My friends thought it was because I wasn’t taking the games seriously. They never considered the human factor. Sasha kept reminding me of what I’d done in the trial with the manticore. They forgot that I’d effectively lost control in that trial. I was a different witch now. If I let myself off the leash, who knew what might happen? It was frustrating as hell.
I rifled around in the closet for a clean pair of pyjamas. A cold breeze whispered through the open door. I shivered and lifted my head to glance out at the empty hallway. Shaking myself, I drew another circle and left for the bathroom. Standing under the hot spray of water, I massaged my non-existent muscles.
My eyes were drooping by the time I got back to the room. The circle was still intact which meant Sophie hadn’t yet returned. I stepped into the room and flung myself onto the bed. The sharp corner of a book stabbed me in the thigh. I wriggled to the side and pushed it away. My fingers touched on a hardback cover. I froze.
All of my textbooks were soft covers. I had a problem with hardcovers in general. I preferred to read in bed and my hands were too small to keep hardbacks in place. This one wasn’t all that thick, but it was bound in faded crimson leather. There were scorch marks on the spine as though it had been used for practical experiments. The title caught my eye straight away: An Alternative Magical History by Jacob Buchanan. There was a brand on the base of the spine that read: Nightblood Academy Library.
I could only think of one Nightblood student who would leave me a present like this. And I was sick of him.
22
Sophie returned just as I was changing back into my jeans and sweater. “Where are you going?” she asked.
I pointed to the offending book. “Andrei left that for me.”
She marched over and picked up the book. The hiss was exactly as I expected. The look of fear in her eyes was not. “How did he get in here?”
I’d had the same thought. He couldn’t teleport or use magic. Bloodline had countermeasures in place to ensure no portals could be opened inside bedrooms unless the person had permission. It left one very not okay explanation.
“I think he crept in here while I was inside,” I said. Sophie gripped my arm. “He must have compelled me not to see him.”
Her mouth opened and closed. Her palms turned clammy. My rage turned stratospheric in the face of her fear. “Lex,” she said. “We have to tell Jacqueline. He could have done anything to you!”
She started to turn me around like she was inspecting me for injuries. I allowed her to do it for her own comfort. When she lifted my shirt, I squealed. “Okay, you can stop molesting me now.”
It was a poor choice of words. Her nose scrunched. “I’m going to murder him,” she said. Fireballs of luminous pink light surrounded her fists. I grabbed hold of her before she could march over to Nightblood.
“Hold on,” I said. “This is exactly what he wants.”
“So what? He doesn’t get to do whatever he wants and get away with it!”
I sat down heavily on the bed. “I know.”
She frowned at me. “What’s going on with you?” she said. She sat beside me, her face a mask of confusion. “Why are you taking this so well?”
I wasn’t. Before she’d arrived home, I’d come up with a dozen creative ways to liberate Andrei’s head from his shoulder. Unfortunately, none of those came with a free pass from the Nephilim Council.
“I’m not going to let him push me into doing something reckless,” I told her.
She threw her arms up in the air. “Forget reckless! He violated our room! We bloody sleep in here. I don’t want to close my eyes knowing he might be trying to get you in the middle of the night.”
She shot up to her feet. “Well if you’re not going to do something about it, I’m going to tell Kai!”
I only just managed to body block her before she raced out the door. “Stop!” I said. She grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me.
“Snap out of it!” she said. “What’s going on with you? The Lex I know would never allow these supernaturals to bully her!”
“I’m not allowing them to bully me.”
She snorted. “Are you kidding me?” she said. “How many times has Chanelle tried to trip you up now? I’m nice but even that is beyond anything I can take. She deserves a smack and you know it.”
I pressed my palm to the door, holding it shut so she couldn’t do anything rash. Sophie kicked it and paced the room. I leaned my back against the door and slid until I sat in front of it. “I can’t, Soph,” I said. “I can’t let them see they’re getting to me.”
She made a sound like she was being strangled. “In the human world, if this happened to you, what would you have done?”
I looked at her as a wave of nausea ripped through me. “I would have run,” I said. “I would have been out of here so fast you wouldn’t even remember who I am.”
She stopped pacing and stared at me. Her eyes became filmy. “Lex,” she said. She lowered herself to the ground in front of me. I had to turn my head away to stop the tears from coming.
There was a reason why I had no flight response. I never allowed myself to get invested enough to actually care. The other side of me, the fighter, would take no prisoners. If I let myself get to that point, I would take out half the school with that power that overwhelmed me. There was no going back from
