Page 70 of Deucalion Academy: Pawn Of The Gods (The Dominions)

“It’s not dead,” he snapped, kicking his way out of the trees’ clutches. “I turned her into grapes, I can turn her back.”

“Do it. Now.”

“Love to. Once you get that insane animal in a cage.”

“She’s not insane. She’s never done that before. That Sisyphean did something to her and if you don’t turn her back now—”

“Enough,” Cassia barked. She shoved through the gathering crowd and came to me. A sharp hiss whispered through her teeth at the sight. Bad sign. “Rodion is right. You will take that owl outside before there’s any thought of changing it back. And it’s never to enter this classroom again.”

Sirena harrumphed. “I’m telling you, Tawny’s never done anything like this before. That twisted bitch provoked her. She’s had it out for me since the day she got here.”

I was in too much pain to shout back at that bald-faced lie. It felt like I groomed my hair with a comb of scimitars. A pool of blood grew beneath my head.

“Get it out. Now.”

Sirena stood up to go. Over Cassia’s shoulder—so quick I might’ve missed it—she winked at me.

That bird’s attack was no accident.

There’s my answer to if she intends to leave me alone. It would appear when Sirena Cirillo makes an enemy, she carves her revenge in blood.

Class was over for me.

Cassia had Ionna and Nitsa help me to the infirmary—a soothing place of brown limestone walls and two rows of soft beds resting beneath its own stained-glass windows. They cast a myriad of colors on me as my friends helped me onto a bed.

“I’ll look for Healer Helena.” Ionna ran out, calling her name.

“Don’t.” Nitsa stopped me reaching for the mirror on the bedside table. “Look after she heals you. Trust me.”

“Good idea,” I rasped. “I can’t believe she had that creature attack me. That bird went straight for my eyes, Nitsa. What kind of psychopath does this?”

“Sirena Cirillo is a special kind of psychopath with one mission: marry Alexander Damien and get rid of anyone who gets in her way.”

“I’m not in her way.”

Nitsa moved down to help me out of my boots. “Neither was Eliana Filo. She was a maid who worked in the imperial palace to save up some money for her family before she entered the academy. Alexander took up with her last summer. It was just a bit of fun for both of them. Eliana wasn’t looking to get serious at sixteen, and she had no delusion that the son of a councilman would promise forever to a maid.”

“What happened?”

“Rumors spread through the palace is what happened,” Nitsa said, perching on the edge of my bed. “They weren’t walking the grounds hand in hand, but they weren’t hiding it either. More than a few guards watched her slip into his room at night. Anyway, it got back to Sirena. She isn’t so reckless as to announce an engagement that Alexander doesn’t know about, but she made her stake on him clear since they were twelve.

“People were laughing at her. Or so she thought. They were smirking at the fool who thought she tamed the heart of a Damien. Or again”—Nitsa cut me a look—“so she convinced herself. To punish this slight against her, she hid her mother’s priceless pearl necklace in Eliana’s quarters.

“Eliana was sentenced to five years in prison,” Nitsa dropped dully.

“What?” I cried, shooting up. Pain raked across my scalp. “Why— How could she do that?”

“Psychopath. Remember?”

“But she was framed. Didn’t anyone speak up for her? Didn’t Alexander?”

Nitsa eased me back down. “It’s because Alexander spoke up for her that she got five years instead of fifteen. Sirena’s mother wouldn’t hear of it being reduced any less, and she was not only the ‘victim’ but also on the council. There was nothing more he, or I, or her family could do.”

“But if you knew it was Sirena—?”

“I didn’t have proof. One of the maids told Eliana that she saw Sirena slip out of the servant’s hall that night, but all ofSirena’smaids swore up, down, and sideways that she never left her room. Who was the council going to believe?”

“That’s just... evil,” I whispered. “She ruined her life for nothing.”

---