Page 3

POLARIS

H is fingertips press against my temples, and before I can determine how I feel about the intonations slipping from his lips, my mind is transported into the past. My eyelids close, blinking open a moment later to reveal the familiar halls that run throughout the main academy building.

Panic flickers in my chest as my gaze snaps from left to right, an overwhelming sense of loss consuming me.

Nothing seems familiar; yet, I know these halls.

However, as I turn the next corner, desperately searching for something, I collide with a hard chest. Just before I collapse in a heap on the floor, a hand wraps around my upper arm, halting the inevitable as I blink up at the figure looming over me.

Black hair frames his face as piercing blue eyes bore into mine.

Blaze.

Panic shifts to fear as I attempt to wiggle out of his hold, but every inch I move only appears to make his grip tighten further.

“Easy targets like you shouldn’t wander around alone,” he sneers, nostrils flaring with irritation, and I scoff, disbelief dripping from my tone as I stare at him.

“I wouldn’t be seen as an easy target for anyone but a monster waiting to catch its next victim,” I snap back, but the harsh words only make his smile widen.

“I prefer the cliché saying about the predator hunting its prey,” he retorts, leaning in closer as I attempt to step out of his reach, but with his hand on my arm and the wall suddenly behind me, I only worsen the situation for myself.

Clearing my throat, I strive to exude confidence, but the chances are slim. It doesn’t stop me from straightening my shoulders, the back of my head settling against the wall as I keep my chin held high.

“Well, as cliché as this has been. I’m leaving now,” I state, trying and failing to yank my arm from his grip for the third time, and I huff with agitation.

“You leave when I say you can leave,” he bites, his words almost hushed as I cock a brow at him.

“Oh, is that so? Can I get that in writing, so I have an explanation for why I’m late to class? I wasn’t aware that a vampire's word counted as an excuse for me to be late.”

His fingers flex tighter around my wrist, the pain bordering unbearable, but despite my brows crinkling together, I keep my mouth shut.

Just as his lips part, the bell rings out, signaling the start of the next classes and shielding me from the scathing words he was about to unleash. Instead, he leans back just enough for his gaze to rake over me from head to toe.

My cheeks flush under his intense gaze, and when his eyes return to mine, a curl appears on his lips as he tilts his head to the side, still appraising me. “You’re lost.”

“I’m not,” I retort, the lie heating my cheeks further, but he seems to relax instead of growing angry at me.

Releasing my wrist, he slips his hands into his pockets as I pin my arms to my chest, subconsciously rubbing at the delicate spot as he continues to drink me in.

When he catches the movement, I quickly drop my hands, matching his stance with my hands in my pockets.

He’s still standing toe to toe with me, so bolting is out of the question. I just need to bide my time and make a move the moment he gives me a hint of space to do so. However, that would definitely make me the prey to his predator, and that’s the last thing I want.

“You’re not going to learn anything in there anyway,” he states as my fingers wrap around my coin, grounding me in a moment when fear threatens to render me useless.

I squeeze it so tight I’m certain the entire thing is imprinted on my hand, but it also helps keep my heart rate steady and my breathing calm.

“You don’t know that,” I finally mutter, and his eyes drop to my throat as he ignores my weak protest.

My chest tightens with hope, expecting him to back off, but instead, his hand lifts to where his eyes are focused, and a moment later, his fingers flex around my neck.

“I could snap your neck effortlessly, you know,” he murmurs, flexing his fingers just like he did at my wrist, and I feel the weight of his words along with the action as it takes all of my strength not to crumble with terror.

He can’t see that, though. He doesn’t get to see my vulnerability. Not when he already assumes it. The racing of my pulse will fail me, but I hold strong regardless.

“Put me out of my misery then,” I rasp, my pulse deafening in my ears as his hold grows tighter.

Damn.

I shouldn’t have said that. I get the feeling that if anyone were going to do it to prove a point, it would be him.

“I’ve heard you’re looking for a human.”

I still, his words replaying in my mind before I finally realize he’s not threatening me, and I gasp as I nod eagerly. “B, have you seen him?”

His lips purse as he assesses me a final time before he takes a step back, releasing his hold on my neck. “Follow me.”

He heads down the empty hallway without a backward glance. I should go, run in the opposite direction and avoid him for all of eternity, but… B.

Dammit.

I take off after him as he nears the doors leading outside, catching up to him as he cuts across the manicured lawn.

We fall into step together, neither saying a word as he heads toward the quadrant dorms. He bypasses the witches and humans and turns down the pathway that leads to the vampire dorms. My steps start to slow.

Maybe he’s lying. Perhaps he’s luring me to my death. Do I dare find out?

B, or Benjamin, has never been more than Sian’s boyfriend.

Why should I care about where he is now?

Sian and Terence have swiftly ditched me, maybe I should solidify it and ditch all of them too, B included.

Nothing says a fresh start like moving on and closing a chapter of my life, but my gut twists at the idea.

I may not be close to him, but there’s a sense of familiarity, and it’s all I have left to cling to when it comes to Florentine’s.

Not that I particularly want to remember it fondly, but damn, it’s all I’ve known.

“If I were going to harm you, I would have done it back there,” he offers over his shoulder as he takes the narrow path littered with layers upon layers of red leaves, each one darker than the last.

I sigh, sealing my fate as I follow after him.

Things don’t seem to get any better for me as he goes around the side instead of using the front entrance. When he halts at the top of the stone steps leading down into a basement of some sort, my heart lodges in my throat.

He must sense my panic because he pauses, looking back over his shoulder. “Curiosity did kill the cat. Are you ready to lose one of your nine lives?”

I gulp. Who the hell says shit like that?

Him, apparently. It shouldn’t be a surprise, not after everything else he’s had to say to me.

He’s not nice, not at all. But damn if I’m going to let him see me as weak.

With my palms sweating, my limbs trembling, and my breaths little more than short, sharp pants, I follow him down into the darkness.

The sun is little more than a pinprick in the sky when he reaches for my arm, encircling my wrist as he tugs me into his side before unlocking the door that seals us off from whatever awaits. I hold my breath as we enter the bleakness.

I can feel his eyes on me with every step we take, like he doesn’t need to see in order to know where he’s going, as if he’s made this walk a thousand times.

At the end of the pitch-black hallway, I hear the click of another lock and a glint of light appears before us.

Another door opened, another layer deeper into his web.

But when my eyes adjust to the new light, I don’t like what I see.

Beds by the dozen line each wall to the left and right, and not one of them is empty.

Each one is filled with a person, with a set of handcuffs chaining them to the frame.

Nausea churns in my stomach as I watch the people hovering around the third bed along the left side, and it rises up my throat in the form of acidic bile when I realize what’s happening.

“I think I’m going to be sick,” I rasp, tugging my wrist to head back into the darkness. It’s safer than in here.

“Eyes on the floor,” he grunts, pulling me in the opposite direction.

I dig my heels in, but it’s futile against his strength.

Shielding my eyes, it does nothing to eradicate the sounds, and I find my gaze drifting back to the mess at bed three, where two vampires feast on the body lying on the bed.

Vomit is ready to rush past my lips, but I push it down, desperate to hold it together.

He’s definitely brought me here to find me a bed, I know it. He’s going to use me for all of his friends to feed on me. I should have let the curiosity go, I should have made a better decision for myself, I should have ? —

“Is this him?”

It takes a moment for his words to register in my mind, and when I find the strength, I peer between my fingers at the person lying on the bed beside me. My breath stills as I nod. “B,” I breathe, moving toward him, but Blaze pulls me into his side, refusing to let me near him. “Why is he here?”

“I thought that might be obvious,” Blaze grumbles as I lower my hand, staring at B properly now, noting the bite marks that line his arms, neck, and even his cheek.

“This is awful,” I breathe, my hand slapping against my mouth as I will the emotion to disappear. “You have to make it stop.”

“I don’t have to do anything.”

Fury rises inside me, and I yank my hand from his grasp. This time, he lets me go, and I run before I can give him a second to change his mind. My feet pound against the floor, matching my racing heart, and I don’t slow until I make it back outside.

The warmth from the sun does little to diminish the chill in my veins as my pace slows once I’m back on the normal pathway heading as far away from Blaze and whatever the hell that was back there. Someone has to help me, B can’t ? —