Page 33 of Soulless Rivalry

I cleared my throat, clearly shaken myself over last night’s discovery.

“Hannah Fronwerg and Jared found her in the woods. I was walking around the dorm when I heard Mrs. Chapman and Gastow rush in with a freaked-out Hannah. Then they talked and said they had to send them back home to keep the news from spreading.”

“What the fuck?” That came from Sinem. “A student was killed and they don’t want us to know?”

I shook my head. “It’s not a student. It’s a girl from the village; she and her friend had been missing for a while. The second one hasn’t been found yet as far as I know but…I think they’re gonna cover their deaths.”

I’d checked the local news on my phone all day and there wasn’t anything on Lauren Leigh and Ashleigh Deivers, the girls from the village.

“Oh shit, that explains the way people treated me earlier today in town,” Briar exclaimed, still whispering.

“You were in town today?”

She nodded at Mia’s question. “I had permission from Madame Ferdinand to get the new ballet shoes I ordered. I’m auditioning to be Odette's Black Swan in Swan Lake next month.”

Pride swelled in my heart and I smiled at my best friend, putting my hand on hers on the table and squeezing. I knew how much that meant to her, it was the role of her dreams. She grinned back before her face got serious again, remembering the subject at hand.

“People were glaring at me, some guy even spat on the ground while looking at me. I swung by Foams on the way back and Lewis was in an even worse mood than usual. He slammed my coffee on the counter and turned his back on me before I could pull out the cash to pay him. I just left it on the counter and left. I was honestly scared for my life.”

“They blame us,” I blurted. “From what I heard, Chapman and Gastow talk about yesterday, I don’t think it’s the first time something like that has happened.”

“What do you mean?”

I just shrugged, not willing to reveal more and put them at risk. I wanted to find out what was going on, but couldn’t deny it would probably be dangerous and I wasn’t willing to put my friends at risk.

Seeing I didn’t want to talk more about it, Sinem changed the subject and I was so grateful for her. She was slowly becoming one of the few people I considered good friends, and something in me screamed that I could trust her.

The timeon my phone showed 11:45 and I was shaking. I stood by the entrance to the woods, hidden by the bushes and trees, trying to muster the courage to walk further in, but I just couldn’t.

Even the light on my phone didn’t show much in the darkness and my mind reeled with all the things that could be lurking within those trees.

“It’s okay, Elyssa, you got this. You’re gonna walk in there and make this forest your bitch,” I tried reassuring myself, but every time I took a step in the direction of the Church, my body locked within itself and I shuddered.

When the sound of leaves crunching echoed around me, I nearly fainted. Someone was there, and by the sound of it, they were coming in my direction. I was frozen in place, wanting to run out of there, but unable to do so because of the incapacitating fear gripping me.

My breath came out ragged and my hands were trembling, when Konstantin emerged from the darkness.

But the weirdest thing was that I felt relief rush all over me when I saw him. I’d never thought I’d be so happy to see his face, but the fact remained. It was pathetic.

“What—” I cleared my throat, willing my voice to not sound so high-pitched. “What are you doing here?”

“The moon isn’t out tonight. I knew you’d be too scared to cross those woods alone.”

My first reflex was to tell him to go to hell, that I wasn’t scared, but I stopped myself. It was thoughtful of him and a part of me was grateful that he’d come to me. Another, larger, part was still angry that he was making me do this in the first place.

“Thank you. I—I appreciate it.” My reaction must’ve surprised him because he stayed silent for a while—right before he ruined it all.

“Shut up,” he muttered, causing me to roll my eyes. “Come, grab my sleeve.”

I didn’t have to be told twice and rushed up to him, taking hold of the sleeve of his jacket and following him as he expertly trekked through the woods.

The whole way there, I felt calm and at ease, like nothing could reach me. Maybe it was because of his reputation, maybe it was his family name, either way, I feltsafewith him.

The realization hit me like a train and I wondered how it even happened. How did we go from him blackmailing me, to that, in barely a month?

When we arrived in front of the old building, I swallowed thickly. According to old tales, someone died in that church.

When the Academy first opened, it used to be an all-boys Catholic school. The bishop was a severe and awful man who believed in a variety of corporal punishments, which included, but wasn’t limited to, waterboarding. One day, he went too far and a kid died, drowning in the basin. His friends went berserk, they rebelled against the bishop and ended up killing him after excruciatingly torturing him.

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