Hopefully Aunt Trish hasn’t called out a search party for me. I should’ve just gotten the guts up to tell her before I left. I tried, several times, but something in
her sweet, naïve face wouldn’t let me do it.
I couldn’t disappoint her like that. I couldn’t tell her I’d found out and followed in my parent’s footsteps. Not when I know how much it broke her to lose them, to lose her only sister and her brother-in-law in one day.
Calling her takes more gumption than facing that ogre.
So I don’t.
I sit in the dark, silent hall for a long time, staring at the pattern of brick on the walls. This is the life I chose. Whether or not I call, I think my aunt will always know what happened to me. It might be better now, rather than later, to let the space between us grow.
Helsing’s words still echo in my head.
The apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.
If I am going to end up like them, then maybe it’s best she lost me now. It’ll make the inevitable easier … for both of us.
Chapter Five
The next morning, Erin wakes me up before the start of our first class with the sound of her loudly rummaging through one of her drawers. It’s quite the feat, since given the events of yesterday, I was so deeply asleep that I could have easily slept through to the next century.
“What could you possibly need so early in the morning?” I ask, my voice thick with sleep and unrepressed frustration. I just want to sleep forever and ever, is that too much to ask?
She jumps and little and glances over, an apologetic look on her face. “Sorry,” she says, her eyes swiveling back over to the drawer where her fingers still twitch to pick apart the insides. “I have a knee brace. I shouldn’t run without it, but I can’t seem to find it anywhere.”
“Maybe if you brought less stuff, it would be easier to find,” I say, sticking out an arm and patting my backpack affectionately. I didn’t even bother completely unpacking yesterday.
I’m about to roll over and pull the blankets back over my head when, suddenly, my brain registers why she’s up and rummaging around already. I’m leaping up and frantically rummaging through my own bag before I’ve fully come to terms with the fact that I’m out of bed.
I nearly forgot. I was late already yesterday. If I’m going to pull ahead from the bottom of the class, I’m not going to get there by being late.
Dressed in the first thing I could find—plain, comfortable black clothes I can move in, Erin and I race down the hall and out onto the path leading away from the school. Though the school sits at the top of a hill, the hill itself is situated in the middle of a deep valley. The surrounding mountains are ancient and jagged, their peaks reaching to the skies like the teeth of some massive monster.
A blue light has settled all around us. The sky has already lightened to that faint, gray morning color, but it will be some time still before the sun rises high enough to break above the tops of those same surrounding mountains.
Erin doesn’t make it far before she doubles over and tries to wave me on while she takes a moment to catch her breath. I bounce on the balls of my feet and glance over my shoulder down the path, towards class. I spot a couple other students weaving in and out of the trees there, still within eyesight. I don’t want to fall behind, but it doesn’t feel right leaving Erin. Not after she helped my sorry ass back to the dorm last night, after the trials fully annihilated me.
When Erin does finally straighten back up, her eyes stay trained on the path ahead of us for a moment, trying to get the motivation to start back up. She looks scared, as always, but her jaw clenches with determination. She’s wearing a baggy T-shirt and gym shorts, and her blonde hair is pulled back into a bouncy little ponytail. She looks about twelve.
The morning is crisp and chilly, but it won’t stay that way for long. I rub my arms to keep the goosebumps from forming.
“Come on,” I say, waving her back onto the path at a slow jog. “You nervous?”
She nods. At least she’s honest.
Most of the other new recruits are already gathered at the course when we finally get there. One of the downsides to getting into the most exclusive monster hunting school is that the class is so small, I’m likely to be stuck with those pricks Piers, Owen, and Bennett every day for the next three years. Well, if they make it all the way to graduation. There’s a good chance that between the dropped recruit at the end of the year and the upcoming monster encounters, at least one of us isn’t going to make it all three years.
I try to ignore them and focus on my own warm up—mostly stretching my sore and bruised muscles from yesterday’s trials—but they’re not making it easy. There’s not a shirt in sight between the three of them, and I am still human after all. Even from the outer corner of my eyes I can see their muscles rippling while they stretch. Owen, in particular, looks keenly aware of eyes on him. He moves methodically, his motions practiced to better catch the light just so.
I’m drawn away from staring at the way that light catches in Owen’s fair hair by another familiar voice.
“Avery!”
I turn my back to the boys before I get caught staring and see another familiar face. Sawyer, beaming, jogs up to me. He’s also shirtless, and I glance over his bare chest as he comes to stand in front of me. This must be how guys feel with boobs. I have to concentrate on keeping my eyes forward, and not down on the soft glisten of sweat across that—
Fuck, Avery. Get it together.
“Hey, Sawyer,” I say with a smile, my gaze held steadily on his face. That fine textured stubble is gone, shaved to reveal smooth, angled features beneath.