Page 82 of Wings of Ashes
“Did you know that sixty percent of the books in the school library are not accessible to female students?” Nix asked him. “Did you know that?”
Thierry gaped as if hedidn’tknow.
“What knowledge do you think they are gatekeeping from us?” she asked him. “I guess it’s not a concern of yours, why would you need to know—it does not affect you.”
“Everyonedeserves the right to learn and know things,” he shot back. “I’m sure it is due to some kind of mistake. The academy would never purposefully restrict a gender from learning the same material that the other gender—”
“And you think you aresoooosmart.” Nix rolled her eyes. “I am a student at an academy that expects me to marry someone at graduation. An academy that only wants to teach me how to be a wife, who does not think for herself and caters to her alpha. An academy thatknowshow dangerous it is to be a female prey shifter in a world with paranormally powerful alpha shifters. Yet, the school keeps us prey shifters from learning the basics of self-defense.”
Thierry’s furrowed eyebrows and concerned expression did nothing to calm Nix down.
“If you’re not going to help me break this lock and get the knowledge I need to protect myself from my future, then I am going to go to the dining hall and sneak out a knife or two so I can feel safer at night.”
Nix strode away from Thierry but turned her head over her shoulder to tell him, “I don’t need you to apply for the role of my protector. I don’t want anyone’s help if it comes with strings.”
32
CHAPTER
The hair on the back of Nix’s neck rose as she stared at her unlocked dormitory door.
Had someone broken into her room? She knew she locked it every day. Sherememberedlocking it.
Who would break into my room?
She took a deep breath, clutched the two knives she stole from the academy cafeteria at dinner, and brought to mind the few combat stances Ryker taught her.
He had not taught her how to hit or anything useful yet. Still, he showed her how to spread her legs and balance her weight to promote agility and force. She also craned her neck and watched what the other students were being taught while she was forced to run laps and build “strength.”
If I have to, I will fight. Tooth and nail.
She slowly pushed open her door and peered inside. Whoever had broken in was now long gone because the paint was dry.
Over her bed, in red paint, someone had spelled out “WHORE.”
Dried drips of red paint clung to her bedframe. Her white bedsheets were left untouched—other than being shredded and left in scraps over her mattress.
From her desk, someone had ripped out more than half of the pages of Nix’s history textbook. The pages were strewn about the room, some with writing on them, saying things like, “Drop out,” “Stay away from the alphas,” and “Go back to cooking class where you belong, bitch.”
The rage was back.
Nix snarled at the vandalized mess.
Who the hell did this? Why?
All she wanted to do waslearn. And someone was trying to intimidate her into dropping out of classes that helped hernotrely on marrying an alpha at graduation? Classes to help her gain independence.
Did the other cygnus shifters truly feel threatened by Nix, or was it more than that? Were they so appalled or fearful of her approach to a different way to gain protection—through knowledge?
Do they not realize the cages they lock themselves in?
Didn’t matter. Nix’s belongings were violated and damaged. The smell of paint fumes tainted the small room.
Her other uniforms hanging in the closet had been cut up. The skirts were left three inches shorter. Her blouses were turned into crop tops. How scissor-happy did these bullies get? And what was the logic behind telling a girl to be less of a slut and trimming her only uniforms into provocative lengths?
Motivated yet again to bemorethan what she was now, Nix fixed another amateur reversal potion with the hyssop she grabbed that day.
She knew her potions professor, Professor Bowen, told her not to, but she had read the chapter. It said nothing about any damage caused by taking more of the potion than needed.
