twelve
AMBER
Ispend the rest of that night holed up in my dorm room with an array of homemade weapons fanned out before me. I finish sharpening the handle end of my toothbrush, then add it to the growing collection. A janky shiv won’t do much against a pair of muscle-bound intruders, but at least it will do something. Besides prepping my makeshift armory is giving me something to do as I lie in wait.
Warden Black’s review of the footage revealed that the “officers” definitely weren’t who they claimed to be. While they waited for her to fetch me from my dorm, the muscular one kept talking about Jade in a way that said she wasn’t a stranger to either of them. The smarter one kept shutting down his attempts at conversation, so we didn’t gain too much from listening in. But the Warden was able to zoom in on footage of the badges they showed her upon entering so that she could send the screenshot to a friend on the force. Sure enough, they were forgeries. Good ones, but fake all the same.
My best guess is they were members of Jade’s pack, trying to gain access to me for revenge just as much as for answers. But why are they looking for me? What do they know already, and what more are they hoping to find out?
Whatever the case, I’m not safe. I can feel that deep in my guts, and it terrifies me, thus my newly crafted weaponry.
Gabe and Beau have figured out that something’s wrong, but not what. They asked to stay with me tonight, but I refused. Stupid maybe, but they don’t need to lose sleep just because I’m afraid of the bogeymen.
Eventually I must fall asleep, because the next thing I know, I’m waking to bright sunbeams streaming through the drapes, and that toothbrush shiv stuck to the side of my face.
My room is quiet, as is the hall beyond it. Finally, I let myself breathe.
I made it through the night. The threat isn’t over by any stretch, but at least it’s lessened for now. And since I appear to have woken up early, I have time to deploy a fact-gathering mission before the masses huddle in the mess hall for breakfast and classes start for the day.
Wrapping my leather jacket tight around myself, I creep toward the phone bank right outside the Warden’s office. She’s already up and on active duty, a travel mug of coffee clutched firmly in her unmanicured hands.
“Rough night?” she asks, examining me from head to toe.
I raise a hand to my face and press at the marks left by sleeping on top of my modified toothbrush, then shrug.
“I called in a favor from a friend, asked her to run some facial recognition on our visitors from last night. Their names are Daniel and Aiken Vega. Mean anything to you?”
Part of me is grateful for all the effort she’s putting in to learn more, but another bigger part wants to scream and rage and demand to know why she didn’t look at the badges more carefully before subjecting one of her pupils to police impersonators. My conflicting emotions render me silent.
“They’re my sister’s pack,” I confirm.
“I figured as much,” she says so softly I almost can’t believe I heard it at all. “We’ll amp up the security. You’re safe here, Amber, even though I know it probably doesn’t feel like that right now.”
I watch as she returns to her office and shuts the door, leaving me alone with the phone bank. My call will be recorded for staff review—just as all student calls are—but it’s nice to pretend I have this small measure of privacy, as I dial my mother’s number with shaking hands. Yes, I swiped Theoden’s phone, but I don’t want my mother to have his number. That would give her too much access to me, and I am not okay with it.
“Hello?” her sharp voice jolts through the phone line. “Rip? Is it done?”
“Hello, Mother,” I can’t help but snark. “Am I not who you were expecting?”
“Christ, Amber. It’s early. Why are you even calling? I told that severe director woman to revoke your phone privileges after I heard about your ridiculous little prank. Confetti penises, really?”
I hold back a snort. “I was just having some fun.”
“You’re not really in the position to be playing games now, Amber. Your sister is dead. Because of you.”
“Yes, I know, and I’ll spend every day of the rest of my life trying to atone for that. But you had a hand in it too.”
“First murder, and now lies. You make your mother very proud.”
“Why am I here?” I demand, done with the mindless banter and harsh reminders.
“You committed a very serious crime, my dear. It was the academy or prison. Do you think I chose wrong?”
“It was an accident,” I grind out between clenched teeth. “We both know that. But I know something I bet you don’t know. The police were here yesterday following up on a missing persons report.” I decide to fib as it is more likely to extract the truth from the conniving matriarch.
“The police? But that’s impossible, we—” She stops speaking abruptly, leaving me to wonder what she almost revealed.
“Who’s we? You and Rip? Your precious Pack Fernando?” I sneer into the phone, wishing she could see the hate burning in my eyes.