Page 24 of Soulless Rivalry

She didn’t do sleet anymore, but a year ago she started smoking joints and doing pot. She said it was for medicinal purposes, to relieve her anxiety, but I kept a careful eye on things and she knew I would not hesitate to let her mother know if I thought she was abusing it again.

Pocketing my phone, I started ascending the stairs two by two, knowing our dorm leader would be starting her rounds soon, and if I wasn’t in my room when she came knocking, she’d use her key solely to make sure I was there but just sleeping. The dorms weren’t coed, and curfew was from eleven at night to five in the morning. In those hours, going out was strictly forbidden. I took the far east staircase, which was rarely ever used but led straight to my room.

I was almost at the common hall, where a sort of lounge-slash-playroom was set up, when a hand gripped me from behind. The breath was knocked out of me as my back slammed into the brick wall of the staircase I had been ascending.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

I could barely hear Konstantin’s voice through the ringing in my ears.

It lasted a few seconds before I was finally back to my senses.

“Bitch, why are you always slamming me around?!” I hissed back, doing my best to push him away, but he was way taller and stronger than me and wouldn’t budge.

“What the hell was that in the library?” He got in my face and his scent of musk made me a little dizzy. How could someone so horrendous be so gorgeous and smell so good? Life wasn’t fair.

I frowned, wondering what the hell he was talking about until it struck me.

“Are you fucking serious right now?” Gathering all my strength, I finally managed to push him off until he took a step back.

Or maybe it wasn’t me but only the fact that he decided to take that step back.

“His dog died, Konstantin! In horrendous circumstances,” I whisper-yelled, “A-and we heard him walk to his death. I’m going to the dean tomorrow and telling him I heard several people out of their dorms last night, that they had Buxley with them.”

“Like fuck you are,” he seethed.

“Don’t worry, I won’t mention you were with me when we heard them.”

“You’re not going to the fucking dean and you’re staying the fuck away from Charles, too.” Konstantin grabbed my tie and pulled on it until I stumbled a little. “You’re so weak you’ll probably start telling him all about what youthinkyou heard the next time that bitch starts crying in your arms.”

“What IthinkI heard? We both know it wasn’t the guards last night in the halls.”

“Okay, and what is Taylor supposed to do with that information? You think it’s gonna bring that mutt back to life? Newsflash, it won’t. It only will incriminate you and they’ll probably call your family.”

I flung my arms around, looking at him like he was totally out of his mind. “Why do you care!”

“Because,” he got in my face, his eyes basked in anger and his jaw taunt with it too, “this year, you’re mine to toy with as I please and I’ll be damned if you cut my fun short. If I catch you anywhere near Dean Taylor’s office, I’ll fucking strangle you myself before emailing your cunt of a grandfather personally to tell him what you were up to last year. You feel me, Ayaari?”

Rage coursed through my veins and before I couldn’t think it through, my hand slapped his cheek, hard. The sound resounded around us, shocking us both. But I wasn’t done.

There was just too much anger in me right then to stop after one slap. I needed to verbally rip him to shreds, too.

“You’re the most self-centered, cold-hearted, empty-mindedbitchI’ve ever met in my life. You can go fuck yourself, I’ll never be your toy.”

I barely had time to bask in the feeling of pride I felt at putting him in his place, because the next thing I knew, Konstantin’s hand wrapped around my throat, and he pushed me back against the wall so hard, that it actually gave way.

Like, itdisappearedfrom behind me.

Shock made my eyes widen as I felt myself falling. My arms flailed but with nothing to grip and save myself, I was doomed. Korolov wasn’t expecting that either because the surprise on his face matched mine.

“Fuck!” I heard him cuss before he launched himself toward me, putting his giant hand at the back of my head and following me in my fall.

It turned out we had just discovered one of the Academy’s infamous secret passages.

KONSTANTIN

The fall was brutal and unexpected. I instinctively put a hand on the back of Elyssa’s head, the other grasping her waist so I could turn us around and take the brunt of the fall.

We hurtled down hard stone stairs, probably hundreds of years old, and it hurt like a bitch. When we finally reached the floor, my head hit it with a thump and I groaned. Elyssa was sprawled all over me, and just like the first time my skin had touched hers a few weeks ago, it didn’t bother me at all.

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