Page 29 of Endless Anger (Monsters Within #1)

LUCY

“This is so boring,” Willa Crawford moans, stabbing a piece of Styrofoam with her pickup stick. Her short, light brown hair points outward at different angles, likely disturbed by the wet air around us. “Why can’t you ever take me anywhere fun for our dates?”

I glare at her from over my clipboard. “This is not a date, Willa.”

“Yeah, you’re telling me. I like to wait for the fifth or sixth before I invite an audience.”

Clenching my teeth, I pivot away from where she’s crouched down, one of a dozen other Avernia students cleaning up the lake this afternoon.

Not that they’re helping out of the goodness of their hearts. Like me, these students are doing community service to avoid jail time or expulsion.

Though if my sentencing is any indication, I’d be willing to bet at least half of them haven’t actually done what they’ve been accused of.

Which is irritating , all things considered. My goals are in jeopardy because Dean Bauer’s a bitch.

“Back me up here, Eli,” Willa calls out to the student a few feet away from her, who continues carefully crushing pop cans before stuffing them into his compostable bag. “You thought Lucy was inviting me on a date too, right? ”

He looks over at her, his green eyes not really revealing any emotion. Eli’s a Blackwater, and they’re notorious around Fury Hill for their quiet demeanors and pale skin that tans without burning in the summertime.

Unlike the other founding families, the Blackwaters don’t seem to wade far into the sociopolitical sphere of the school, so I don’t mind them as much.

They’re spineless, which means they go along with whatever decisions the rest of the assholes in charge decide, but I tend to think even their silence is a calculated move.

A lack of response is manipulation too.

Plus, they have a history of being Visio Aternae members, which makes running community service projects like this one easier if I have them involved. Not even Dean Bauer wanted to stand in my way when he learned Eli would be participating.

“You don’t even like girls,” I tell Willa when Eli ignores her, needing to fill the air. I might not be attracted to her, but the fact that she’s willing to speak to me at all matters.

I hate that it does, but I can’t change it at this point. Allies are too few and far between to reject.

Especially now that Celeste is gone.

“That’s true,” Willa agrees, making a face as she overturns a large rock.

“So why are you crying about a date with me?”

“Just curious if I could tame the Wolfe queen.”

That makes Eli snort, but he doesn’t say anything else, moving several feet down the lakeside.

“Terrible nickname. And you can’t,” I tell her, marking through her signature on the check-in sheet. “I’m not interested.”

“But if you were , who’d be your ty?—”

“Ms. Crawford,” an authoritative voice says, joining the conversation, and I grit my teeth against the sound. “You’re talking an awful lot for someone with so much work left to do on your side of this embankment.”

Willa shoots me an apologetic look, spinning around so she’s no longer facing the dean. I tuck the clipboard under my arm, biting the inside of my cheek to keep from immediately demanding to know why he’s out here.

Part of the agreement is that he makes random appearances to ensure the students are doing what they’re getting credit for. As if I’d let anyone sign up and leave without doing their fucking job.

I could clean the lake up on my own, if that were all it took. I’d be out here doing it for longer, but at least I wouldn’t have to deal with anyone else either.

Dean Bauer clasps his hands in front of him, surveying the scenery behind me. He doesn’t say anything more while he scans the area, presumably trying to make me sweat as I wait.

It works. I shift on my heels, my gaze darting up and down the front of his tweed jacket. There’s a hole in one of the elbow pads, and the lapels are almost threadbare, but my eyes can’t stop circling the little brown button holding the two sides together in the middle.

Swallowing, I rub the back of my wrist, trying to let that ground me in the moment. I can feel my focus slipping, struggling to remain in the present as images from Friday filter in, disturbed by his presence.

Him berating me in his office, though not outright. He slices with thinly veiled jabs and questions about my intelligence, suggesting I’m not suited for a place as precious as Avernia.

But my mind doesn’t stay in his office either, jumping right ahead to Friday night and what happened in the quarry above us.

Until this point, the cleanup effort was doing a decent job at distracting me from those thoughts, but now the scent of blood returns along with the fear in my chest, and it takes several beats of dissociation for me to even notice that Dean Bauer’s talking to me.

I blink, scattering my thoughts like a blanket of fog over my brain.

“…not sure this is the most productive use of school resources,” he says, though the first part of his tirade is lost to me.

“What?”

Dean Bauer’s face reddens. “Ms. Wolfe, it would behoove you to not be insubordinate in public. You send an atrocious message to your fellow students.”

My fingers curl into my palm. “I didn’t hear you.” Moron.

“Goodness, do you ever pay attention? No wonder your grades are suffering.” He scoffs, shaking his head. “I’d like to see you in my office Monday morning.”

“Couldn’t we just discuss whatever it is now?—”

“Eight a.m., sharp. I hope I don’t need to send the campus police after you, but please note that I am not above such measures.” Turning on his heel, he levels me once more with spite lacing his bright gaze. “I’ve invited your parents to this one.”

An hour later, Yuri meets me at the abandoned building a mile from the lake, helping me pack away the cleanup equipment as students begin tapering off.

“What do you think he wants to see you for this time?” she asks, blowing a bubble that smacks against her lips.

I shake my head, pacing back and forth. “No clue.”

“Involving your parents feels…bad.” She looks at me, gnawing on her bottom lip. “Like, really bad. Did you do something?”

Again, I shake my head, though I know better.

Here, it doesn’t matter whether you’ve actually done something, just whether someone important thinks you did.

Yuri takes out her phone, grunting in frustration. “What is up with Celeste, by the way? She’s ignoring my calls, and leaving me on read. I have half a mind to bust into your dorm room and pour some leftover J?germeister on her mattress for being so fucking rude.”

My chest grows tight, and I stare at her hand as she types furiously. “The texts are being read?”

“Yeah.” She frowns, turning the screen so I can see the dozen or so messages that have gone unanswered since last night. “Weird, right? Did I do something to piss her off, you think? My dick comment was a joke…”

“I doubt that has anything to do with it,” I mutter, wrapping my arms around myself.

“You’re hurting me!”

“Let’s get this over with.”

“Periculum in mora.”

“Well, if you see her before I do, tell her to get over herself or I’m not writing her Anthro essay.” Yuri slaps the top of a plastic bin, pushing the lid down on the neon orange vests the volunteers wear.

My stomach aches. I turn away from her, trying to regulate the sudden erratic nature of my pulse. Bile burns my throat, bubbling up as reminders keep resurfacing.

I feel like my head’s been shoved in the lake, and I’m being held down, unable to take a breath without inhaling water into my lungs.

“Hey, boss lady! Look what we found!” Willa singsongs, skipping over to me with Eli on her heels.

He’s holding a varnished oak box, clutching it like he thinks it houses something sinister within.

I stare at it with painfully wide eyes, studying the design etched in the top.

Two laurel branches curling around a wolf with an arrow between its teeth. Messily carved into the lid and not sanded, as though done by some amateur vandal instead of a practiced artist.

“Where did you find this?”

“By the lake over there,” Willa says, hiking her thumb over her shoulder. “It’s locked and sort of heavy, but I figure we can easily break that open.”

I take the box, sliding the worn lock between two fingers.

“So what do you say?” she continues. “Should we toss it in the lost and found? Eli says he wants it for his little rock collection.”

“Skull and bone collection,” he corrects, threading a hand through his dark blond curls. “I collect rare finds and plant them to keep Fury Hill from drilling out here for more. ”

Willa holds up her hands. “Hey, man, you don’t have to explain your strange hobbies to me.”

“Uh…Luce?” Yuri’s soft voice drifts to me, and I snap out of my reverie, noticing that she’s now standing at my side, gazing down at the box too.

Clearing my throat, I exhale. “Sorry. School policy is that we surrender any nonperishable items found out here. You know how Avernia is.”

Deflating, Willa pouts and walks away, muttering something about how unfair the system is. Eli lingers a little longer, and I pretend I don’t notice his eyes narrowing on my fingers.

My knuckles blanch from how tightly I’m holding the container.

After a few more seconds, he lifts his gaze to mine. Silence ripples between us, and I wonder if he can tell I’ll be keeping the find and if he plans on reporting me to the dean.

But he doesn’t mention it. Just turns and follows in the direction Willa just ran off in, hooking his thumbs in the pockets of his khakis.

A splash of red on the hem of his pant leg catches my attention, only for a second though, before I’m back to the box resting between my fingers, wondering what the fuck Asher Anderson’s angle is.