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Adena’s sharp voice cut through the noise, and I lifted my hands from my face just enough to see her standing over me, a twisted smile on her face.
“Maybe this’ll make you think twice about stealing what doesn’t belong to you, whore,” she hissed, her eyes narrowed to slits. She kicked me one more time, then she and the other girls turned strode quickly away.
I dropped my head, resting my face on the cool grass for several moments as I tried to catch my breath. My ribs ached, my face hurt, and my mind reeled.
My backpack had been yanked off, and I slowly pressed up to my hands and knees and crawled over to it, shoving the scattered books and papers back inside. My uniform was smeared with dirt and grass stains, and little splatters of red decorated my sleeves. I lifted my fingers to my face, dabbing at the wetness leaking from my nose.
Blood.
“Talia?”
The voice was so heartbreakingly familiar it made me want to cry. I didn’t want any of the Princes to see me like this, but at the same time, relief flooded me as Elijah knelt by my side.
“Oh fuck. Talia. Are you okay?”
I nodded dazedly as his hands moved over me, wincing when they brushed across my cheekbones. “Yeah.”
“What happened?”
“Adena.”
“What? Are you fucking serious?”
His voice took on a harder edge than I’d ever heard from him. His tone was usually smooth and lyrical, which, having heard him sing, didn’t surprise me. The darkness in his voice now was the kind I usually heard from Mason or Cole, the kind that would send sane people running for the hills.
Then he shoved a hand through his hair, refocusing on me.
“Shit. Here.”
He helped me up before gathering my backpack and slinging it over his own shoulder. I leaned on him, and he let me walk slowly as we moved toward the Wastelands. When we got there, he dug into my bag for my key card and unlocked the door.
Inside my room, he deposited me on the couch and then disappeared into the bathroom for a second, returning with the first aid kit I’d used on Cole after the fight. He used several tissues to blot the blood coming from my nose, biting his lip in concentration as he worked.
I watched him, my mind still blank with shock.
I’d been pushed and shoved last semester and had a paintball rigged to shoot out of my locker, but I’d never been jumped like that. My heart was still beating sluggishly and unevenly, a sick feeling twisting in the pit of my stomach. It wasn’t just the physical pain. It was the memories it’d unleashed, like poison seeping through my bloodstream.
When Elijah dabbed at the bruise on the side of my face, I hissed a pained breath, and he winced.
“Shit. I’m sorry, Tal. I really didn’t think Adena would take it this far. I don’t think any of us did. She’s probably fucking pissed because Mason told her at the party that they were over, over. That he never wants to get back together with her. She’s been gunning for him since the first fucking day she got here.”
My heart stuttered at his words, something warm and dangerous worming its way through my chest. He’d told her it was over.
That shouldn’t mean anything to me, but it did.
“God, that bitch.” Elijah shook his head, looking angrier than I’d ever seen him. “She attacked you to hurt Mason.”
“Why would—” I winced again as he touched my other cheek. “Why would attacking me hurt Mason? Does she think he’ll get blamed for it? He won’t. I’ll tell Dean Levy it wasn’t him—I was there, I saw her. Her, Sable, Veronica, and a few others.”
He set down the tissues he’d been using to clean my face, shaking his head with a grimace. “No, Legs. That’s not what I meant. She thought it would hurt Mason because…”
His voice died out, and he swallowed hard.
I blinked at him, trying to decipher the look on his face. He looked almost… sad.
“What?” I whispered. “Elijah, what?”
He sat back, scrubbing his hands over his face roughly. Something was agitating him, but I couldn’t quite figure out what it was. My brain felt like it was on a half-second delay, the pain in my temples pounding in time to my heartbeat.
