The Black Pawn • The first book of the Black Academy Series

5. The start

THEY HAD FOUND Elizabeth looking pale. They knew instantly. Victoria always made it a point to personally go to every class with 16-year-old students and announce the Selection. They were going to the dining hall for dinner. It was a special thing that was done whenever a new Selection commenced. Normally, all students had their food delivered to their rooms.

Tradition, you could say. Whenever a year of students had the Selection it was kicked off by a solemn dinner with everybody. All except for the students who had passed the Selection. Authorized was the word. They were professional assassins.

The authorized students ate elsewhere. Only students who had passed the Selection knew of the location.

The chatter was non-existent. The air melancholic. Grief tainted the air. Grief for the ones who would die throughout the Selection. They sat at a circular table. The clinking of plates and utensils filled the heavy hair.

The only people that seemed to be enjoying the dinner were Ms. Avaria and Ms. Casella. With their serene smiles, they even dared to chat among themselves.

"I want to stab somebody with a fork." Elizabeth muttered to her friends. Azalea snapped out of her observatory gaze, "Those bas —"

"You even raise a hand in their direction,", Anna started, "You will be dead before you can even think."

"That seems probable."

Elizabeth glared at Azalea, "I can't believe this. You have no trust in your best friend's abilities?"

Azalea shook her head, no, "I trust you but I trust their savagery better."

Elizabeth was pouting. Azalea sighed in amusement at her friend's antics as she stuck the fork holding a sliver of meat into her mouth. The food tasted good when eaten with others but this time it tasted bitter.

It was sour and tasteless.

Nothing seemed out of the normal until a crack of thunder filled the void of silence with its mighty sound. Monsoon had come and gone, the lightning was because of some creature. The lightning didn't only bring about the loud cracking sound in the air, but also a mysterious figure that loomed across the overgrown grass of the Black Academy.

The doors in the Academy's hall leading to the Dining Hall banged open as the stranger burst in. The dark figure's features seemed to sharpen under the light. There were mysterious scars across his face.

The man walked swiftly towards the dining hall. He had come from a recent kill, his clothes dripped and reeked of fresh blood. The dark red melded with the dark marble and wood floors. His footsteps ricocheted over the walls. He was soon standing in front of the open dining hall.

The students were focused on the man instead of their bitter food.

"Ah, Nicholas!"

Victoria Cassella stood up from her chair, her conversation with Ms. Avaria discarded.

"Children, this is Mr. Nicholas Lavel. He oversees all of the selection."

Azalea's eyes instinctively grazed over the man, scanning at the drips of blood that continued to fall as the man stood. Azalea had heard that the man was a griffin, but his nature made everybody think that he might have been a vampire, not to mention the thunder he had bought with him.