Page 67 of Shadebound
Each step echoed like a reminder: I hadn’t escaped anything. Not really. The lesson was over, but it lived behind my eyes now. Playing on loop, gnawing at me from the inside out.
I followed the crowd up the tower, dragging myself higher with every miserable step, until I reached the dorm. Only then did I allow my bones to stop working, and I collapsed onto my bed, face-first, not even bothering to take off my boots.
Everything within me throbbed. Every part of me screamed to shut down.
Everything inside me was hollow.
Zayden followed and stopped beside me. “You good there, Heartache?”
I turned my head slightly, cracked one eye open. “Emotionally, spiritually, and physically annihilated. So. Peachy.”
He gave a quiet breath, somewhere between a sigh and a huff. “I don’t mean to pile on... but it’s about to get worse.”
I rolled onto my back and stared at the ceiling, then tilted my head toward him. “Worse how? I told Maya not to spoil it for me this morning, but I no longer have the mental capacity for a surprise.”
He rubbed the side of his neck, silver eyes softening. “You remember what I said about second initiations?”
“Yeah?”
He looked uncomfortable, almost apologetic. “They use these things. Like speakers within the walls of our dorm. Screams and loud noises are blasted through the dorm all night. No one sleeps. And if you even start to drift off, the cuffs zap you awake again. It happens on your first night, usually. But because our team won the arena fight, it starts tonight.”
I blinked. Blinked again. “Sleep deprivation? Awesome.”
The others filtered in. Maya walked past without comment and climbed onto her bunk. Draven came in after her, glancing around with his eyebrows furrowed, confused by the miserable faces he could see. Everyone in the room had suddenly gone stiff. The dragons glared at me, even the newly healed Tyler who’s eyes were murky. He had a bottle of eyedrops in his hand, no doubt to heal the brilliant blindness I’d almost gifted him. The wolves rubbed at their temples, sat rigid, like they were bracing for something horrid.
Draven cocked his head and turned to me. He signed:What’s happening? Everyone looks mad.
I signed back:They’re playing this awful screeching sound through the dorm soon. Something to stop us sleeping. And if you do fall asleep, the cuff will zap you awake.
He blew out a breath and then shrugged.Good thing I’m used to staying awake all night playing games then.He grinned at me.Guess all those times Mom told me off were wrong. It wasn’t me being an irresponsible teenager; it was me doing early training.
For a second I debated peeling his head open again, desperate to see if he truly had a brain. But before I could work out where to find scalping tools, he signed:Are you okay? You’ve looked like shit since the arena. No offence.
I hesitated, debating if I was offended but deciding I was too tired to be, then signed:I’m always okay. I think I can get in touch with father soon too, so we can get you home.
He frowned, his dark eyes narrowing.Really? Are you sure it’s not dangerous?
Sure.I nodded.
Perhaps my confidence didn’t inspire him. Or he just knew how to tell when I was lying, even without my necklace changing colour, because he signed,How sure?
Enough.I offered him my version of a smile.Go do something with your friends for a while. I’m sure they could do with comforting more than me.
Draven nodded and climbed onto his bed, starting a conversation with Luna just as Alessandro graced the room with his hideous presence. The entire time he walked to his bed, he was sneering at me like I was something sour stuck on his tongue. I didn’t return it. Couldn’t be bothered.
I just reached into my bra, taking the brown stone out and holding it in my hand. Occasionally twisting it through my knuckles as I smiled at the surly dragon whenever he looked my way.
Once I was bored of that, I just sat there and waited when the door slammed shut behind him and locked with a loud metallic clunk now that everyone in the dorm was present bar the three roommates that Zayden had informed me earlier were being punished for something, and wouldn’t be back for another week. I was curious about what sort of punishment they were facing...
And then the screaming started.
Not sirens. Not music. Justnoise. Pure, tortured sound. Twisting howls. Piercing shrieks. A grind of metal on metal and glitching, garbled voices like broken lullabies trapped underwater. It hit like a spike between the eyes.
My skull buzzed. My stomach turned. The cuff on my wrist hummed, as if it were already prepping to punish me when I inevitably fell asleep easily enough because I was used to hearing screams in the dark.
Used to sleeping when my brain was full of noise.
Because I was human (theoretically) I clutched the sides of my head. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”
