Page 7 of Escaping Hallow Hill Academy
Sialen arches an eyebrow at the woman but keeps walking.
I’ve kept to myself for all of the two minutes I’ve been here. I’ve observed. I’ve been a good little guest.
Until now.
“You smell like old cum,” I say as I pass them by. “Both of you,” I add. “Are you aware that she’s sleeping with your boyfriend?” I ask neither one in particular. Because I honestly don’t know who has claim to the boy I scent all over them.
But I soon find out.
“You fucked Gavin?” The redhead shrieks.
Sounds like she suspected it all along.
Also sounds like Gavin’s a fucking undeserving asshole. They’re better than him. I hope there’s a swift knee to the balls in this mystery man’s future.
Their screaming match echoes around the hall, and I look back at them for a final short moment. “This slutty witch has a spell to rot his dick off, if either of you are interested? As long as you promise not to use necromancy to resurrect a fallen member.”
The redhead glares hateful daggers at me.
The blonde smirks and bites back a snorting laugh. That feels like a truce of sorts.
Then we turn the corner, and I fear I’ll never know what happens to the tale of Gavin and the Little Dick that Shouldn’t.
“Don’t make waves,” Sialen growls, his harsh whisper skirting around me in the dimly-lit corridor.
The man is a worse people person than I am. But he’s just like me. He and I come from ancient, alluring magic. I can feel it in him. It makes me think stupid, stupid thoughts about him.
About us.
It’s such a demanding feeling that when he opens a thick wooden door for me to slip past, I brush up against him. Intentionally but thoughtlessly. He shifts as my shoulder skims his arm and then his chest. Our eyes are locked hard, the ring around his pupils brightening to a manic look of deadly magic.
Or lust.
Because that’s all I feel the moment his skin briefly kisses mine. For a single heart-pounding moment, there’s no air in my lungs. There’s no thoughts in my head. There’s nothing.
Except this terribly alluring man and the shiver of intrigue he sends spiraling all through my body.
“Miss Lucero, I’ve been expecting you,” A smooth voice crawls over my flesh, and the hypnotic feelings Sialen just gave me are washed away in a venomous drink of that tone.
My attention spans the room slowly. I take in the heavy red curtains drawn over the enormous windows along the eastern wall. Two velvet chairs the color of crimson are tilted toward a large, shining desk.
A woman sits perched there. A sort of woman, anyway. Her black nails tap against her sharp jawline, and the long, jewel-clad fingers attached to those nails are so startling, my stomach drops at the sight of them. They’re metal. Ebony metal that shines in the minimal sunlight. A clattering sound fires off with every move those fingers make. Something scuttles swiftly, and then I see what else she’s made of.
A tail. A tail of curving, metal vertebrae slithers back and forth against the side of her desk from beneath her tight pencil skirt. It flickers between her smooth legs and over her red high heels from time to time, but she seems unaware of it.
I wish I fucking was.
Because what the actual fuck did I just walk into?
“Headmistress Krist,” Sialen murmurs before bowing so deeply, he nearly kisses the floor she walks on.
What. The. Fuck? Sekars bow before no one except our Holy Lady of Death. Seeing one of my own reduced to this type of groveling is demeaning and enraging. I can even feel my sword hum its own rage at the sight. It’s something our Lady would not look on with leniency. For a moment, I feel sorry that he’s stooped so low. In another instant, I wonder why.
We are a proud race. It’s embedded into our DNA and in the threads of magic that course through our veins. I have never met a Sekar who wasn’t prideful. Who would have rather swallowed their own tongue than to bow before this metal creature.
He also says her name in a way I wasn’t previously aware of.
Krist. Christ.
