"Yield!" I cried out in haste, wriggling under Alaysa. "Alaysa, I yield!" She pushed herself up using the ground, catching my hand and helping me up. I turned to Valeryan then wobbled slightly, my elbow launching out and smashing into the wall as I tried to balance. A jarring pain shot up in my bones, moving up and down like musical notes.
"Ryder?" I managed to gasp out, shaking my head at the pain. "Ow, fuck - why the hell would Stellaire be here looking for me? No one knows I'm here, I didn't tell anyone. Did you guys tell anyone?"
"My older sister went out before me," Alaysa shrugged. Her parents wouldn't have been the problem either: they were both fighting against the Shadow - just like Valeryan's parents were. Except Val's were healers and Alaysa's were soldiers. "She never comes back before midnight."
"As this place isn't even recognised by authorities," Valeryan began, his voice full of dry humour. "I wasn't planning on shouting to the streets where I was going and who I was going with."
"Well, Stellaire being here is as bad as you shouting it out," I stressed. I slammed my fist against the wall and it throbbed just like before. I closed my eyes for a moment: exhale, was Stellaire going to be an issue, inhale, could always just kill him and get a new partner, exhale, leader's son - they'd find me out and execute me for that one, inhale, if he reported this place we'd all be fucked - exhale.
"I suppose I should go find him," I mused coolly. "Should probably give him what he came for."
"I would advise against violence," he said lightly. "You might not have such a receptive partner if you break his nose."
"If he tries to snitch about this place, I'll hit him," I vowed, shooting a parting smile over my shoulder at my friends as I brushed past Valeryan. "After all, he was never receptive in the first place."
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Ryder was leaning against the wall, eyeing the hunched-over boy who'd messed with Calais when I first saw him. The blood had formed a dark, crusting pool around the other boy and his scarlet-smeared hands had fallen from his throat, fingers dipping slightly into the blood. I had been right with my prediction of ten minutes then.
I waited in one of the corridor's shadows, scrutinising this strange partner of mine. He was seventeen of course, just like the rest of us - turning eighteen in a matter of months. Ryder was taller than me which I disliked - and had bronzed hair that seemed the only uncontrolled part about him. Then, those eyes... those uniquely yellow eyes.
They were the kind of eyes animals had. The kind right above bloodstained teeth yearning to rip into your throat. The kind that you could see in the night. The kind that watched you, waited for you, hunted you. They were the eyes of a savage.
"Why are you here?" I questioned him, stepping out from the shadow to approach him. He turned, not caught off guard as I would have hoped. Instead, Ryder's gaze brushed over as if I were a mere insect to the real prey he was trying to find. "You seem a little out of your depth, Stellaire."
He pushed himself off the wall, finding his feet with flawless fluidity. "Kane wasn't sacred, you know. We might not have had places quite like this - but we had our own... share." I noticed how he used his words so carefully, plucking them from his mind and forming them into words the way he wanted them - exactly the way he wanted them. A leader in the making.
"How'd you know I was here?" I asked him bluntly, getting to the point. Everyone in here had been tested. Calais, Alaysa, Valeryan - all of us and all the others had been screened. I'd barely made it in because of my father's position. Alaysa had vouched for me - but who had put a word in for Ryder?
YOU ARE READING
Legacy
Romance"There's a war going on, Katarina," he hissed into my ear. "Remember which side you're on. And know that neither is the right one." This world was built on power, lies and corruption. Our hands were always stained with blood. Our eyes were windows t...
