Page 98 of Darkness and Deceit
The silence stretches so long I don’t think she’ll answer at all.
Eventually, she sighs. “Tell Simon, Vaughn, and Kai that I’d like a word with them. I know they’re waiting for you out there.”
I stand, fury and confusion and hurt simmering in my chest. “And Lilith,” she adds, just as I reach the door. “You are to remain in your chambers until further notice.”
I don’t nod. Don’t speak. I just leave.
Simon and Vaughn are waiting in the hall, Kai too—his back pressed against the wall, arms crossed, eyes hard. He doesn’t say anything when I pass, but I feel his gaze track me the whole way.
“She wants you,” I say to them quietly. “Now.”
Simon starts to say something, but I don’t stop. I can’t. My body feels like it’s made of glass. Like one wrong word and I’ll shatter. I need to move. I need to not be here. I need air.
Not even Kai tries to stop me.
I don’t know where I’m going. I just walk.
Past the guards. Past the glowing sigils etched into the stone. Down corridors that suddenly feel too narrow, and too quiet. The heavy weight of warding magic buzzes faintly against my skin, and it no longer feels protective—it feels like a cage.
Some of the other students watch me as I pass. Not all of them. But enough that I feel the weight of it. Eyes lingering too long. Whispers that hush the second I glance their way.
The freak.
The Dual.
The girl who cracked the academy open.
I press a hand to my ribs, flinching at the raw sting beneath my fingertips. The skin’s still sticky. Still torn.
Without thinking, I take the nearest turn, ducking into an empty hall. My vision swims for a second. I can’t cry. Iwon’tcry. But the pressure behind my eyes feels like it might burst any second.
The shadows in the corners of the corridor shift slightly, the light warping like heat off stone.
Fuck. Not again.
I blink once, then twice—but they’re still there. Moving just out of reach. Like smoke caught in a breeze.
“Lilith?”
I jump.
Tony stands a few steps away, arms awkwardly half-lifted like he wasn’t sure whether to hug me or run. His shaggy hair is more of a mess than usual, and his shirt’s rumpled like he hasn’t changed since yesterday. Behind his glasses, his eyes go wide.
“Well, you look like shit,” he says.
And just like that, the breath I didn’t realize I was holding collapses out of me.
A tear escapes, but I swipe it away before it’s even halfway down my cheek.
Tony doesn’t mention it. He just wraps one arm around my shoulders like it’s the most natural thing in the world.
“Been a rough day,” I mutter.
“Understatement of the century,” he replies.
We start walking without even talking about it. Just two students, side by side, pretending—for a moment—that the academy is still what we thought it was when we arrived. That things make sense. That we’re safe.
Tony fills the silence. “I swear, the professors have lost their minds. Mr. Larkwell tried to hold class in the middle of the quad. Someone accidentally transformed their textbook into a swarm of bees. He just stood there screaming, ‘The mind must triumph over mayhem!’ like that was going to fix it.”
