“No, I need it.” I wrestled against Quinn, kicking at his shins, clawing over his shoulders. But he held fast. With every step away from the stone, it released more of its hold on my mind. By the time we reached the bottleneck at the auditorium doors, I’d regained my faculties completely. Vincent’s gaze still burned into my back, but he was right at the rear of the stage, penned in by frightened parents and the raging fire that now tore through backstage. He’d never move fast enough with his injuries to catch up to us.
We had no time to digest what had just happened. Not with Vincent Bloomberg ready to gut me. Not with students stampeding toward the atrium, desperate to escape the building, to put some distance between themselves and that freakish pillar and the flames. They’d already died in a fire once before – no one should have to live through that hell twice.
Students and parents shoved past us as Trey struggled with Ayaz’s dead weight. My Turk’s head flopped back, his eyes glazed over. His legs were no longer on fire, but a glance at the charred curtain wrapped around him told me he was in bad shape. Even an Edimmu who couldn’t die would pass out from the pain. A smell like roasting meat rose from his velvet-clad body, turning my stomach.
“We’ve got to get Ayaz to the infirmary.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” Trey’s eyes burned as he shifted Ayaz’s weight to his other arm. “But that’d be an easy way for Dad to corner us. That’s why you need to run – he can’t do anything to me or Ayaz, but you’re mortal.”
As if underlying his point, a loud noise punctured the air.
BANG.
Fresh screams rose from the student body as a bullet left a smoking hole in the plaster above my head. Someone shot at me. I burst out laughing.
BANG BANG.
Trey shoved my head down as more shots rang out. Whoever it was had terrible aim. A gilded painting depicting one of the past headmasters fell off the wall and smashed on the marble.
Loretta and Andre pulled up beside us. “We’ll take him,” Loretta said as Andre grabbed for Ayaz’s shoulder. “You guys protect Hazel.”
“Fine.” Trey dumped Ayaz into Loretta’s arms. She sagged under his weight. Andre threw Ayaz over his shoulder, and the two of them half-carried, half-dragged Ayaz away. Trey yanked my arm in the opposite direction just as another shot rang out.
The three of us elbowed our way through the crowd to reach the front doors. We shoved them open, allowing the crowd to spill out into the moonlight. The kids took off into the forest while parents leaped into their cars. Vehicles tore down the drive, kicking up clouds of dust and fumes as they fled the horror of their own making.
Vincent reached the top of the steps and surged after me, screaming as he came. He must’ve been in tremendous pain, but his rage kept him coming. My base instincts took over – I spent most of my life hiding from bad guys. I grabbed Quinn’s arm to yank him behind a flower bed. He jerked his arm away, but slid down behind the low wall. Trey dived over the low stone wall and pressed up against me.
“Your dad is crazy.” Quinn poked his head up above the garden to see what Vincent was doing. “He’s going to shoot one of the parents if he’s not careful.”
“Or someone else,” I snapped, trying to shove his head down while at the same time get a view myself. Vincent hobbled through the panicked crowd as fast as his old legs and ruined body would carry him, arms raised, his lip curling back in triumph as he lifted a trembling arm and pointed the gun right at my face.
Beside me, Quinn froze. The poor dear had never had stared down a barrel before. Back in Philly, I called that Tuesday.
I yanked Quinn’s neck and flattened myself against the stone just as Vincent fired. The edges of the bed chipped away, sending flakes of stone flying in all directions. Better the precious school flower beds than my brains.
Adrenaline surged through me, and faint embers of my flame sparked to life once more. Not enough to hurt Vincent, but perhaps enough to call for help.
Hey, Great Old God. I need those shadows now like I’ve never needed anything in my life.
Beside me, Quinn whimpered. I braced myself for another barrage of bullets, but none came. Instead, fresh screams choked the night. I dared a look around the corner. Shadows spilled from between the window panes, creeping and curling across the parking lot toward Vincent. He caught their approach out of the corner of his eye and dropped the gun. He turned and tried to run, but his burned body declared no more and he toppled into a screaming, writhing heap.
Senator Hyde-Jones drove past in a Lamborghini and slammed on the brakes. In the backseat, Damon Delacorte shoved the door open. “Get in!”
Vincent twitched on the ground. “Get the AR-15 from my Porsche. I’ve also got enough fuel to burn the entire state. She won’t get away with this. I won’t let her take—”
“Don’t.” Damon reached out with his remaining good hand and grabbed Vincent’s wrist. Vincent howled as Damon dragged him up. I couldn’t even imagine the pain of running and falling and being dragged after you’d been that badly burned, but the sound of Vincent’s scream was pure sweetness. “You think fucking bullets are going to stop that thing? The whore’s right – we don’t have control over the god anymore. Which means we can’t be here.”
Vincent yelled and fought for freedom, but both of them were too old and weak and burned that their fight looked pathetic. Somehow Damon dragged him inside and slammed the door. The car tore off down the drive.
“They’re getting away,” I growled, leaping up.
“Let them.” Quinn shrunk away from me. “After today, no student is going to doubt how they came to be here. We won this battle, Hazy. We showed them the truth.”
The fire inside me burned bright and hot as I watched the taillights recede into the trees. That’s right, you cowards. Run away. Leave us trapped here with that… pillar thing.
Whatever it was.
Right now, it wasn’t the most important thing. The parents were gone. They wouldn’t try anything else tonight. The pillar was… doing whatever it was doing. The god rumbled within his cage, content with the chaos we had wrought together. But there was a boy with dark eyes and burnt flesh, and he needed me.
“We have to get to Ayaz.” I stood up. “Even for an Edimmu, wounds like that… I have to know that he’s okay—”
Trey gripped my shoulder, dragging me backward. I flailed for Quinn, but as he reached for me, he froze in place. He didn’t want to touch me.
I didn’t blame him, not after what I’d done to Ayaz. But it hurt.
It fucking hurt. Much more than my arm being twisted out of its socket – and that wasn’t exactly comfortable.
“Let go of me,” I yelled. “I have to see Ayaz.”
“Hell no. Andre and Loretta will look after him. You have bigger things to worry about.” Trey let go of my arm and wrapped his across my chest, holding me in place against him. With his free hand, he pointed toward the front steps.
“But Ayaz—”
“Hazy, look.” Quinn’s eyes followed where Trey was looking, and a fresh shudder of fear tore through his body.
I squinted into the shadows that hung over the school, like a curtain falling on the final act. Ms. West stood between the stone pillars, her arms folded across her chest and a look of complete triumph arresting her solemn face. Behind her, Dr. Atwood, Dr. Halsey, and Mr. Dexter formed a triangle, their robes fluttering in the breeze as they watched the last car tear around the bend in the drive.
Silence descended – an eerie stillness punctuated only by the roar of the ocean beyond the trees and the sound of the god hissing in my ear.
“I know you’re out there, Hazel Waite,” the Deadmistress called into the trees, where the students cowered. “You and I have unfinished business.”
Chapter Four
Trey, Quinn and I spent the night in the mouth of the cave where they’d first hidden me from Ms. West at the end of first quarter. We leaned against cold stone, just far enough back to be hidden fr
om view, but with a clear line of sight, and huddled together for warmth. Quinn still refused to touch me, so Trey had to act as the middle of our sandwich, smothering my body in his as much as possible.
All around us in the woods, students whispered and shuffled and sobbed, moving in their hiding places to huddle in small groups. In the bitter-cold night, the truths I’d laid down in the auditorium burrowed into their psyche and took root. Spending the night cold and uncomfortable in the woods did more to alter their minds than I could have ever achieved on my own.
Sleep eluded me. I reached out with my mind, trying to touch the god, but he’d gone quiet, as if joining with me and raising that pillar had sent him into a slumber of his own. That was annoying. I had so many questions – I desperately needed his confusing non-answers. I tried to summon the shadows to look in on Ayaz, but since they were part of the god they too were silent.
When the first light of morning crept through the trees, I shook Trey awake. “Get up. I want to be back at school before the teachers start—”
He shook his head. “You should be in Mexico by now, not here where both West and my father have seen you. I’ll walk you down to Arkham. Deborah can take you to an airport and—”
“Not happening. I’m not leaving Ayaz, and I’m also not going to ditch you with that weird pillar thing.” I brushed cave mud off my clothes, trying to ignore the cold that seeped into my bones. I desperately needed sleep and warmth and a safe place to think, but I’d be 0-for-3 where I was going. “C’mon, we don’t want to miss breakfast.”
“Quinn.” Trey poked him in the side. “Wake up and help me talk some sense into our girl.”
“Noooo…” Quinn mumbled in his sleep, gripping Trey’s sleeve like it was his lifeline. “Please, don’t burn Ayaz… he’s my friend… and I don’t have friends…”
His words sent a jolt of cold through my already freezing body. He’s talking to me. He’s begging me for his friend’s life.
I’m a monster.
“Quinn.” Trey landed a kick in his side. Quinn bolted upright, his eyes darting around, searching for something familiar. When he saw me, he slunk away, although he tried to hide it with a half-assed stretch.
“I was having a nightmare.” He ran his hand through his sandy hair, averting his eyes to the cave wall. With grey light dripping through the entrance, I could just make out the edges of the cave-in that Ms. West had used to trap Zehra.
“It’s not over yet.” Trey hauled him to his feet. “Hazel wants to go back to school.”
“Huh?” Quinn rubbed his eyes. “That’s one of her most insane suggestions. And she’s set a high bar.”
“We have to.” I rubbed my arms. I was still wearing the dress from last night, although now it was torn and dirty and bloody and the hem had been singed. Trey had loaned me his jacket, but it did little to hold off the chill now I didn’t have his body heat. “Ayaz is there, and Greg and Zehra. And let’s not forget the black phallus that so rudely interrupted our little performance.”
Quinn shuddered, whether from my presence or the memory of the pillar I couldn’t tell, and I didn’t want to ask for fear of the answer. “Why did you raise that thing? Everyone was already terrified. They’ll be too scared to go back to school.”
I snorted. “Don’t make the mistake of imprinting your fear onto them. One night sleeping rough under the stars and the Miskatonic students will be gagging to return to their espresso machines and 400-count Egyptian sheets and solid gold vibrators. They don’t know Trey’s secret about moving the boundary sigils, so they don’t have any other choice but to go back. As for the pillar, I have no idea what it is or how I made it rise. But the god said he’d help us, and I have to believe it might be his contribution. It’s worth investigating.” I narrowed my eyes at Quinn. “If you don’t want to come with me, that’s fine. Courtney’s here in the woods, and I’m sure she’ll need comfort.”
“I’m coming with you.” Quinn’s voice was dark.
“Really? Because I need people who will have my back, and right now you’re afraid to touch me.”
And I don’t blame you.
Quinn whipped his head around. His eyes fixed on mine, and my breath caught in my throat. To see the broken edges of him, the battle he waged inside himself between the person he believed I was and the evil he’d seen me do, tore me apart as it was tearing him. “I’m with you, Hazy.”
“Okay then.” I sucked in air through my teeth. Quinn needed time and space, and I could offer neither. It occurred to me that it was easier this way, that if Quinn was afraid of me, he would not mourn me when I become the god’s companion. I made a deal with the god, and with myself. Free the Kings of Miskatonic Prep at whatever cost. In order to free them, I had to let them go, and that would be much easier if they didn’t cling to false hopes about what we could have together. My crimes gave me the perfect reason to pull away from all the Kings, to let them take their freedom, even if broke me utterly.
No one mourns a murderer.
Trey stepped between Quinn and I, breaking the spell that kept me suspended on the edge of pushing him away. He pressed his chest against mine. “If we’re gonna go, we should go now, before the sun is too high. We should make sure it’s safe for everyone to return.”
There Trey went again, thinking like a leader, making sure he was the first one to storm the castle gates.
As we picked our way down to the pleasure garden, I felt the prickle of eyes on me. Students in the trees and sleeping under bushes. When we descended the steps, a shadowy figure darted from beneath the rotunda to hide behind the grotto.
I crouched low and shuffled along our secret tunnel, one hand in front of me, guiding the fire that would light our way. Quinn hung way back, and even Trey drew ragged breaths, as though being in the confined space with the flame made him anxious. Because of course it would. No matter how much Trey said he didn’t care what I’d done, he couldn’t quash the fear that had rooted itself in his bones to see me wielding my fire, to know I’d used that fire to take life.
But they followed my light despite their fear, and that meant everything to me.
I stepped out of the tunnel into the storage room, listening hard. The school was silent. A faint scritch-scritch-scritch circled overhead. My rats, welcoming me home.
I swung my flame toward the door. The light caught a message scrawled across the wall.
AYAZ IS SAFE. IN INFIRMARY.
– LORETTA
I knew we should move cautiously, that the teachers were still here, lying in wait for me, that we should check every room methodically. But one thought ran through my head, over and over, driving out all rational sense.
Ayaz.
My feet moved of their own accord, dragging me up the stairs, across the dorms, over the skybridge into the classroom wing. I knew exactly where I was going – some invisible force pulled me to him like a magnet. Like a moth to a flame.
The boys followed me, and the rats scritch-scritch-scritched overhead, no longer confining themselves to the lower floors. Our footsteps echoed along empty corridors that bore the scars from the production – torn costumes strewn across the floor, blood smeared along the lockers from where students had been injured trying to get away from the pillar. A ring of soot from the fire burned through the wall. I suppressed a shudder as I noticed the bullet holes in the plaster. From somewhere in the building, I caught the faintest sound of voices. A conversation? No. It was too regular, too rhythmic.
Chanting.
“Where are the teachers?” Quinn scanned the empty halls, his eyes widening as he took in the blood.
I stopped at the top of the staircase leading down to the gym. It was obvious where they were. Murmured voices rose from below, chanting in their strange tongue. One piercing wail soared over all of them.
“Oh, Great Old God, who came to our young world from the sky on a trail of devoured stars,” Ms. West’s voice floated up the stairs. “We have seen your beautiful pillar, and we humbly i
nquire as to what you wish for us to do next. We know you must be hungry, for you have not consumed for some time. We come bearing this gift.”
“Shit.” Trey started down the stairs. “She’s going to sacrifice someone.”
“Wait.” I threw my hand out in front of him. “Listen.”
“What if it’s Andre or Greg or—”
“I know.” I gritted my teeth. “But barging in there isn’t going to save their life. Just listen. I got this.”
The chanting rose, and a woman’s scream pierced the air. It sounded like Zehra. My stomach plunged. Please, please let the god stay true to his word.
The scream faded into a yell of triumph and some commotion. Lots of voices shouting. Over it all, the god’s voice rushed my ears. I am a truth-teller. I will not consume until your friends are free.
“Does she not please you?” Ms. West’s voice wobbled. “Why do you refuse our gift? Please, star-devourer, please tell us how we can appease you—”
Quinn looked at me, the horror and surprise evident on his face. Trey’s look was more searching, suspicious. “Hazy, what did you do?” he demanded.
A slow smile slid across my face. The god was obeying our agreement. He wasn’t taking sacrifices. He refused to give Ms. West a thing – not his power, not even answers to her questions.
And although I was desperate to see Ayaz, I recalled Loretta’s scrawled message. He was being cared for. If I could bring him answers about the pillar, about how I could help him get his real life back, then maybe I could… I could…
Maybe I could make him remember me.
Maybe I shouldn’t want him to remember.
I balled my hands into fists and turned away before Quinn’s eyes made me break things. “We need to see that pillar.”
“What do you suppose it is?” Trey circled the pillar, his eyes widening as he took in the sigil. I knew he couldn’t see the flames tearing along the lines, but even without them, the obelisk was impressive. It dominated the ruined auditorium, its strange hum vibrating in my bones.
Ignited: a reverse harem bully romance (Kings of Miskatonic Prep Book 4) Page 2
