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⊹ Book 1 of the Aldergrove Duology ⊹
After being told he has only six months left to live, Clementine decides to track down his sister's murderers, leading him to Aldergrove Academy, a place...
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What a drag of a day. Clementine slumped down in his bed with a heavy, tired sigh and dragged his hand over his forehead. He hoped for a moment of silence, but it was stolen by the creaking groans of the building as the wind whistled outside.
He lay in a pool of confliction. His next target had a name and a face, but he worried that killing him might be a mistake. What if he could get more out of Ian? What if he could get him to reveal other Ravenblood on campus?
Clementine pondered, tapping his fingers on his thigh as he listened to the scampering of rats inside the walls. There had to be a roster—as far as he was aware, all schools kept a record of their students. But where would he find such a thing? Huxley's office, most likely. He was the head of this place.
Huxley made Clementine feel...cold. There was something about that man—the way he glided across the floor as if he was floating sent a shiver down Clementine's spine, and his glaring eyes—his bellowing voice. The last thing he wanted was to get caught snooping around the office of someone like that. But he didn't really have many options, and he felt killing Ian and leaving everything else to chance wasn't the best choice. No, he should look for the roster.
He sat up and glanced at his pocket watch—time for his third pill. He reached into his backpack and took out the fountain pen in which he kept some of his medication. Then, he pulled open his nightstand's drawer and took out his glasses case. First, he placed one of the small white pills into his mouth and swallowed it, and once he'd taken a few gulps of water, he proceeded to refill the fountain pen. He didn't want to run out while away from his room.
Now it was time to head out into the halls.
As he took off his shirt and pulled on a turtleneck, he hesitated. He knew how dangerous it was and suspected it would be even more so now that Carmichael had attacked someone. The other students might decide it was time to go for each other again, but Clementine couldn't let that slow him down. If need be, he'd summon a dagger and defend himself—and since he hadn't seen Sebastien since Molly either, he wasn't exactly worried about being grabbed and choked.
He crept over to his door, eased it open and peeked outside, and when he saw Elliot's bedroom door was shut, he swiftly stepped out of his room, shut the door behind him and left the dorm.
Where even was Huxley's office? Clementine frowned, looking up and down the hall as he realized he didn't really know where he was going. In the week he'd been here, though, he'd seen all the teachers heading up a set of stairs down in one of the larger halls, and he'd never seen any students go up there, so...maybe there was a good place to start.
Quietly, he crept down the hall, heading towards the stairs. But with each step he took, that same minacious feeling returned—eyes...so many eyes watching his every move. And that sound...if Clementine didn't know it was the wind seething through the crooked tiles of the academy's roof, he'd think the walls around him were breathing.
