Dark Love

Part 11

The cold damp air was invigorating but not as invigorating as the sight of the forest that spread out in dense foliage behind the Academy. Dusk settling chased the sun away and the clouds rolling in took care of the rest but it was really the mist over the grounds that obscured her sight.

Still Saera pushed on. She was not one to be overwhelmed by obstacles. She embrace the challenge and set off on a steady pace determined to thread a path through the woods. Her mind drifting off involuntarily towards the man she married and his accomplice. Who was he? Why had he married her? She couldn't see much of his face but knew she didn't need to to know he was a beauty that could not be denied. And his friend had felt the same. If good looks could be felt at all.

Lengthening her pace she pushed forward needing to burn off the access energy. The draughty Shore mansion had been good for nothing more than bouts of parkour to occupy her time when her nose was not burried in the many books of its library. Running up the many flights of stairs, leaping over banisters, off pieces of old and worn furnitures, scaling it's high ivy clad external walls, these were just the few moves she made to let off steam. 

She moved into the paces now, her eyes studying her path and finding opportunities to push off fallen logs and rocks, pace up vertical trees and somersault over ponds and shrubs. Her lean form moving fast and more importantly with the joy of release. Tension she hadn't known were weighing her down released into the falling night with each puff of cold air.

Her feet came to a sudden stop at an unexpected clearing. Tall grass grew over the planes and her senses were suddenly in full alert. Something was clearly out there. Something she neither had the time nor inclinations to go up against. She was no hero. She was also not reckless. Stepping into danger simply for the sake of it wasn't her thing. Even if her actions seemed to say otherwise.

Saera paced a step back and then another. Slowly and carefully making her way back till the sight of the open planes no longer held her gaze. Then she turned heel and simply ran. Her heart thudding in her chest and adrenaline pumping in her veins. Her movements were more loose limbed and supple because of it.

The school loomed ahead of her cold but inviting. It's modem yet inconspicuous lines drawing her by now aching limbs with hurried abandon. She burst through its doors with too much speed and ended up leaping over obstacles off luggage strewn all over the hallway till she dropped her pace to a reasonable jog. The Darkling students of Ebon Academy had arrived.

Eyeing the smattering of students as across the place, Saera turned back to head back out prefering to take the long route through the campus grounds to make her way back to the dorms. She would need a shower to get the grime off and then food to settle her rumbling stomach and frayed nerves.

Ignoring her dorm mates as she made her way back in, she stopped by her closet pulling it open to find it empty. Her gaze narrowed to pin pricks. The adrenaline from her run rushing back down her spine. A low growl of pure anger escaped her lips.

"What's the matter, Shore? A thief can't handle being stolen from?" The taunt was accompanied by giggles and laughter. Blood boiling in her veins drumming out the sounds in her ears, Saera turned around to face her mocking audience.

Without hesitation, she launched across the bed closest to her and tore open the closet. Blindly reaching in she grabbed whatever clothing landed in her grasp and moved back to collect the towel slung over the side of her bed.

"What the hell do you think you are doing?" The screeched cry came from the owner of those clothes.

"I am going to take a fucking shower. When I return, all of my clothes had better be stacked back in my closet in the condition they were in before you took them, or you girls will be clothing me for the rest of the three years here." Saera bit out with venomous animosity. She did not tolerate bullies. And the sooner the girls were made aware of that the better.

"You think you can take us on Shore?" Lyra taunted. "You don't know who you're dealing with."

"Good! I have no intention of getting to know you bitches." Saera returned seemingly unperturbed.

She returned to her closet and pulled open her underwear drawer to find it empty. With a tired sigh, she decided to raid the closet to her other side for those. There was no way she was going commando just because a few bitches got the better of her.

"Oh no you don't!" The tall lanky blond who's closet she was raiding stepped up to block her path, hands fisted by her side. Saera smirked. A fight? That she could do and do well.