Page 61 of The Pretty Savage

There were a couple of pictures of Andries with Gerard, or at least I thought that was Gerard. The man was careful to stay out of the spotlight, which bugged me. Most of the other men in power made sure people knew who they were and what they looked like. They fed their egos that way, influencing the masses and collecting new soldiers. Then why would Gerard keep himself in the shadows?

Unless he was hiding something?

The moment I came to the clearing right behind the admin building I could see the entire town of Wolfhöle, just like earlier when I clung to Adrian's back. The sheer reminder of this morning stabbed through my gut with vicious force, warning me I was fucking this mission up even before I did anything significant.

If Alena could see me now, she would be the first one to reprimand me for my reckless behavior. There was a list of fuckups I’d made so far, and I had to fix all of them. This wasn't my first rodeo working undercover, but with the way I handled things, you would think I had never done a single mission in my life.

Straight from the start I allowed myself to befriend someone here, which was a massive red flag on its own. Then I allowed myself to get knocked out in a dangerous place, with no backup. And like the cherry on top, I allowed myself to start falling for a guy that should've been nothing more than a target.

And the more I kept thinking about killing him, the worse this heartache became, and unless I wanted to break myself, I knew I would have to fail in at least one aspect of this mission.

People of Wolfhöle whispered about the curse of St. Vasili's Academy. I was starting to think they were right, but not in the way they thought. No, the curse of this place was much greater and much stronger than they thought.

It slithered inside your veins, making you forget who you were and where you were at. Making you comfortable, almost complacent, until it attacked, slicing straight through your heart, destroying everything you worked so hard for.

My curse was Adrian Zylla, and his stupidly handsome face, and the darkness that calmed my own. My curse was the yearning for a better place to call home and the person I could one day call mine.

My fucking curse was The Schatten and the burden they had put on me, turning me into a monster I never wanted to be.

My mom would've been ashamed if she could see me now, regardless of who she was. And the closer I came to the cemetery that was also overlooking the massive lake right underneath the cliff, the more the regret started pouring into my veins. She would've hated the person I became. She was no saint, but she did her best to keep me in the light, even when the darkness continuously called my name.

I had no idea what happened all those years ago, or why that man attacked us, and maybe I’d never find out, but I knew she was protecting me. I knew she wanted to keep me away from the darkness, from the tragedies of this world that a child should never get to know. She did her best, and I failed her. It was my screaming that got her locked up. It was my panic as I ran down those streets, alerting all the neighbors who called the cops, that destroyed her life.

It was all my fault.

But I was going to make her proud. The things I had planned for the future, the things I knew about The Schatten… Once I was done with all of them, they'd be begging me to stop.

The hair at the nape of my neck stood up just as I approached the metal gate at the entrance to the cemetery, realizing that someone was watching me. I halted in my steps, inhaling and exhaling slowly, listening to the sounds around me. I couldn't hear anything from the sound of the wind or the pine trees swaying. I needed silence to hear if someone was walking behind me, but I couldn't hear shit.

And it unnerved me.

My steps quickened as I entered an old cemetery, the dates on some of the gravestones dating back to the 1800s, way before the Academy was even formed. But the sinister feeling of being followed never ceased, even as I took the sharp turn left, disappearing between old crypts that were surprisingly in rather good shape, all things considered. I highly doubted anyone had used this area in at least fifty years.

My heart pounded when the first sound of steps behind me flickered through my ears, and my hand wrapped around the hilt of my knife, pulling it out and keeping it in front of my body.

Maybe it was Dante?

Maybe he was trying to scare me?

Whoever it was wasn't really scaring me. They were pissing me off, and I fucking hated being this pissed off.

Pressing my back to one of the crypts right next to row after row of old graves, I leaned over, looking at the direction I just came from, but there was no one there. Was I just imagining it? I was about to step aside and sheath my knife, when a heavy weight pressed against my back, and a hand came out of nowhere, knocking my knife out of my own and pushing me against the crypt.

Hot breath washed over my neck and a warm hand wrapped around my throat, while the other one pulled my arm behind my back, holding me in place.

"Fuck!" I yelled out, my cheek painfully pressing against the hard surface of the crypt, feeling each pebble on my face.

"Hello, Bambi," a familiar voice rasped behind me, his lips pressed against my ear. "Got you now." The motherfucker chuckled, pressing his body farther into mine. I couldn't move.

I could barely breathe, and he knew it. There was no way I'd be able to fight him off if it came down to it.

"What the fuck do you want, Adrian?" I seethed, just as he spread my legs with his own, pressing his knee between.

A moment passed, the silence almost unbearable while nothing but the sound of our breathing registered in my mind, when the words I least expected rushed out of him, rendering me speechless.

"Everything."

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