Page 207 of A University of Betrayal

How could he say something like that? He didn’t know how much those words hurt me. How much they drove out the Senseque in me at that moment. I wanted to turn, to run, to just get out of here.

I turned away from him and started to run. My pulse had already quickened, my heart was racing. I looked at my forearms, where the black veins were becoming more and more prominent.I had to get out of here.

“Emely, I’m sorry!” I heard Nash behind me in the parking lot, but his words didn’t reach my heart.

He had hurt me. More than that. He had humiliated me in front of the future head of Rolanow, taken away my independence.

“Emely!” Nash tried again, louder this time.

I sped up, started sprinting, on and on through the streets. The last place for a transformation.

So I ran in the shadows of the houses, past confused passers-by, whom I bumped into several times, until I saw the first trees at the side of the road.

I felt the vertebrae in my neck crack, and I hunched forward. Then I sank to the ground.

I felt sorry for Tania’s dress, which was starting to tear at that very moment. I would replace it for her. Just like the rings and the necklace, which I hastily tore off and threw into the nearest bushes.

My spine continued to crack. The energy shot through my body, along with the pleasant tug, a pain that wasn’t a pain because it was part of me, even if it exhausted me, but just for a few seconds. Then I looked down at my paws. My vision sharpened and I began to run.

I had to get out of this part of town, back home, as quickly as possible.

Chapter 38

Julian

Thunder Distant Rumble V

Only Sleep

A storm was brewing. It was one of those November storms in Blairville where the wind chased like frost over your bare skin and the heavy rain gathered above town in the last giant storm clouds. These kinds of thunderstorms brought with them something electrically charged, something only Senseque could feel.

Emely was familiar with it as well, I knew. It was as if these storms were filled with magic. Something that Senseque were sensitive to.

The trees had already lost their leaves and rose into the air like bare skeletons, ready to be covered with the first snow, but that would take a few more weeks.

Next to me, Bay sat on the rocking bench of her porch, reading one of those many books she had to read in her literature classes.Such a little book bunny.

I had to smile because I would never have been able to bring myself to just pick up a book like that,willingly.I was far too impatient for that. Maybe I could try listening to audiobooks while I tinkered with my car...

“What?”

I had flustered her, because she put the book aside.

It was easy to make Bay nervous, even if she would never admit it.

“It’s just impressive that you can read all day.”

On campus, walking, in my passenger seat, and now here. This girl lived in a world of books.

“What else am I supposed to do?” she laughed, and when I didn’t answer because my gaze had lingered on the dried fall leaf in her hair, she continued. “No, honestly, I always wonder what you do when you’re not playing the piano. Don’t you get bored?”

I looked back down the street at the three ravens playing with an empty Coke can.

“I work on my car a lot, go running...”

“You should read,” she continued to laugh, and there was something exhilarating about it.

“Not my thing, I guess,” I just replied and for the first time I sincerely wished I had a hobby that I could take with me everywhere, like she did.