University. Like there’s any real chance that the dean will side with me over the freaking namesake of the institute.
When a group of giggling students walk in to sort out some pep rally bullshit, the dean’s assistant ushers them out before they get a good look at me, tucking a small packet of tissues into my hand as she passes me. She’s an older woman, older than my mom would be if she were still here, and it only makes the tears come harder.
I glue my eyes to the scuffs on the old trainers I’m wearing, once again thinking about those stupid shoes the TacTeam left behind when they grabbed my shit because I don’t feel like myself here. I don’t have any of my prized possessions, I don’t have any of the freedoms I enjoyed even while on the run and struggling to make money to feed myself. My entire identity was ripped away from me to come here and for what?
Bonds who would do anything to ruin me.
Maybe I should start to fight back. Maybe I should risk the little time bomb they buried in my skin and just pack a bag, get out of this place. Things couldn’t get worse, right? I’m doing everything I can to pass all of my classes, I’m showing up to TT every week and almost freaking dying every time for no reason other than to keep me within spitting distance of my Bonds at all times.
Nothing I do matters here.
“Thank you for calling, Sherry. I’ll get this sorted out so you don’t have to look at my weeping Bond any longer.”
I freeze, of course things can and have gotten worse, because North has just arrived, looking like a wealthy wet dream in a suit, smiling tightly at the assistant as he breezes through the office.
The assistant, Sherry, grimaces at him and shoots me a kind look. “She’s no bother at all, Mr Draven, it’s just that I think she needs some backup.”
Backup.
As if he’s going to do anything here to help me.
He murmurs something back to her, low enough that I don’t catch it, but I also don’t want to know what it was when Sherry gasps a little and says, “She’s so young, and with no parents! It’s good she has you.”
My God, I want to scratch his eyeballs out for that. Coming in here looking like my savior, some white knight here to save the day, when really he’s here to prolong the torture.
North stops in front of me and I look up to find him frowning. “Sherry said this is over a paper, do you have it with you?”
I nod and he doesn’t say another word as he turns to enter the dean’s office. I’m stupid enough to glance into the open doorway and my eyes meet Nox’s, the dark glint of satisfaction there chilling me to the bone.
He’s feeling pretty smug about this mess.
I want to die.
My phone buzzes in my pocket but I can’t pull it out here, not with North’s spies everywhere and it being the new phone that Atlas sent me. I press my hand against it through my pants, that weight of it like a comfort because Atlas is a safe place for me. He’s a Bond I can speak to without having to worry because he’s thousands of miles away, he’s someone I can have at least a little bit of honesty with because I’ll be out of this place before he ever makes it here.
He’s the tiny sliver of a silver lining.
When the door opens again, Nox walks out without a word or glance at me or Sherry and I deflate like a balloon, all of the tension that was keeping me upright just sizzling out of me until I’m slumped over in my seat.
“Miss Fallows, please join us,” the dean says, his tone a little warmer than it was when Nox dragged me here in the first place.
Sherry smiles at me as I follow him in, taking the seat Nox just vacated as I try not to vomit with nerves at the scent of him still clinging to the fabric. Why does he have to smell nice? Why does he have to ruin Aqua di Gio for me?
Asshole.
The dean takes his seat again and fusses with some papers on his desk for a moment, clearing his throat and puffing up his chest like he’s so important. The posturing is so obvious and definitely not for me, the looks he gives