Page 56 of The Fate of Eternity

Raiden could wipe the floor with this fuck in one breath, but the professor doesn’t seem to care. “Get your fucking hand off me before it becomes the only part left of you,” he growls, his anger flashing through the air at his threat.

Professor Amos shrugs, a curl of a smile on his lips as he stands taller under Raiden’s intense stare. “As a human, I’ve been threatened with much worse. Now, if you’re quite done, I was wondering if you were in need of any assistance. But watch the next words out of your mouth because if you upset me, I won’t help at all.”

“What makes you think you can help to begin with?” Cassian interrupts, folding his arms over his chest as he stares Amos down.

With a simple shrug, he releases Raiden’s arm and dusts off his cream cloak. “Are you attempting to get out of here?”

“What makes you say that?” I ask, confused, and he shrugs.

“I’m a human. I might not have magical powers, but I’m not dumb. Adrianna Reagan was just escorted off campus, and the four of you have been fighting over her attention from the get-go,” he retorts, making Brody scoff.

“Please, there was no fighting involved. We’re excellent at sharing, I’ll have you know. Also, not from the get-go. For me, maybe, but these assholes needed a moment to catch up. Some might still need an extra push, but we’re getting there. Now, how is it you think you can help?”

“I know where the infused relic is kept that holds the lockdown magic in place.”

“Why the fuck didn’t you lead with that? Let’s go, now,” Raiden growls, arms out wide in a mixture of anger and frustration as the professor whirls around and charges toward Bozzelli’s office.

“Ungrateful assholes,” Amos mutters under his breath, doing little to keep it to himself as we hurry after him.

Stepping into Bozzelli’s office, she’s nowhere to be found. Being here without her present feels awkward, but the professor doesn’t seem to mind. Uncaring, he swoops around to the other side of her desk, pulling open the third drawer without a flourish before waving the small relic shaped like an anchor.

“How is it just lying around like that?” Cassian snaps, eyebrows furrowed in confusion as an uneasy feeling washes over me.

The door slams shut behind us, the sound echoing on repeat in my mind as the professor transforms before us. “Not allshifters are dragons, handsome,” the woman before us says with a wink. Her eyes are blacker than black, and her hair is even darker as she lifts the relic in the air, looking nothing like the professor she had moments ago.

A blinding light takes over the room, claiming my vision until there is nothing.

27

ADRIANNA

The stained walls behind me only look slightly clean in comparison to the state of the bars that frame me in the rest of the cell. It’s almost ironic. The metal cage that holds me captive is the same one we freed my father from. It seems fitting.

Maybe they could name the space after my family, call it a tradition, and be done with it.

There’s a woman in the cell across from me. She’s turned away, leaning against the wall as she seemingly sleeps or chooses to ignore my existence. I’m okay with it either way. The guard station is empty, all of the soldiers residing on the other side of the door that acts as an additional layer of security between them and us.

There are no beds, toilets, or even sheets, but I don’t know what I expected. I’m locked up here as a criminal; I don’t deserve those things.

Bending my knees, I sigh, letting my head fall against the wall as I brace my arms around my legs. One thing this place does is leave you with nothing but your thoughts, and mine are going around and around, wreaking havoc inside of me.

Vallie is dead… because of me. It’s a fact I’m not sad about, and I definitely don’t regret putting an end to her. It may have happened over her provoking me, but she’s done worse and I should have acted sooner. I just shouldn’t have done it like that. Filled with rage and barely in control in front of a full crowd.

No one is ever going to believe in me now.

Everything I’ve worked tirelessly for, everything myfatherworked himself to the bone for, was all for nothing.

Guilt doesn’t plague me. Disappointment does.

On top of all that, I have four men who I am entirely obsessed with, and know in my gut that they deserve better than this; than me. Maybe I was put in their path to show them what not to do, how to be better and not make such foolish and selfish decisions.

I wouldn’t be surprised if they were realizing all of this now, in my absence. As much as it hurts my heart and soul, it’s probably the best. For them at least.

My head falls forward, my chin resting on my chest as I take another defeated breath. I need a break from my mind. I need the soldiers to get their asses in here and get on with whatever they have planned, which I’m sure is nothing compared to the feelings eating away at me.

I feel like I’m stuck at the bottom of an old well. There’s no hope of getting out, the sunlight above barely more than a dot, I’m so deep. When I think it can’t get any worse, water starts to rise from the ground, soaking my boots.

I’m drowning in my own anxiety.

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