Page 76 of Immortal Consequences (The Souls of Blackwood Academy #1)

Wren shuddered. She watched the confusion ripple across Louise’s face. The terror.

Louise blinked and her eyes melted into black again, a wicked smile lifting onto her lips.

“She’s a bit of a crybaby, that one.” It was Louise’s voice, the one that belonged to the friend Wren knew, but there was a sense of cruelty she didn’t recognize. Every word laced with venom. “Good thing I don’t have much use for her anymore.”

August groaned from his place on the ground. He gripped Wren by the wrist, digging his fingernails into her skin. She winced, but he didn’t let go, holding on to her tighter. He fought against the pain, gritting his teeth as he spoke.

“Run,” he begged. “Please.”

But Wren couldn’t. She needed to understand what was happening.

For once—she needed the truth.

She gently pried August’s hand away from her and stood up to face Louise.

“Who are you?”

“There we go.” Louise clasped her hands together in delight.

“ Now you’re asking the right questions.

” She slinked closer to Wren, reveling in her confusion.

“Oh, come on. You don’t have any guesses?

You know…that little newbie—oh, what’s his name?

Emilio, I believe. He basically figured the whole thing out.

Such a shame about his injury. He was just about to put it all together. ”

“You’re…possessing Lou, aren’t you?” Wren asked, voice quivering.

Louise—or rather, the person inside Louise—let out a bark of laughter.

“It’s a bit more complicated than that.”

Wren stiffened. “Let her go. You said it yourself…you have no use for her anymore.”

“Yes, well…I’m afraid she knows too much. Has seen too much. If I severed our connection, Louise would be able to access all of my memories. She’d see everything I did when I was in control.”

“You can’t live inside her forever.”

“You’re right,” she sighed, the wicked smile on her face faltering slightly. “I can’t.”

Louise snapped her fingers and her eyes shifted to blue again. The panic took back over. The awareness washing over her features.

“Wren,” she whimpered, her voice breaking. “What—what is happening to me?”

Wren darted toward her without hesitation, wrapping Louise in a tight embrace.

“You’re okay. I’m going to get you out of here.”

“I feel like I’m going crazy,” Louise sobbed. “I don’t—I don’t understand what’s happening to me…”

“Listen to me, Lou. This isn’t your fault.” Wren cupped her face in her hands. “I’m going to find a way out of this. I’m going to get you back to Blackwood and you’re going to be okay. I’m not going to let them hurt you.”

Louise opened her mouth to speak, but a breathy choking sound fluttered from her throat instead, her eyes widening in terror as she struggled to find her voice.

“What—” Wren’s hands trembled as she looked on in horror. “What is it?”

Louise didn’t answer. She couldn’t. And then her skin was crackling. Disintegrating. Ripping apart at the very seams. Wren reached a hand toward her cheek and it came apart against her touch, melting into dust. Chunks of skin and flesh floating up into the air, evaporating into nothingness.

A scream ripped from Wren’s throat as she fought to hold her friend together.

But the pieces of Louise melted away like candle wax.

Her face gone. Her bones dust. Every inch of her skin disappeared, falling away like sand in the wind, giving way to a new face.

The one that had been lurking just beneath, waiting for the right opportunity to strike.

A face with a cruel smile. With black eyes and pointed teeth and cheekbones that could cut a person’s heart in two.

And then Louise Nordain was gone.

Standing before Wren was somebody else entirely. A girl with dark hair cloaked in shadows.

“Pity.” A wicked, gravelly voice hummed in the air. It reverberated with power. “The girl had potential.”

White-hot rage coursed through Wren, blinding her.

She lost track of all her senses, her surroundings melting into an incoherent landscape with no shape or meaning.

All she could focus on was the anger dripping into her heart.

The hunger begging to destroy the girl standing in front of her, to tear her limb from limb.

Each word left Wren in a strangled gasp. “What…did you do…to her.”

The girl stared back, eyes devoid of emotion.

“What had to be done.”

No.

Wren lunged at her, veins coursing with ravenous magic. But before she could wrap her hands around the girl’s throat, the girl snapped her fingers and Wren’s entire body froze. Her legs hardened to stone. Her muscles stiffened. She couldn’t move, trapped within the confines of her body.

“Get…away from her.” August’s voice echoed behind her. Wren couldn’t turn her head to look at him, but she knew he was still writhing in pain. She could hear it in his voice. The torment latching onto his every word. “Don’t…touch her.”

“You know I can’t promise you that.”

“Edith.” August whispered the name with bone-chilling familiarity. “Please.”

The girl’s face hardened. A fleeting moment of regret. Of something other than the cruelty oozing out of her. And then she drew her lips back into a smile and let out a sardonic flutter of laughter.

“Ah, well. I was hoping to be the one to tell her my name, but I appreciate the introduction, little brother.”