“I know her name too,” he finally tossed over his shoulder at his friend, though his eyes never left me. “It’s Molly.”
The weight of seven years of searching, hoping, despairing and loneliness crashed over me like a tsunami of emotions I didn’t have the metal to cope with.
“Found you, princess.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came. Darkness rushed to meet me, and I fell.
7
MOLLY
NINE YEARS AGO
“Mallory, come on in,” Principal Wood called from his office. With the weight of my sixteen-year-old world on my shoulders, I pushed myself to my feet and slouched into his office. I wondered what my punishment would be for ignoring the teacher in class this time.
We weren’t alone. I wasn’t expecting that.
A boy sat in a chair with an upright posture that screamed angry loner. He turned to look at me as I came in. He had an awkward face made up of pieces that didn’t quite fit. A mishmash puzzle that didn’t go together. His large brown eyes were arresting. They were as dark and bitter as black chocolate and strong coffee.
“Mallory, take a seat. I’ll make this quick,” Principal Wood said, sliding his rather large bulk around the other side of his desk and sinking into his chair with a sigh.
I bet coming out and fetching me was about as much work as he planned to do today. For such an exclusive school, Wood only seemed to hustle himself when it came to sucking up to the parents and sponsors. Black Hall Prep was a school for the entitled and unbearable. I included myself in that. An elite academy where the pecking order was decided by your surname, net worth, and how cruel you could be. The teachers seemed to think their role at Black Hall Prep was to ensure the pampered psychopaths who attended were comfortable at all costs.
I ignored Principal Wood and continued to study the boy sitting beside me. He was tall.Reallytall, judging by how his endless, lean legs stuck out in front of him. I noticed his school uniform was worn and patched on the knee. Stranger still were the splotches of red decorating his white shirt. His collar held a red bloom that I could swear was blood. Where had this kid come from? I was sure I’d never seen him before. His fingernails were ragged and bitten, and his pale skin was dotted here and there with beauty spots. Red streaks of blood wrapped around his right hand.
“Mallory, are you listening?” Wood demanded.
I turned my hot gaze to him, and he blinked, pulling himself back from his evident frustration. Given the amount my father paid to this school to ensure he never had to bother about me, I knew Wood didn’t want to ruffle my feathers.
“Yes, sir,” I said sweetly after a long pause.
He swallowed, his fleshy neck bobbing with the effort, before looking at the mysterious boy beside me. “Good. Well, to business. This is Kirill. He’s new. Transferring mid-year can be tough, so I thought you could be his buddy and show him around.”
Whatever I had been expecting, it wasn’t this.“Are we the same age?”
Kirill looked older than me, not for any one reason I could put my finger on. Sure, he was tall, but there was more to it. An air of experience, maybe.
“No, he’s a year older and is looking at a potential track scholarship for college. He works hard and makes good grades. I don’t want him to get distracted by the more disreputable elements in this school.”
Ah, there it was. Kirill was an outsider. He wasn’t like us. That was Wood’s unspoken admission. Despite his height and wiry strength, this kid would face adversity in this hellhole of class, wealth, and obscene privilege. The worn uniform and the defensive expression all made sense now. He must be one of Black Hall Prep’s charity cases, picked purposefully to improve their stats and image.
“Is this my punishment? I don’t have to do anything else if I do this?”
A slight look of irritation and maybe a slither of compassion for Kirill crossed Wood’s face, so fleeting it was almost unrecognizable. Maybe long ago, this man had been an earnest educator. Maybe he had worried about students’ feelings once upon a time, but those days had long been lost to endless bribes, sucking up to wealthy benefactors and gobbling down the scraps they threw his way.
“This is just a request, but yes, it is all I’d need from you.”
I folded my arms across my chest and nodded. “Fine, we have a deal. Get your stuff. We’re going,” I tossed to Kirill as I stood up and left the room.
My beat-up boots squeaked on the floor as I gained the hall and turned on my heel to look at my newest shadow. Kirill followed along behind me, even taller than I’d expected. I walked backward up the hall, inspecting him all the while.
He met my stare without flinching. A muscle ticked in his angular jaw. His face was gaunt.“Where are we going?” he asked in a deep voice.
No boy in my year had that voice. It scraped along my bones.
“Do you care?” I asked mindlessly.
He stopped in the corridor and rubbed the back of his long neck with a huge hand. “Yes,” he replied, bringing me to a stop. “You don’t need to show me around. I’ll tell Wood you did.”