Page 18

KONSTANTIN

I hit the bag harder with each passing second, needing to exteriorize all that pent-up anger. Sure, I’d gotten away with barely anything, just a quick trip to Taylor’s office where he all but apologized and said he wasn’t judging me for wanting to try marijuana. Nothing would come of it, he said, but of course, he had to call my parents.

When my phone went off on the bench where I’d left all my stuff, I tensed, knowing who it was.

I didn’t see any point in delaying the inevitable, so I simply hit accept and brought the device to my ear, ready to get my ass chewed up.

“Hello?”

“When the school called me this morning, telling me one of my sons was found with enough drugs on him they thought he was intending to distribute, I thought they meant Mikhail. Guess my surprise when it was your name coming up instead.”

I groaned, falling back against the wall and closing my eyes.

“You better start talking because I know you weren’t dumb enough to try drugs.”

As already established, my parents’ sense of priorities was fucked up. They trained us to kill from a young age, but anything to do with drugs was a no-go. We didn’t sell them, we didn’t buy them and we certainly didn’t do them.

Again, it had something to do with my father’s childhood back in Russia. I didn’t care much to ask, mostly because the mere thought of doing drugs for me was abhorrent anyway. Even something as relatively harmless as weed.

“Did someone plant them? Are the Italians still breathing down your neck?” Mother asked and I tensed.

There had been multiple altercations with the Italians last year that mostly ended up with them getting their asses kicked and Father having to throw money at the school board to keep us there.

“No,” I immediately replied. Maybe a little too quick, because mom stayed silent for a beat on the other side of the phone.

I cussed myself out.

“Who is it?” she asked, her tone so soft that anyone who didn’t know her would think she was calm, but the reality was completely different.

That was her voice when she was so angry she became lethal. Adna Korolova was not to be fucked with. She loved her children and would go to war for them, even if she seemed cold from afar.

The idea of her craziness being let out on Elyssa made me uncomfortable. She was mine to deal with.

She was mine, period.

“Nobody planted weed in my stuff. I’m an addict. I love drugs.”

She didn’t say anything for the longest time before sighing in defeat, clearly not believing me. She let it go, though, because she knew I would not budge.

“I better not get another call, Konstantin.”

The three beeps signaling the line went dead were all I heard after that.

ELYSSA

The weather was becoming colder by the day but it didn’t matter, I was happy to be outside. The fresh air entering my lungs, the sounds of birds chirping, the smell of fall still thick in the air, despite winter being only a week or two away, I loved it all.

Not to mention, staying on school grounds today after what happened last night during dinner was simply out of the question. After the drug bust was a success and Konstantin was taken away to Taylor’s office, I quickly hightailed it to my dorm, scared that his friends would seek revenge on me.

I was brave, but not so brave that I’d take on the wrath of Royal Volkovic, Rhodes Antonelli, and Asher Donovan. Not to mention, Konstantin’s brothers and sisters who were all just as fucking crazy.

“I still can’t believe you did that!” Briar laughed, squeezing my arm with hers as we made our way towards the village.

I chuckled, shaking my head.

It had been scary as fuck but Lord was it worth it. The feeling that went through my chest when I saw his face, the satisfaction knowing that he never even saw it coming—I would do it again a thousand times.

“You scared the shit out of me when you asked for my secret stash the other day before I threw it all away,” Mia laughed. “I’m glad your crazy plan worked, but boy I wouldn’t want to be you right now.”

I simply shrugged, deciding I would deal with the fallout once we got back to the castle.

I wanted to enjoy a classless afternoon with my friends, drinking coffee and visiting the town’s only thrift shop. I would think about the consequences of my actions later.

“He had it coming!” Sinem grinned widely at me, “Just because he’s hot doesn’t mean he can bully people into giving him their food. I thought shit like that only happened in high school.”

“Yeah well, welcome to the Academy.”

The girls kept talking as we walked to our destination and I chimed in from time to time but I was mostly happy seeing them interact. Briar was telling us about her audition for Swan Lake next week.

“There’s a few of us competing to be Odette, and Madame Ferdinand said there would be two swans. I’d prefer Black Swan but honestly, either would work for me.”

“Who else is competing?” I asked.

“Your cousin.” She rolled her eyes, as the mere mention of Viola irked her, understandably so, “Lucy Hossman and Katarina Korolova.”

Mia, who had been focused on her phone since we’d left the castle, finally looked up. She hadn't been her normal self since last night. Today, she’d tried hiding the dark spots under her eyes with a lot more makeup than she usually used, but it looked cakey. Her outfit consisted of one of Lorenzo’s hoodies and some leggings, which changed drastically from her usual designer attire, and the smiles she kept throwing our way didn’t reach her eyes.

“What is she like?” she asked Briar, her head tilted to the side, “Katarina.”

My best friend shrugged. “Pretty nice. Sweet, soft… very different from her siblings. She doesn’t talk much unless it’s about ballet. She’s always in one of the rooms, training.”

“Damn, that’s true devotion.” Sinem looked out into the distance, shaking her head.

“Yeah, she’s a damn good ballerina but she never takes it for granted.”

Katarina Korolova was Konstantin’s older sister and Mikhail’s twin, but as Briar said, she seemed nothing like her siblings. She didn’t appear bloodthirsty or to have any mean bone in her body. Nobody knew anything about her but that she loved ballet and was damn good at it. She didn’t have any friends except for her siblings, but contrary to them, she was sweet and kind to anyone who tried talking to her.

The girls continued their conversation while I kept my eyes on Mia, silently observing her. She didn’t notice my eyes on her because hers were riveted on her phone. She was waiting for a reply. That got me thinking about our conversation at the library and whether or not she had gone through with what we talked about.

My gut was telling me she had, mostly because there was a certain sadness to her since yesterday. She seemed down and not at all like the bubbly Mia I was used to.

When she noticed me staring, the small frown she had on was wiped away and she smiled at me instead. I smiled back, but worry didn’t leave me.

“Woah, that’s Longfield Village? It looks so cute,” Sinem exclaimed, coming here for the first time.

“Yeah, well, I hope people are a little more polite than last time I was here,” came in Briar’s muffled response.

As we walked through town, Sinem couldn’t help but stop every few minutes to snap pictures of the Halloween decorations. Longfield was one of those small towns/villages that went all out for the holidays, whatever it was. Everybody knew each other here; Longfield was a really close-knit community… and they didn’t like the outsiders we were.

We stopped by the thrift shop first, looking through the racks for some vintage pieces of clothing that would suit our tastes. Again, Sinem was beaming and telling us about how she never went shopping with friends back home.

From what I’d gathered, her father and brothers were a tad bit overprotective of her, so she reveled in being here today. It was her first time going out without a bodyguard and I smiled at that. We too weren’t allowed out without an escort, although Mia more than me.

After all, she was the true mafia princess. I was the bastard daughter of one.

“Oh my God!” Sinem’s voice brought me back to reality and I turned around, alert. “Elyssa, this is so you! I’m getting it for you.” She pulled a hanger with a nice, burgundy dress hanging off of it from the racks and presented it to me.

It was a gorgeous dress. Silky and pretty revealing when it came to cleavage but made modest by its length.

I couldn’t fathom a single occasion where I would wear this, and yet something screamed at me to buy it. It truly was beautiful.

“I appreciate you, Sinem, but I can’t let you?—”

“Nonsense!” She waved at me with her hand. “We’re friends, consider it an early or belated birthday gift. When is your birthday by the way?”

I could feel my cheeks redden at the intention. “It was on March 18th.”

“Oh, well, a belated birthday gift it is!”

“Sinem, I can’t let you pay for it.”

Her shoulders dropped and she frowned in confusion. The dress long-forgotten, she suddenly put both her hands on my shoulders.

“Listen, Elyssa, something tells me you are not used to people taking care of you. But taking care of people I love is my love language, so please, please let me buy you this dress. I mean, come on, it's ten dollars. If you’d thrown a party, I probably would have spent ten times more on my outfit only.” She laughed and I chuckled along, shaking my head.

Before I could even say yes, she was at the checkout, handing over the piece of garment to Old Berthie. The woman who owned the shop had always been nice to us, one of the few inhabitants who didn’t look down on students from the Academy. When she saw us she smiled but, this time, it didn’t reach her eyes. Berthie seemed sad.

“Found what you needed, dear?”

Sinem nodded gracefully. “Yes, thank you so much. I’ll surely come back here soon. When do you get new arrivals?”

Old Berthie looked uncomfortable all of a sudden. She looked between Sinem and me before sighing in defeat. “Nobody can know I warned you, okay? But you girls should go back to that castle of yours.”

“Excuse me?” I frowned, surprised that she would adopt the same behavior as her peers.

But her soft eyes found me and she shook her head, “Not that I don’t want you here. You know I like you girls. But the others… Look, three girls have disappeared since the beginning of the school year and people are starting to get angry.”

“At us?” Mia asked, emerging from the racks with Briar in tow. “You know we didn’t do anything.”

Berthie gulped. “It happened before, girls disappearing. And at the time, their bodies were always found in your woods. Back then, people were too scared to do much, but now… they want revenge. And if they see a group of young girls such as yourselves, alone in the village?—”

“We’re easy targets,” I concluded for her and she nodded, confirming my thoughts.

“Listen, they were planning on breaking into school grounds.”

Briar puffed, “Good luck to them. This school is guarded like fucking Quantico.”

“Well, if they see you here, they might not need to go there. They must’ve been alerted by now. So go, get out and run back to your castle,” she warned, looking around us and toward the front window that gave directly onto the street.

To say I was distraught would be an understatement. That woman told us in no uncertain terms that by staying in town, we risked getting assaulted by a bunch of guys. These same guys also had planned to sneak into the castle to abduct girls and as supposed revenge.

I did not doubt that whatever was going on between the Academy and the village was shady as fuck, especially since Konstantin and I found that newspaper in the secret room the other day. But to think they’d go as far as hurting girls from the Academy simply because they suspected some of the students to have hurt their own?

That was scary as fuck.

“We need to leave.” I grabbed Sinem’s hand and nodded at Mia and Briar to follow us. “Thank you, Berthie.”

She nodded once, acknowledging me, but couldn’t wipe the worried look off her face.

We got out of the store and found ourselves standing directly on Main Street.

People had been staring or looking at us from the corner of their eyes when we arrived, but now that Berthie told us what was going on, I couldn’t help but feel wary of everyone.

“Do you think what she said was true?”

I turned my head to look at Briar who was taking in the people around us too.

“Fuck, I feel like they’re all getting ready to pounce now,” Mia shuddered. “We should get back. Even if what she said was just meant to scare us off, we need to go back.”

I nodded absentmindedly as we all started walking back towards the school grounds in tense silence. No one ever said anything to our faces but the way some of them were glaring at us was pretty telling. I couldn’t help but glance behind us every two steps, waiting for villagers to grab their torches and pitchforks while calling us witches.

The cute Fall and Halloween decorations became creepy all of a sudden; we couldn’t get to the castle soon enough. We continued walking until we finally reached the woods. The start of school property and the first guard post were still a little far, but just the fact that we had reached the tree line without getting mauled or called names somehow was reassuring.

But when a car came swerving right in front of us a few feet away from the entry to the woods, we came to a brutal halt. I could feel Sinem’s hand start to shake in mine and I squeezed it for support.

The car was an old black Sedan, nothing special and pretty old. The exhaust pipe was making a whistling noise that, for some reason, added to the chill of the situation.

When the front doors opened and two guys who looked a little older than us got out, all four of us took a step back. There were no shops or houses where we stood, only the trees in front of us and the road behind us.

I tried hard not to panic but it was nearly impossible. Men were scary enough on their own, but add a secluded setting and what Old Berthie had told us and one of us might pass out before they even started beating us up.

When a third guy got out of the car clutching a fucking baseball bat, I was ready to throw up. There was no doubt what Berthie had said was true.

“Well, well.” The one who’d been driving smiled.

He had long, reddish hair and a mustache and stood at about 5’10, which wasn’t that tall for a guy but still taller than all of us. “Look what the cat brought in.” He grinned in a way that could only be described as creepy and continued making his way to us, his eyes trained on Sinem.

While he walked, I snuck a look at the two goons who stood with him. One was smiling like a fool, putting yellow crooked teeth on display. This one was extremely tall and buff, but I had a feeling he wasn’t the sharpest.

The last one looked like the most normal of the bunch. He was glaring at us, a look of deep hatred etched onto his face. He had brown hair cut short and green eyes. He was taller than First Guy but a couple of inches shorter than Stupid.

My attention was brought back to the first man when he came to a stop right in front of Sinem and me, still huddled together. His eyes wouldn’t leave her face; he looked like he couldn’t get enough of her looks and she looked like she wanted the ground to open up and swallow her. She looked scared out of her fucking mind.

I wasn’t far behind, but after years of living with bullies, I knew how to hide it.

All of a sudden, he grabbed her jaw, pushing his index and thumb deep into her cheeks. Sinem whimpered, both in surprise and hurt and that’s when my brain started working again.

I pushed him away with all my strength, which wasn’t much but still enough to cause him to let go of her and stumble back a step.

His eyes then found me in a glare while I ushered Sinem behind me.

“We don’t want trouble. We’re on our way back to—” I never got to finish it, because the next thing I knew, First Guy backhanded me with so much force I was afraid he’d dislodged my jaw. I lost my balance and fell to the ground, all under the shocked eyes of my friends. Briar was the first to come out of her trance and threw herself on the ground next to me.

One hand holding my shoulder, the other gently cupping my aching jaw, she made me look up at her.

Her honey eyes were full of tears and I tried smiling at her reassuringly, but the movement only made me realize that my lip was bleeding.

Mia, ever the pacifier, tried smoothing things over. “Please. I promise, we don’t mean troub?—”

“Shut up, you cunt!”

She immediately clamped her mouth shut but I could tell it cost her. Mia wasn’t used to anyone disrespecting her. She was the daughter and granddaughter of powerful men, and people always addressed her with respect, always.

“Do you know who he is?” First Guy pointed behind him, to the one holding the bat. His eyes were vacant, so full of hatred I didn’t think he could see us.

The girls shook their heads, but I kept mine still.

“His name is Finley Deivers, ring any bell?”

Again, Briar, Sinem, and even Mia were confused and motioned with their head that they had no clue what he was getting at. But I knew exactly who that psycho was.

“He’s Ashleigh Deivers’ brother.”

At the mention of her name, Finley’s eyes found mine and he snarled, “You keep her name out of your mouth, bitch.”

“Your people took his sister and her best friend, and now we have no idea when we’ll see her next. Or if we ever will.”

I bit my tongue because mentioning how she was dead and the school was trying to hide her murder would only get us in more trouble. In a way, they were right in thinking that the Academy was responsible for her disappearance.

“You rich fucks think you can come here every year, use all our resources, trash our island, and then go back to your merry lives once the school year is over. You corrupt our sisters, use them, and then discard them like trash. Still, we stayed quiet for years. But you took it too far this time. We’re not going to stay put while you heathens fuck us over anymore.”

“Last time I checked, we were not the ones defiling your sisters,” I spat, the anger I had been trying to tame down suddenly boiling over. “But since you’re real courageous men, of course you’d use us as an example.”

First Guy’s hand was fisting my hair before I could see it coming and he pulled me up to my feet, not caring about my friends screaming at him to let me go.

I stayed quiet, refusing to give him the satisfaction of knowing he was hurting me. That’s the same tactic I used with Mia’s father whenever he would try teaching me a lesson . It drove him mad, just like it seemed to make First Guy angrier.

“You got something to say, cunt?” he spat, his saliva spraying onto my face and making me want to puke. “You say it to my face.”

Not wanting to make things worse for my friends, I pursed my lips, looking away from him.

“You know what? I think I’ll make an example of you.” The way he looked me up and down so suddenly made me want to shrink into myself in disgust. “Come on, I’ll show you how man I truly am.”

When he started walking towards the woods and away from my friends, that’s when fear truly gripped me. I screamed, struggling against him in hopes of breaking free, but he was stronger.

“Let her go!” Briar started screaming, breaking into a run to get to me but Stupid caught her and kept her from running to my aid. The last guy came to join him and all two of them were restraining my friends and keeping them from helping me.

I never stopped fighting, I couldn’t. Ideas of what would happen if I did made me physically ill and I kept on struggling to push him away but he easily outweighed me.

“I think I’ll make you suck my cock first, just to shut you up a little. Your fancy school might teach girls like you to speak up, but we like our women silent in the village.”

He pushed me to the ground, bruising my knees and hurting my scalp where he was still gripping a handful of my hair.

I spat on the ground, keeping my gaze on him. “And then you wonder why your women disappear? Maybe they’re just running away from you fuckers!”

He slapped me again and I yelped in surprise.

“You show me some respect, you fucking?—”

But First Guy never got to finish his sentence.

All I did was blink and he went from standing above me, looking all strong and mighty, to lying on the ground and looking up in fear at the person who had thrown him there.

Konstantin straddled his waist, fists flying at the guy’s face, causing blood to explode from his nose.

I gaped at the scene in front of me.

I had never seen Konstantin looking so angry. He was usually so good at hiding whatever he was thinking, but that day he looked like an animal: powerful, brutal, and fucking unstoppable.

He punched him a couple more times before grabbing him by the collar and pulling him up until First Guy was looking at him. The fucker didn’t look so sure of himself all of a sudden.

Matter of fact, he seemed two seconds away from pissing his pants.

“Do you see me, asshole?” Konstantin hissed, having gone completely feral.

First Guy nodded soundlessly.

“Good. I want my face to be the last thing you’ll ever remember.”

Something shiny then caught my eye, gleaming in Konstantin’s hand. A knife.

And he used it to slice First Guy’s throat with ease and experience. The blood gushing out of him and the look of pure fright in his wide eyes wasn’t what had me in shock though.

It was the feeling of awe that I felt, watching Konstantin kill.