Page 116 of A University of Betrayal

It Hurts

Tessa Rose Jackson, FFM

It was Friday afternoon, and hours had passed since the strange incident in Professor Tiberius’ office. I hadn’t been followed or threatened by him yet, but it was only a matter of time before he took revenge for my stupid rummaging.

The encounter with him in his office still seemed so surreal to me.

Just before he had opened the closet, I had managed to swallow the last ration of Salma from Gloria. The stuff had literally saved my life. Otherwise, I would never have been able to stand up to this man while he had his hands around my neck.

The memory of his rough skin and that darkened look sent a warm and cold shiver down my spine.

I sat on our bench on the campus grounds, vigilantly observing my surroundings. Grace sat next to me, busy with her phone.

Ever since she started talking more and acting as if nothing had ever happened between us, Bayla had been even more silent.

The slim girl with shoulder-length hair sat there reading, looking as if her thoughts were in a completely different world.

I wondered if I sometimes seemed like that to Grace or the rest of the Circle... or to Bayla and Larissa.

It still bothered me that Larissa was now a Ruisangor and I came to the realization that Legacy Ruisangors could camouflage their untransformed offspring perfectly among humans.

Now I waited with Bayla for Larissa to return and let the icy autumn wind blow through my hair. When the wind blew, I felt more comfortable than usual. But there was nothing I liked more than the snow. I would have to be patient for another month or two if I could rely on Oliver Bexley’s weather forecasts.

Ever since I was little, I liked the cool wetness that covered landscapes in a white and calm blanket. I even used to go ice skating back then. It took me a long time to find out where this love of snow and ice came from. It was inside me. A part of me. I had inherited it.From my father.

I knew nothing about him except that he had been the son of Gloria Westcode.

Somehow, I had gotten over myself and asked Amara who this man had been, but she had said that it was better to keep certain things buried.

Of course, I hadn’t just sat around and done nothing. I wanted to know what had happened to him. After all, he had been a male Quatura, which meant that contact with him would be allowed, but it was as if this mysteriousAlaister Westcodehad never existed, not on paper, let alone on the internet.

“How much longer are we going to wait?”

Grace looked impatient and played with her elbow as if she had been bitten by a mosquito. Her cell phone was on the table in front of us.

“It can’t be that long,” Bayla sighed without looking up from her book. It was an old book, probably one of the works she had to read during her studies.

“What happened toher?” Vivienna remarked suspiciously and loud enough for me to hear her despite the distance to the huge Victorian pavilion.

I followed her gaze and spotted...Mady.

She was wearing a gray hoodie and her makeup looked smudged. Her hair was disheveled, and it looked like she was in desperate need of a shower. She no longer smiled at people who approached her. A trait that I had always admired and at the same time viewed with suspicion, because why should I smile at the person opposite me if I didn’t even know them? Only now did I realize how lifeless she seemed without her smile.

I remembered what had happened.

“She looksterrible,”Grace sighed, and I looked at her. I didn’t know what exactly I was looking for. Pity or the usual hatred?

“Her brother’s dead,” Bayla remarked, looking at Grace in an odd way. “And I think you should put your hatred for her aside.”

I looked back at Mady, who was walking toward the west wing.

It reminded me of back then. Everyone had liked her, and she had danced at all the parties, joined every club at school and had even been more popular than Vivienna, simply because of her friendliness. Then her parents had died. And she had looked a lot like she did today. Until she’d gotten together with Nash. That was the point I didn’t understand. Nash was an asshole to everyone, but he’d always been caring to her, until that day a year ago…

I glanced toward the parking lot where he’d just closed the car door of his blue Jeep, and I held my breath as I realized his gaze was glued to Mady, who disappeared into one of the doorways a few seconds later. He stared as if he didn’t understand the world.

Did he know about Ezra? Did he even care?

I must have stared too long because he turned his head toward me, and I quickly looked back at Grace and Bayla.

---