that too.”
I shrug again. There’s nothing I can do about it except to find a way out of this hell-hole before I get us all killed.
Even as the room fills up, the seats around us stay empty, as though we have the plague or something. The whispers aren’t even a little bit discreet, no one here gives a fuck about what I think of them all talking about me.
I enjoy the fuck out of the elbow room this bullshit affords me.
The girls at the front finally step away from Nox and take their seats in the front row, their flirty giggles loud in the room, even as everyone starts to quiet down. My bond squirms deep in the pit of my gut, unhappy with the entire situation, but I squash it down.
“Alright. Settle down, everyone! We have a lot to cover today.”
The room quietens down pretty quickly, the guys all seem to respect him and the girls in the class are all making eyes at him. Even the girls who are bonded are looking at him appreciatively, which I get.
He is really fucking hot but he’s also a dick, so I guess it cancels itself the hell out.
He doesn’t look up at me once as he starts the lesson, but he shoots flirty grins at the girls in the front row the entire time he speaks. “So last week we left off at the beginning of the Gifted split and the rise of the Resistance. Does anyone remember the very first thing the Resistance did as an act of violence against the Gifted?”
One of the girls raises her hands, pushing her chest out and arching her back like she’s on a porn set and not in a lecture hall. Hell, the thought of spending the next three years trapped here with these girls… nope, that’s a whole new layer of fucked up.
Nox smirks at her as he calls on her and she beams at him as she answers, “They found all of the Ungifted that were born from the Gifted. The anomalies and those without Bonds. Then they hunted them and killed them, claiming they were unworthy of our bloodlines.”
Fuck.
I know exactly what Nox is thinking but nothing prepares me for him turning that dark gaze of his over to me. Sage shifts in her chair, uncomfortable with his blistering glare now that it’s pointed in our direction, but she shouldn’t be worried. It’s my blood he’s after.
“Fallows, join me for a demonstration.” Nox's eyes bore into me, a branding challenge, and my skin prickles as I feel the entire class turn to look at me as well. I raise my chin, even as uncomfortable as I am, I won't back down to the asshole.
He has no idea of what I've sacrificed for him.
I stand and walk down the rows until I'm at the front of the class, the entire lecture hall staring down at me. The giggles of the girls in the front row are bordering on asinine and they sound like twelve-year-olds.
“Ungifted Bonds are rare but, unfortunately, they do happen. Oleander here is a prime example of when things go wrong."
It's a struggle but I keep my face blank as the giggling and whispers start up. Gabe rubs a hand over his face but he doesn't move to stop Nox, their friendship and loyalty to each other far stronger than the weak bond we share.
The one he thinks I’ve turned my back on.
"She has five Bonds, all with above average strength and abilities, and yet she has... nothing. No ability, no affinity, absolutely nothing worth keeping her around for."
The whispers get louder and I fight to block them out. I know what they're thinking, rejected by my own Bond in such a grand freaking spectacle, but it's nothing he hasn't already said to me.
“We’re not like the Resistance, so we don’t kill people for being born lacking any real use in our society, but it’s important to remember our history, don’t you think, Fallows?”
I stare up at them all and memorize their faces.
I could kill them all right now without breaking a sweat, but I’m not a fucking monster, no matter how badly they all treat me. I’m above this shit.
I repeat my mantra in my head again. Better to be hated and alive, better to be in pain than a murderer, better to be alone and safe.
Chapter Four
Sage invites me to go back to her dorm room to study, but when I check the location on my