“On a scale of one to ten, how much did you freak out when we were pushed off that cliff?” Riley whispers to me.
“About one hundred on the scale of let’s never talk about the cliff again,” I tightly reply, knowing he is joking, but I don’t have it in me to see any of this as humorous. “Aren’t you upset? Our parents think we are dead, and we can’t tell them we are okay.”
“We have been given a second chance at life, Katy. Nothing else matters,” he replies with a big smile before looking back to Professor Nina. I run my gaze over the students with us and, to my annoyance, nearly all of them look happy. Not a brainwashing cult, my ass.
Except for one redhead girl with a frown on her face. Vesnia’s eyes meet mine through the four people between us, and I see the same sorrow in her eyes. The same words I want to scream from the top of my lungs. The same fight in us. I know neither of us are going to give up without a fight, and we aren’t going to accept that we can’t see our families again. We have to get back to our families and tell them the truth of what happened. My mum and dad deserve that much, even if Riley can’t see that right now.
“Sorry I’m late, Professor Nina. We will take it from here,” a girl exclaims, sounding like an overenthusiastic cheerleader before I even look at her. I go to look at the girl who is still talking, but the boy next to her draws all my attention.
Not boy...man...dark angel. Drool-worthy dark angel. The guy stands straight, his arms crossed against his leather jacket with a crown pin on the collar, hiding the no doubt trained body underneath. Black wings rest right behind him, gracefully touching the floor by his feet. I slowly look past his thick arms to his chiselled jawline that looks like an artist sculpted him, then above his soft pale lips to his thick black hair that has a slight curl to the end of his locks. Only, when I search his eyes, I find them staring right back at me.
Eyes that look like sparks of embers once burned there on the face of an angel. Total girl trap.
But nope, not this girl. This girl has bigger things to focus on than an angel.
Maybe.
His lips tilt up, looking almost amused as my eyes bounce between him and the girl still talking as I keep dragging my eyes away from him and forcing myself to look away to the girl. All blonde hair, big boobs that don’t look real, and skinny legs in a tiny mini skirt, she is exactly what I expected her to look like. Oddly, there is a crown pin on her soft white jumper, just like the guy’s.
“I’m Jessica Weven, and this is Henry Ravaric, and we are the king and queen of the academy,” she exclaims, and I roll my eyes. Figures hot guy one and happy-happy cheerleader are some kind of leaders. Why couldn’t a geeky angel lead for a change?
“Not literally, right?” I ask before I can stop myself, and then everyone stares at me like I just shouted that I’m naked or something.
“Literal in every sense, darlin’,” Henry replies, his voice as deep, gravelly and sexy as I thought it might be. The London accent is familiar, and everything about him puts me on edge as much as it makes me want to move closer.
“Yes, the titles of queen and king are given to the angels who beat the previous queen or king in a battle of sorts,” Jessica claims, and she looks damn proud of herself.
“Like a head boy and girl then?” Vesnia asks.
“Exactly, but with more power,” Jessica replies, sounding pleased, but my eyes are fixed on Henry as he still stares. “Now girls come with me, boys with Henry. We are going to show you to your rooms, and then in the morning, there will be someone to take you on a tour.”
Henry looks to the left where another older angel is waiting, and he steps forward. “Everyone leave except for the mouthy one. Boys go with Duke here.”
I scoff, crossing my arms. “You mean me, angel?”
“Katy didn’t mean to be mouthy, did you?” Riley tensely asks, wrapping an arm over my shoulder, and Henry watches Riley’s arm like it’s a snake.
“I meant every word. A self-appointed king is nothing other than a man with a crown,” I point out.
“Careful, Miss Kaitlyn Lightson. Your king is always watching.” With that threat, he walks through the crowd of students who part like the sea for their king.
And for some reason, my sarcastic lips move before I can even stop them.
“Watch away, your highness.” Thankfully, he doesn’t reply to me and disappears down some stairs, with the boys of our class following, except for Riley.
“Can you not get yourself killed for the rest of the night, please?” he asks, moving right in front of me and a tad bit too close. His hands rest on my shoulders as I meet his eyes.
“I’m going to be sleeping; how could I get into any trouble?” I ask, and he rolls his eyes.
“Go and behave.” He pushes me in the direction of the staircase the girls went down. I hurry to the stairs and walk down, where Vesnia and Jessica are waiting for me. Jessica looks at me with interest and tilts her head to the corridor.
“This is the girls’ section, and the only way in or out is this staircase. It is also magically cursed so that boys can’t walk down them without being in intense pain,” she explains with a long sigh. “It totally sucks, and the staircase to the boys’ section is cursed as well so that girls can’t walk down it either.”
“It’s actually pretty smart,” Vesnia points out, and Jessica rolls her eyes.
“Anyway, every two rooms share a bathroom, and these two are the last rooms left on this level. There are more rooms down the back, but they haven’t been used in ages,” she explains, lifting her hand and checking out her nails as she talks.
“Right, where do you sleep then?” I ask, counting only twenty doors.
“The four end doors lead to corridors with better rooms. You get upgraded when you choose your wings and you need a balcony. You don’t need one until then, obviously, newbie,” she explains with a sarcastic laugh.
“Not unless they plan to push us off a cliff again,” Vesnia groans, walking to the door marked Room Seventeen. “See you in the bathroom, Katy. Bye, Jessica.”
“See ya,” I reply with a smile just for her. I walk to the door that is number nineteen, and it’s ironic this is my room number when I’m never going to be nineteen. I died before I got a chance.
“Wait,” Jessica whispers, stepping closer to me. With a smile like a cat about to eat a mouse, she leans close, careful not to touch me, her black wings stretching out ever so softly. Now that I finally see why she has dark wings, the darkness in her eyes is easy to see. “The king always belongs to the queen, got it?”
“You might want to tell the king that,” I chuckle as I turn the handle to my room and head inside.
Chapter 6
The smell of dust, cleaning products and cotton flitter through my senses as I step into my dark room and feel the wall by the door for a light switch. After a few seconds in the dark, I find the switch and flick it on. Bright light floods my eyes, making me blink a few times before I can focus on the room which is now my new home. It’s a studio apartment with a white wooden framed double bed taking up most the room, along with the blue fabric sofa pushed up against the end of it. The bed has white sheets in a pile on the end with two pillows next to it. There is a large window on the other side of the room with another door on the right wall, which I’m guessing goes to the shared bathroom. A wardrobe on the other side takes up another big chunk of the room.