Page 36 of The Pretty Savage

"Because?" She grinned, earning an eye roll from me.

I turned around, huffing for good measure, and walked into the bathroom, only to stop cold in front of the mirror, seeing my face for the first time.

The left side of my face was swollen, with dark blue hues marring the entire side and a cut straight through my eyebrow, where my skin broke. My left eye was bloodshot, making the green of my iris much more prominent. My right eye with its light brown color wasn't in such bad condition, but it was obvious that I went through hell and back judging by my appearance.

Blood slowly oozed from my lower lip, cascading down toward my chin, and I forgot how much lips could bleed when they ended up in this state.

"Jesus," I groaned, taking a hand towel from the rack and pressing it to my lip. "I didn't know it was this bad."

"I think it might be worse, actually," Yolanda said from her spot at the door. "You still haven’t seen the bruises on the other parts of your body, and they, well… They don't look too good." Frankly, I didn't want to see them, but I had to assess the damages.

If I couldn't fight, then there was no way I'd be able to be finished with the Academy within two to three weeks as I initially planned. And meeting Adrian last night showed me he wasn't an opponent that should be underestimated.

I thought I had walls placed around my mind and emotions, but he was almost unreadable, and I had a feeling the only reason I was able to see a few of those emotions was because he allowed me to. There was nothing soft and safe about that man, and fuck, as much as I hated admitting that somebody else was better than me in a fight, I had to this time.

He was fast.

Granted, I was already injured and well on the way to incapacitated, but he didn't flinch, didn't stop, didn't even think about his moves or what he should do next. He attacked, slamming me to that floor.

I had a feeling he knew I would punch him in the face, and I couldn't help but wonder why he would let me do that. Why risk getting attacked when you could get out of the fight unscathed?

"You're doing it again," Yolanda piped in. "You're starting to scare me, Vega."

"I'm honestly fine." As fine as I could be after being punched repeatedly just—what was it?—a couple of hours ago? "What time is it?" I asked as I looked at her. "Aren't we supposed to be going for classes or something?"

"It's only six in the morning, but I don't think it's a good idea for you to go anywhere today."

"No, I have to," I argued. "It's the first day and?—"

"And you're barely standing as it is," she retorted back. "We can say that you fell down or?—"

"And what?" I glared. "Landed on my face? The dean already hates me as it is." Not that I cared, but I didn't want him to get any more suspicious. He already had his doubts about me being here and I didn't want to give him any ammunition against me. "I'm going, Yo, and that's it."

"That's it, she says," Yolanda grumbled, rolling her eyes. "And how do you think you'll manage to go through the offense and defense classes you have lined up today, huh? I mean, I can see you being able to go through world history and some of those less physical lessons, but the first two… I just don't think it's a good idea."

"I'll manage." I had to. My mind was still fuzzy, still filled with more confusion than clarity, and if I stayed in my room during the day, I was pretty sure I'd go crazy. "I need to meet the other people and check out the grounds."

"You mean," she snickered, "you need to see Adrian Zylla again and tell him what you think of him?"

Well, maybe that too, but I actually didn't want to see him. Hell, I didn't want to talk to him if I didn't have to. His words slashed through me with the force of a thousand swords, and if I didn't have to hear a single word from him for the rest of my life, I'd be a happy person.

But no. I had to scope out the grounds. I had to check out the Academy and start looking into Tyler's disappearance. Maybe I came here for all the wrong reasons, but knowing what happened to him was something that had to be done. His disappearance had haunted me for years and now that I was finally here I had a chance to uncover the truth.

They didn't care about him, just like they didn’t care about me, but I loved him. He was the best of us all, and I hated that no one ever spoke of him over the years that passed. It was as if he was just another number on the board that wasn't worthy of mentioning, just like I was. Just like all of us were.

Heinrich would rather sacrifice all of the operatives to save his own ass than do something for us. They sold us a story of a family unit at a young age, but in reality they targeted the kids nobody else wanted and used them to create perfect soldiers that would do their bidding.

When you grow up without much, any kind of love, no matter how fucked up it was, warms your little heart and you don't want to lose it because you've already lost too much.

That was what it was like for me at least.

"I honestly don't ever want to see him again if I don't have to," I grunted, rolling my shirt up. "But I know I will have to, so," I shrugged, "it is what it is."

"What did he say when he spoke to you up there?" Yolanda asked, looking at me with quizzical eyes. "You kept your cool throughout the entire thing, throughout all those fights, and I'm sure that most of those people fought dirty and talked smack. But the moment he opened his mouth, you went rabid."

"Nothing important," I said, refusing to look at her and instead focusing on taking shallow breaths as my ribs throbbed from the pain. He only managed to destroy everything I was with just a few words.

And I hated that a part of me thought he was right.

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