Page 67 of Escaping Hallow Hill Academy

Kira. She’s here.

“Kira!” My scream is drowned out by the roar of the crowd, but all I hear is the pounding of my heart in my ears and the sudden pulsing adrenaline kicking through my veins. I can’t explain the suddenness of it.

It must be the intensity of her eyes.

Or the worry in my tone.

Or the fear in my magic.

Because the ground beneath us starts to rock. The tree’s leaves shiver like a cry in the night. The earth itself breaks away. A cracking hole jars through the dirt, and I’m thrown to one side as the dragon man is forced to another. Screams echo among the clatter of rocks and debris. My entire life is literally ripping at the seams.

Long, deathly fingers reach up from the darkness of the pit. White bone and hanging flesh are all I see as my heart freefalls into the depths of my stomach.

And that dire voice calls out to us once more.

“Two teams. There can only be one victorious team. A team to prove they possess the rarest and most powerful magic in all the world. The Hallow Hill Prison Games begin now.”

Epilogue

Rueren

It isn’t the screams of death or the storming of boots over uneven ground that wakes me. It isn’t even the way Styx keeps pulling desperately at my arm.

It’s my heartbeat.

Herheartbeat.

It’s slamming against my ribs and chest so hard, it takes my breath away.

Fear.

She feels fear.

And that wakes me instantaneously.

“Where is she?” I demand, and in a flash of movement, I’m on my feet in a cluster of supernaturals covered in blood and armor.

They scream at a group of people on the other side of a deep-etched cliff. The jagged hole in the ground separates us from them. I don't know who the us are here or who the them are, but I can sense that they’re a threat. Those assholes over there, they're not one of us.

“Fucking Extinction Pack,” A man at my side spits as he glares daggers at the enemy across from us. “It’s us or them, and it’s time we wipe out their rare race once and for all.”

I don’t nod, but I do feel his hatred.

I can feel the vibes of violence rising all around us.

We’re in this terrain to kill one another? Another of Krist’s classes, it seems.

That’s not my problem right now. My only focus is finding her. And finding what’s causing her fear.

And ripping that threat to fucking oblivious pieces.

Nothing’s going to hurt her.

Not while I live.

My jaw clenches painfully, and when my gaze lifts to that space across the dark cliff, I lock eyes with the purest dark eyes. Beautiful. Innocent. Deadly.

Everything that Emmera Lucero is made of can be seen in her eyes.

And it just makes my heart pound harder when I realize that she’s one of them.

The Extinction Pack.

The others.

The enemy.

The End.