I’d made sure Mila sat with me, but I didn’t think she enjoyed being within their circle. She lowered her voice every time she spoke to me and shot them glances whenever we laughed. I, on the other hand, laughed my ass off and pretended they didn’t exist. Not even when Blake had prodded me in the back to get my attention for fifteen minutes straight. I was probably going to pay for my rudeness at some point, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t going to bow my head to them anymore and I was going to enjoy the time I spent with my friend whether they were breathing down the back of my neck or not. Kyan hadn’t spoken to me all day. He looked at me though. I could feel his gaze burning into me at all times and I tried not to let it affect me, but it was impossible.
When the bell rang to sound the end of the day, I got up and headed out of the classroom with Mila, sensing the three dickwits following.
“Will you be at the library tonight?” I asked Mila hopefully. I only had to spend a few hours back at The Temple before I could slip away to the solace of the library for study time. It had become my haven. A place where I could be entirely free of my binds, spend time with Mila and the Unspeakables and just be.
“Yep, six o’clock sharp,” she said and I smiled.
Someone shoved their way past me in the corridor and my bag was knocked to the floor, everything falling out of it because apparently life was a bitch and it couldn’t have fallen the right way up. I crouched down in annoyance, starting to pick up my shit as Pearl Devickers muttered virus-spreading slut and hurried on.
“Hey!” Blake barked like a guard dog and I flinched at the sound, looking up at Pearl as she halted. “Get back here and pick up Tatum’s stuff,” he growled as Mila dropped down to help me gather everything.
People were crowding past to try and get out of the way and some of my things were getting kicked further down the hall. Punch – gah, I mean Toby- appeared, hurrying to help pick up my things too.
“You don’t have to,” I told him.
“I want to.” He smiled genuinely and I smiled back.
Pearl rushed back to help with her lips pursed and her pale cheeks touched with an angry red colour.
“Plague, get up!” Saint snapped and I glanced over my shoulder at him with a frown.
“I can do it-”
“Get. Up,” he commanded and I noticed Kyan and Blake had formed a wall of muscle behind him to stop any more students from running by. Not that anyone was trying to now, they were all shrinking away from the Night Keepers like mice before hungry cats.
I stood up and grabbed Mila’s hand to pull her to her feet too as Pearl scrambled to pick up all of my things. She had been the one to knock my bag out of my hands after all.
Saint snapped his fingers impatiently and Deepthroat, Squits and Freeloader ran to help her, carefully putting everything back into my bag as Pearl and Toby handed it to them.
Freeloader passed it back to me when the job was done, bowing her head before scampering away. Pearl planted a hand on her hip, glaring at me as I felt the Night Keepers drawing closer behind me like a shadow.
“Punish her, Plague,” Saint breathed in my ear.
“Show her what she’s worth, baby,” Kyan whispered in my other, the two of them sending a violent shiver through me.
“It’s fine. She’s sorry, aren’t you Pearl?” I asked, recalling the time they’d made me punch her. I wasn’t going to be forced into anything like that again. Even if Pearl deserved it slightly more this time.
She surveyed me coldly, tucking a long strand of black hair behind her ear. Her eyes shifted to the Night Keepers behind me and her resting bitch face vanished. “Yeah, I’m sorry.”
“Not good enough,” Blake growled, stepping around me and beckoning me forward. “Make her pay.”
“No.” I planted my feet. “She said sorry and picked up my shit. That’s good enough.”
“It’s not,” Kyan said dangerously, prodding me in the back. “I order you to punish her, baby. She needs to remember her place.”
“I said no.” I whipped around to face him and Mila stepped back in the corner of my eye as Blake waved her away. Toby hurried to join the rest of the crowd with a fearful glance at the Night Keepers as they let him pass.
Kyan’s upper lip peeled back and fear gripped my heart. He looked more animal than man right now.
“You have to follow the rules,” Saint hissed, but he didn’t interfere, allowing Kyan to face off with me for refusing.
Kyan stepped past me, his shoulders rigid as he approached Pearl, cracking his neck like he was readying for a fight. She cowered before him, her knees visibly shaking like a cartoon character.
“I said sorry, Kyan, what else do you want me to do?” she asked, her voice quavering.
He surveyed the area as if hunting for a weapon then pointed at a piece of gum sticking to the floor by her feet. “You dropped your gum, Devickers. Better pick it
