Page 15 of The Pretty Savage

And yay for me, she was apparently the person that would show me to my dorm.

"Vega, this is Yolanda Engström," he said blandly, and I wondered how it was possible that no one had ever tried to kill this man simply for being an asshole. "She's going to be your floor handler this year, and as luck would have it, you're also on the same floor."

Before I could say a single thing, Yolanda shrieked, hugging me and enveloping me in the scent of jasmine and something else equally as sweet and equally annoying. "It is so, so nice to meet you!" Her voice was already annoying me, and she hadn't even spoken properly yet. "I'm really glad you're here," she said excitedly, while I stood there in her embrace, as stiff as a statue, waiting for the torture to finish.

I wasn't exactly… a cuddly person. I hated people touching me, unless I really liked them. I did not like strangers in my personal space, and this girl wasn't just in my personal space—one step forward and she would be a part of me.

"I think we're gonna get along just fine," she announced as she took a step back, her hands still tightly holding my shoulders. “I just love your eyes,” she kept on blabbering. “I have never met someone with heterochromia.” I guess one thing The Schatten really disliked about my appearance are my different colored eyes. With one emerald green and the other one brown, I was not as forgettable as they would’ve liked me to be, but it wasn’t like I could change it.

I fought the urge to shake her off, and I didn't miss the gleeful way Andries was looking at me. He was enjoying my discomfort and it was obvious.

"Well, ladies, it is so nice to see that you're going to get along." As fucking if. "Vega, are you done with the emergency contact information?"

"Yes," I answered stiffly, thankful when Yolanda took another step back, waiting by the door.

"Perfect. This one has your key and all the access cards, as well as the Wi-Fi code." He placed a black envelope into my hand, and I was at least thankful that I wouldn't have to stay in his company any longer. "Welcome to St. Vasili's Academy, Vega." He smiled, but we both knew his smile was as fake as mine.

"Thank you, Andries." I smirked when his gaze thundered. "I'm so glad to be here."

And in a way, I was glad to be here, even if I had to listen to Yolanda's annoying voice every single day and see Andries's smug face. I was glad, seeing that this was the first step I needed to take to fulfill my promise. To find out what happened to Tyler all those years ago and to finally get the revenge I’d been looking for.

7

VEGA

I needed to find an off button for Yolanda, since she had not shut her mouth from the moment we left the dean's office until now, and the walk that was most probably only some ten minutes or so, felt like hours.

"…and so I told her, you cannot throw a party just because it's the beginning of the year. It is not allowed. But did she listen? No." And so on and on she went, to the point where I actually had no idea what she was talking about anymore. And I didn't want to know.

I was too busy drinking in the areas we passed, but I didn't miss the fact that we completely sidestepped the main building to go to our dorm building.

The rain had stopped by the time we left the admin building, but the stormy skies still thundered above Wolfhöle, creating a symphony of anger with each new crash. It made it easier to turn off the rest of the world and my chatty new companion and just focus on my surroundings.

I hated feeling paranoid, but since my arrival just earlier this evening and that feeling of being watched, I kept my eye out to see if there was anything out of the ordinary. But I couldn’t notice anything, and it was fucking pissing me off.

The smell of fresh soil wrapped around me like an old friend, pushing me into the muddy waters of memories I would much rather completely erase, but erasing them meant erasing the last parts of who I truly was, and I couldn't do that. I refused to do that when I had already lost so much of myself. The Schatten made sure that the memories I had as a child were nothing more than figments of my imagination, but I knew the real truth.

They were real.

They lived inside of me, and while they might not have been the best memories a child should have, they tethered me to reality, to the fact that once upon a time I too belonged somewhere.

Crows cawed somewhere in the distance, adding to the little mountain of emotions that was slowly rising in my chest, while I fought against the current that was trying to take me under. That was what the last two years had turned into—an endless misery filled with violent waves, reminding me over and over again that I wasn't meant for this life. That just because my mother turned into a monster, I didn't have to be one too.

"Vega," Yolanda's voice pulled me back from the dark abyss I was standing over, and for a moment I was thankful for that distraction. God knew I didn't need to think about my life before my mother packed our bags and moved us from Bosnia and Herzegovina to the United States of America, trying to find a better life—or at least that was what she said. As the years passed by I couldn't help but wonder what was the truth and what was the lie in all those things she had told me, and how many of those things did I actually imagine. "Are you okay?" Yolanda asked, her eyes filled with something akin to worry, but I knew better than anyone not to trust her or anyone else for that matter.

"I'm fine," I murmured, tightening my hold on the handle of my little suitcase. "Just tired." Which wasn't a lie—not exactly.

My body was slowly shutting down. It felt as if someone had dragged superglue over the inside of my eyelids, and every single step felt as if I had crossed a mile, when I knew we weren't walking for all that long.

"Oh, you poor thing," Yolanda said, her voice hiding any ill intentions I was ready to face as soon as this mission was thrown at me. "I wanted to show you something, but now that you're saying?—"

"What did you want to show me?" That woke me up. Maybe it shouldn't have. Maybe she wanted to show me the motherfucking view of the town or something, but something in her voice, something in the way her eyes sparkled when she said those few words, had me curious.

She looked around us, as though she was checking if anyone was in our immediate vicinity, before she stepped closer to me, bringing us flush to each other. "Okay, I probably shouldn't be telling you this since you have just arrived."

"Yolanda," I groaned. "Just spit it out or don't. I'll find out whatever it is one way or another." Her eyes widened the moment the words spilled out of my mouth, but I didn't have time to sugarcoat anything. I wanted to get out of the Academy by January, and if becoming friends with some more people guaranteed that I would get to meet the infamous Adrian Zylla, then so be it.

His file showed that he was at least five years older than me, which was what made me even more curious as to why he needed to be at the Academy. The majority of us were in our late teens or early twenties. Those of his age rarely ever came here because they didn't need to.

---