Page 53 of The Blackened Blade

I’ll work out until I’m dripping with sweat and feel every inch of me burn and ache. And all the questions twisting around in my head can be pushed to the back, and no longer a worry for today.

I head off into a run, the Autumn wind whipping past me as my surroundings quickly begin to blur with my pace.

A small smile stretches my lips.I guess I had gotten faster too.

CHAPTER14

Iwalk into the cafeteria and straight toward the cheesy omelette calling my name.

I had trained for the entire weekend, even waking up on Sunday for a six am run, and covering fifteen miles with ease. My senses had grown to new heights too, my hearing reaching much further distances and my sight giving even a shifter a run for their money.

I trained both days from dawn till dusk, and again later until the owls stopped hunting and went to sleep. There wasn’t really much else to do here on the weekends, anyway. Even the cafeteria was closed, so all my meals were either cold baguettes or a quick cup of noodles from the kitchen in the girls dormitory.

My mouth waters, a hum leaving my lips as I take my omelette from Finn and grab some water to go.

I head straight for my favourite breakfast spot, but just before I sit down, I notice something on my seat. There are letters that weren’t there before.

The writing is messy and hard to see, but I make out; A-N-N-E-X.

Annex, what's that?

I grab my napkin and try to rub out whatever this was, from whichever moron wrote it, but soon stop.

I brush my fingers over the letters.

They weren’t written, they werecarvedinto the seat.

Myseat.

I glance around the room. Which asshole was trying to start crap with me now?

What was this anyway, some kind of curse word or hex?

The writing looked horrendous, almost as if some creature had written it rather than an actual intelligent life form.

Who scribbled crap like this, and so openly in the cafeteria?Who would defy school regulation and deface academy property just to bother me?

Not that I can’t see any of them doing it–since they’ve done worse–but the academy took that stuff seriously, probably one of the only things they did.

Oh, you could torment each other, teachers could discriminate against students, butGods forbidanyone touches their property.

I narrow my eyes at the messy scratches before sitting on top of it.

Some child's writing wasn’t going to stop me from sitting here and enjoying my meal.

I place my omelette on the table and start to dig in.

After a few moments and a few large bites, I’m picking my plate up, handing it to a server and heading toward Mr. Finch’s class.

After the little stand off we had a while back, he hasn’t tried to mess with me again. Not that I would take it sitting down anyway.He just gives me a narrowed look and pinched lip most days, or a raised brow like today.

Giving him a small grin, I look at the clock above him;‘09:29’, and with even a minute to spare.

I make my way to an empty seat in the middle section as most of the seats in the back were already taken.

I settle in as the class starts, but only a few minutes into the lesson and my eyelids begin to droop. A yawn stretches my lips as Mr. Finch drones on in his monotonous voice, when suddenly the door flings open.

Mr. Finch turns around, a scowl on his face as his mouth opens before he quickly freezes. His eyes widen and slightly tremble as the tall dark figure makes his way into the room and up the stairs.

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