, I think, because there are garbled symbols in thick, bleeding ink. I rummage some more, counting off the languages. Latin, Greek, Hebrew— I stop, my fingers fumbling as I pick up the pages with runes scattered across it in a language I recognize like the very runes on my blade. The language is printed boldly with a steady hand with the same symbols that live plastered to my own body.
The language of my Holy Lady of Death.
It’s an ancient script, some of the runes older than time itself, older even than the God humans worship nowadays. I can’t read all of the runes; I never had a coven crone to teach me. I know our language is a dead one now, but I also know enough to recognize some of the words there.
Magic.
Lucero.
Sialen.
Death.
The words send a chill down my spine. Why are my and Sialen’s names pressed together? Why does it say “death”? I understand death more than most, but this gives me an eerie feeling. Like this academy and everyone in it is plotting something, and Sialen and I are at the center of it somehow.
I take the papers and tuck them in the waistband of my skirt, hiding them with my ugly Academy sweater before I continue snooping. There’s nothing else that catches my attention, so I decide to look inside the drawers.
Just as I’m in the process of opening the first one, the door to the office rattles and slams against the wall.
I jump back, attention snapping up at Headmistress Krist’s slender frame in the entryway.
I don’t want to stare too long at the strange hybrid monster woman, but I can’t help it. The last time I’d seen her, she tricked me into basically signing away my soul. I remember every little aspect of her strange anatomical makeup, and yet, I take her in all over again as if it's the first time.
Her strange mechanical tail whizzes and whirs like some sort of robot, making a series of clicks that echo through the tower. Her palm is outstretched, holding open the door. Long, black metal nails dig perfectly into the wood and make fresh dents against it. Her ring-clad fingers spread out and caress the wood like a lover. Creepy, creepy shit.
She moves slightly, and just over her shoulder, I see Sialen’s tall frame behind her.
My heart thumps against my chest like it does every time I see him. Blood calling to blood, children of death recognizing one another’s souls. That’s what it is, I tell myself. That’sallthat it is.
“Miss Lucero,” she purrs as she glides into the room. “Snooping through my things?”
Her voice holds a tint of death with it, the edge of it final, demanding, frightening. I’ve never been frightened before, but like the stench of the room, something about her isoff.
“Of course not,” I lie, glad my voice comes out steady.
She prowls into the room, and I watch every single move she makes warily, not even daring to take my gaze off her to look at Sialen, even when I can feel him as he comes inside the room, too. He’s like an electrifying force I’m all too aware of. I feel every move he makes, where he stands, where he stops, even while my eyes are on Krist.
Her mechanical parts slither like a giant metal snake against the carpet until she crosses around to the desk on the opposite side of me. I can’t take my eyes off her. I swear I don’t. I don’t even blink, and still I feel the pain.
It shoots into quick bursts inside of me, and my whole spine is alight with fire. I cry out and start to crumple, my knees giving out as I fall to the ground. But she’s there suddenly, catching me with her claws that feel like knives. They dig into my body like weapons dipped in fire. I can feel the sensation coursing inside me, killing me slowly. I feel it tainting my blood, the poison invading in ways it’s never invaded before.
Krist flings me onto her desk. Things scatter, vials break, but I can’t seem to bring myself to care about anything other than the pain. It’s blinding. My ears pop, and then warmth slides down my cheeks.
Nails rake against my scalp, and she rips my sweater as she pulls it from my skirt to reveal what I’m hiding.
“A thief, a murderer, and a liar?” I feel a tug as the papers are pulled from my skirt, and then her hands aren’t on me anymore. I can barely breathe my sigh of relief through the catastrophic pain that’s exploding inside me.
I push back against her and stumble to my feet, throwing my fists out blindly. I can’t feel her near me, can no longer hear the whir of her machines.
My fists connect to a solid body, and I hear a grunt as my vision suddenly focuses on Sialen in front of me. His expression is angry, dark brows furrowed so deeply together there’s nearly a fucking crater on his forehead.
