My heart exploded into high gear, but I forced myself to keep my pace. Forced my arms and legs to pump neither faster nor slower.
He hid in the shadows, but something told me he wouldn’t do anything. Something told me these vampires craved an audience. I assured myself of this as I ran toward him, into the blackness of the hedgerow.
A whisper echoed in the leaves. The sound didn’t originate in a single spot; rather, it cloaked me from all around, a hiss that felt as ancient as the land. “Run.”
Adrenaline dumped into my veins. I tasted it, sour on my tongue. But with it came fury. Torture and hazing and monsters lurking in the dark. I’d hoped for some sort of special college for geniuses, but this macabre mockery of a school? This was definitely not what I’d signed up for.
I relished my anger. Let it bloom into determination.
Time compressed.
I didn’t see or hear the vampire again. My thoughts distilled to two single, bright lights. Vengeance. Freedom. I’d make Lilac suffer, and then I’d get out.
Ronan had said the only way to get off the island was to succeed. I’d wanted to stay under the radar. I’d thought I could quietly do well and then find a way to escape. But Lilac had screwed that up for me. Now all the catsuits knew who I was. I was no longer anonymous—I was the girl who’d fallen in the shower.
By my third lap, my feet had cut an irregular band of black footprints through the melting snow. The rhythmic thump-thump of my pace mesmerized me. The path was slushy and muddy and squished with each stride. All I knew were these sounds. All I perceived was the up-and-down pounding of my br**sts. The up-and-down of my frozen cheeks as each step threatened to jostle the flesh free from my skull. The air still stung my lungs, but I forced my focus instead on the white cloud of each exhale.
Thump-thump. Vengeance. Thump-thump. Freedom.
I knew three things: I was cold. This was Lilac’s fault. Lilac would pay.
When I reached the dorm at the end of my final lap, my Proctor Amanda was standing outside, waiting. She was a vision, standing still and tall in a fitted coat. She’d donned her hood, and it haloed her face with a cloud of fur. Her dark skin was luminous in the watery moonlight.
I was watching her, not my step, and I slipped, catching myself with a hand to the ground before I toppled all the way.
“Careful.” She chuckled. “The snow’s a bit dodgy.”
“Yeah.” I stood and dusted myself off. My hands ached to the bones with cold—I felt they might shatter from it. “I got that.”
“Care for a pointer, dolly, before you head back in?”
The moment I stopped running, I’d started to tremble. My face was a frozen mask, too cold to speak, so I just nodded jerkily, my curiosity piqued.
“Them’s wolves, not girls. You let this stand, and boo, Lilac’s the boss of your little pack.”
Lilac had to pay—Amanda didn’t need to tell me twice. But how?
By now, I was shivering violently, my brain was addled, and I could only stare dumbly in reply.
“And he tells me you’re the clever one? Listen,” she said simply, as though she had to explain something to a particularly dim child. “Lilac wins this round, you’re as good as snuffed. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow. But our girls are wolves, and Acari who smell weak don’t last long.” She kicked at the snow, fighting a smile. “Now, then . . . Your roommate’s like a babe asleep in her bed. And have you felt how cold the snow is?”
I looked at her like she was insane. I was practically hypothermic, and she was asking me if I knew how cold the snow was. “N-no, I’m finding it quite balmy, actually.”
“Drew,” she scolded sharply.
I cursed myself. She may be my Proctor, but she was still an Initiate.
“Drew,” she said again, more kindly. “I promised Ronan I’d help you, but I can’t paint you a picture.”
She told Ronan she’d help me? Had he asked her to look out for me? If he and Amanda were that close, were they, like, that close?
I forced myself to focus on the matter at hand. “A picture,” I repeated.
“You might . . . say . . . bring our Lilac a memento.” She looked meaningfully at the snow. “Let her know you was thinking of her.” Her thinking sounded like finkin’.
Finally I got her gist.
“Whatever you do, make it fast,” she said. “You need to get inside before you catch your death.”