The Shadow Student (Wraithwood Academy #1) - Teresa Hann Page 0,2

have been longer; I was starting to lose track of time. I kept seeing Mom with the dagger held to her neck. Don’t listen to her, she’d yelled at me. Don’t worry about me. Run! She’d tried to smile at me—even then, she’d tried to smile at me, give me courage.

But she couldn’t hide the fear in the gray eyes that matched my own.

I’d never seen her afraid before.

The dagger had drawn a trickle of red, red blood, smoking against the black metal of the blade.

In the claustrophobic darkness, I swallowed down my fear, praying that she was all right, back at Redbriar Manor. Were they treating her okay? Most of the servants liked her, but Cly’s mother, Leda, had hated us from the start. I wouldn’t put anything past her. The only reason she hadn’t killed Mom already was that she needed her to control me.

And I felt a bitter surge of hatred for Cly, chattering outside about where to hang up her dresses, as if that were her only concern in the world.

At last, silence fell outside. “I guess it’s time to deal with that,” said Cly. She gave the trunk a bone-rattling kick.

Latches clicked. The lid swung away, leaving me blinking in the sudden brightness.

“Do you have to?” Cly whined, as Aegis lifted me out of the trunk and removed my gag. “Can’t we just… keep her in there?”

“Sustenance trunks run out of charge,” said Aegis. “We have to let her out sometime.” His hands were gentle, but the gag had already scraped raw patches into the inside of my mouth. I prodded at them with my tongue, tasting the blood.

I got to my feet, looking around at the room. Cly had received a nice little suite all to herself, as befitting a Redbriar, with a smaller adjoining room for Aegis. The place had come pre-furnished, with bed, mirror, desk, lamp, chair, sofa, and wardrobe, all in a dark, expensive-looking antique style. A tall, narrow window was set into one wall. I could only see blue sky through it from this angle, but I automatically tried to take a step toward it anyway—and failed. Shackles still bound my arms and legs, engraved deeply with magic-suppressing runes.

“Don’t try to shout or escape, mongrel,” said Cly, her blue eyes bulging with nervousness. She had her mother’s eyes, and her limp blonde hair, garnishing her aristocratic Redbriar features. “If you get me into trouble, my mother’s going to end your mother.”

“I’m not stupid,” I rasped, staring at her. The hope of keeping Mom safe bound me more tightly than the shackles. “Get on with it.”

“Well, stop glaring at me, then!” Cly snapped, shrinking behind Aegis. “Why do you always look at me like that?”

I laughed incredulously. She was keeping me prisoner, and she complained that I looked at her wrong. “Let go of my mom and me, and I promise I’ll never give you a second glance.”

Cly scowled. “Just do the transfer, Aegis. Hurry up so I can get out of here.”

Aegis nodded and slid a few thin metal tools out of the trunk. I obediently bared my throat, allowing him access to the rune-engraved silver chain around my neck. His calloused fingers were warm and steady as, bit by bit, he worked a coin-sized ruby out of its setting at the front of the necklace.

I stared at his clean-cut face, framed by short brown hair. His brows were furrowed in that familiar way as he made delicate adjustments, his dark blue eyes narrowed in focus. Hints of tattoos peeked from the collar and cuffs of his shirt. I hated everything the tattoos stood for.

When I’d come to Redbriar Manor eleven years ago, he’d been my first and closest friend. He came from a vassal family, sworn to House Redbriar. His parents had died in Priam’s service when he was a baby, and in return the Redbriars had taken him in, raising him alongside their own family.

He’d taught me my way around the manor, showed me which servants were kindly to children and which were mean. He’d taught me, a city girl who’d never seen a real frog, how to climb trees and fish. I’d thought he was handsome when he was a gangly, awkward tween with scabs on his knees; at twenty, he was stunning, tall and strong and broad-shouldered.

But in between, the Redbriars had given him Spellbreaker tattoos. Things had never been the same since then.

He was still loyal, dependable, competent. But he wasn’t loyal to me. He