Page 50 of Her Rabid Beasts

There is an academy guard following me, one of the tall, imposing animuses, who dresses from top to toe in black. I feel safe as I make my way through the twisty hallways that lead through the central building of the academy.

When I enter the mostly empty dining hall, there are a couple of animuses sitting at a table in the furthest right-hand corner of the hall. They probably have a free period and are drinking coffee. Seems like a great idea to me, only I’m too twitchy for caffeine.

I barely spare them a glance as I head to the drinks section of the buffet. There’s a new gargoyle sitting there, who only allows the hot chocolate to be served out of his mouth. It’s kind of gross, but the academy hot chocolate is amazingly decadent, so I simply can’t pass it up. Especially not right now.

“One cup, please,” I say to Gary, positioning a fresh mug under his large, hanging jowls.

He leans over and opens his mouth. Delicious, velvety chocolate mixture jets out of him until my mug is full.

I dollop a healthy amount of whipped cream on top and turn to take a seat.

That’s when I check out the animuses sitting in the corner and realise too late that it’s the table allocated to the serpents. I halt halfway to my usual anima table as a face that has haunted my nightmares for the past four years turns to look at me.

The stained-glass windows he sits under cast multicoloured facets across the table, his thin arms and face making it feel like I’m wading through the current of a nightmare.

I drop my mug. Henry shrieks but I barely hear him or the crash of the ceramic shattering on the floorboards.

The young man is tall and lean, milky-skinned, with golden brown hair tinged red by the windows. There are deep blue bags under his eyes, hollowing out what was once a handsome face. A face that once smiled sweetly at me as I worked in Aunt Charlotte’s shop. A face with a mouth I’d kissed for months.

A face I last saw strapped to a metal table in the middle of my father’s throne hall. He always used it for punishments.

And executions.

There is a six-digit number tattooed on his right cheekbone. A venom identification number. It’s something my father does to the most venomous snakes of our court. As a warning that their power doesn’t lie in brute strength, but something far more sinister. And the venom of the Common Krait is one of the most lethal in the world.

“Theo,” I whisper.

His irises snap into narrow slits, his lids widening into feral aggression. His tongue slips out to taste the air, and it’s thin and forked.

Shit. This serpent ismorethan feral.

I know it’s not him. I watched my sweetheart, Theo Krait, die right in front of me, thrashing and screaming as my father’s venom burned through his veins in a torturous, gruesome death. This boy is his brother, by the different numbers on his face, I know for sure.

“T-ThomasKrait?”

They look so similar. I rub my arms as his nostrils flare, scenting me. He definitely wasn’t here at the start of the school semester. I would have noticed him right away.

I swallow through a dry throat and take a few tentative steps forward. “Did you just arrive at the school?”

One of the other serpents hiss in warning and I halt a few metres away from their table. They’ve all gone still, turning hateful gazes towards me.

“Fuck off, Aquinas,” one of the others, a python, drawls. “You’re not wanted here. And he doesn’t want to speak to you.” He spits on the floor.

Spitting is gross on a good day, but for a serpent to do it is worse than open dismissal. It’s an open threat. Some of these guys have venom in their fangs by the markings on their cheeks, but it’s a punishable offence to use venom-loaded bites in this school.

“I’m sorry,” I manage to choke out.

Thomas hasn’t looked away from me, hasn’t moved at all.

“I’m so sorry.” I whirl around and leave through the open front doors, holding back a sob as old memory flashes through my mind.

My uncle brought Theo’s execution up at my trial to discredit me. Insinuating that I gave my virginity to him knowing he’d be killed for it. Insinuating that I was a malevolent person capable of being selfish like that.

Scrape. Scrape. Scrape.

Pain explodes across my abdomen and I gasp as my shields are breached by the forces I’ve been trying so hard to keep out. My horror at seeing Thomas must have created a weakness in my protections.

With one hand across my stomach, I stumble back to my dorm. Christine asks me what’s wrong from above the door but I don’t reply, swiping my card and managing a wheezing climb up to the third floor. I don’t even make it to my bed, instead collapsing in a heap on the floor next to it.

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