He sat in the front row and narrowed his eyes at me menacingly, fingers pressed together, elbows on his armrests. He didn’t need to say a word for me to understand everything that dripped from his scowl.
If you don’t win this competition, I am going to ruin you.
But what was left to ruin?
I was all alone in this godforsaken world. I had no friends. No family. Nothing to live for.
Recently, I’d been fantasizing about dying. The only thing stopping me was the technique of it.
I allowed myself time to research the idea. Which death would be the least painful?
Life was an ugly period of time in one’s existence. But it wasn’t going anywhere. I could off myself in a week, two, or even a few years.
Beads of sweat slithered down my spine and forehead.
Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock.
The numbers on the page blurred into stains, splotching under the drip-drip-drips of my sweat.
Before I knew it, the clocks began to buzz, and the other contestants handed over their score sheets.
My page was blank. I hadn’t solved one equation.
The drive back to the academy was silent. Andrin was no doubt plotting the best way to hurt me. I was already numb to his physical abuse.
He dropped me off by shoving me out of my seat. I hit gravel, tiny stones digging into my knees, slipping between my teeth.
I spent a sleepless night wondering when the other shoe would drop.
I’d learned my lesson since Ares. I no longer welcomed pets into my room. Instead, I went into the woods in the dead of the night and met my pet there.
His name was Zeus. He was a fox.
Completely blind and helpless.
Vulnerable, like me.
I brought him food and fresh water and made makeshift toys for him.
I never let Zeus follow me, always outsmarting him and slipping away before he could sense where I was going.
Yet when the sun slid up the sky the next morning and I stepped out of the dormitory, there he was, my Zeus, his throat slit, on the steps of the house. His expression was surprised, his neck almost completely dislocated from the rest of his body.
But his eyes. They were still so kind. So hopeful. More trusting than I ever could be.
Because Andrin had taught me a brutal lesson.
Everything I’d ever love was destined to die.
Ipulled the lever to open the panic room and started running. Tate’s steps boomed behind me. I charged out the main door and gained speed, headed toward the car. Then I remembered I placed the keys on the counter when I walked inside.
Bollocks.
Turning around and trying to retrieve them was the surest way to get caught.
Tate hadmurderedsomeone. That man was clearly dead. Why did he kill him? How many had he killed before? Somehow, I knew this wasn’t his first tango. He was too calm, too precise, too comfortable in his own skin when I caught him.
One thing was for sure—I wasn’t going to let him catch me.
