Page 64 of A University of Betrayal

Julie

Close to the Flame

Tony Morales

Rebecca Harlow – one of the most powerful Air Quatura and, therefore, among the higher-ranking Council members – had walked into the halls of the university and caused an uproar among the students by announcing her intentions and her future role as co-director alongside Director Alarik Copeland.

No onehere wanted stricter safety rules, an improved surveillance system through cameras, or the uniforms that had been abolished ten years ago by Director Copeland.

Amara had warned Grace and me this morning and I had expected anything, but not the living embodiment ofDolores Umbridge,who had immediately taken down the green, white, and black flags with the more modern Vanderwood logo – the one with the single wolf’s head – and replaced them with new ones with the old logo – the one with the two wolves and the dagger.

Her justification:“Sports should not define university life, but tradition and order should.”

Of course,the Vanderwood athletes who had decorated their jerseys with this modern logo didn’t like it at all, and when a member of the basketball team tried to take the banners down from the poles, Harlow banned the Vanderwood Athletics logo entirely.

In addition, there was a new parking plan for the huge campus that obviously separated the Copelands from us, as well as the DeLoughreys, and at the same time included VIP parking for professors andexceptional students.

She seemed to forget that the best students slept in the King Rooms and most of the professors lived on campus anyway in the renovated residential park of dense woods and Tudor-style houses.

Half the rules this woman wanted to enforce were about the Copelands and something inside me told me they wouldn’t put up with it for long. This was their territory.Wewere the intruders.

“Maybe things will get better now,” Grace had said to me after the English seminar as if the Senseque were a plague.

I wandered absent-mindedly through the west wing of the main building and took one of the side corridors, observing the precious stone snakes on the pillars, as I often did.

Between all the chaos, my little problems seemed unimportant, but as soon as I thought again about how I had pushed Erik back just to protect him from me, my heart tightened painfully and made my fingers shimmer.

That was Erik’s last message. And I could only guess how much frustration was hidden behind those words.

I wished he was angry with me, wished he would block me, insult me, but Erik had never been like that. It was like he didn’t know revenge, not like all the other people in this town did.

“She’s finally going to clean this place up,” an all too familiar voice hissed from beside me, and I looked over my shoulder at Amber, who was talking to Kelly.

“But I don’t want to wear a uniform,” Kelly replied with an expressive face.

Amber rolled her eyes and the two of them came closer to me.

“Kelly, do you realize that this should be the least of our worries?” Amber snorted, tossing her shoulder-length, dark brown hair over her right shoulder. “She’ll put the Copelands in their place.”

When they spotted me, both girls fell silent. I had a hard time interpreting their looks, but I knew there was fear in their eyes. And I knew what image they had of me in their heads. The image of the girl who unintentionally attacked the Councils with sharp massive ice shards and couldn’t control her dangerous, strange magic.

“What are you staring at, ice girl?” Amber hissed and I pressed my lips together.

Ice girl.Wasthatthe name the Quatura next to Vivienna always whispered to each other? I wonder what kind of rumors they had already spread about me. And how long it would take them to forget what had happened that night of the ceremony?

“While we’re on the subject, Julie...” Amber continued, seeming to regain her old courage. “This internship is mine.” She forced herself to smile dismissively. “Just so you don’t get any ideas.” Then she hastily pulled Kelly past me, toward the seminar room. “But whatever. The professor doesn’t like you anyway.”

I stopped abruptly.

I had successfully suppressed Mr. Suspicious, which was no great accomplishment considering all the mess in my life. But now I remembered that I had wanted to switch seminars and stay away from this crazy human professor.

I forced myself to keep walking, even though the queasy feeling in my stomach was getting bigger and bigger, and I didn’t know how I could face him now without feeling completely at his mercy.

I sped up even more, but I overlooked the side corridor from which something was coming toward me. Or rather... someone.

Howling

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