AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Three steps.
Five.
Four—
Grinding to a halt, I spun on my heels as those twenty guards snapped to attention and converged on the gates. The answer was no. It was not that simple.
My gaze drifted to Alexander on its own power. He was standing within a group of three guys and that horrible girl, and he was staring right at me. He saw exactly what I tried to do.
“That was brutal.”
I jumped. “What? I wasn’t doing anything.”
A curly-haired, smiling guy moved between me and Alexander. “You don’t have to be to draw Sirena’s ire. Here’s a heads-up you got the hard way. She’s pretty territorial over Xander. They’re engaged to be engaged to be engaged.”
“I could not care less about Alexander Damien.”
“Then you’re my kind of people.” He threw an arm around my shoulders, giving me my second shock of the morning. “My name’s Theron Zervas. From Trono City. You?”
“I’m...” My brain stalled at the oddness of this random stranger touching and being kind to me after weeks on the run.
“Pausing to make something up?”
I laughed and was shocked I did. It had also been weeks since I made that sound. “No. My name is Aella Galanis. I’m from Port Delphin.”
“Nice. Named after an Amazon warrior. Mother had high hopes for you.”
My smile melted away as quickly as it appeared. Of course it couldn’t last long.
Theron guided me through the crowd of people idling on the lawn and steps. Part of me was curious to ask what we were all waiting for. The rest of me told that part to worry about something important. Who cared about the customs of a school I wouldn’t be attending for long?
“Over here. Let me introduce you to my friends.”
We found ourselves before a small group gathered under the cypress trees. A slim, pretty girl with short brown hair he introduced as Nitsa. The shaggy-haired guy who kept flipping his curls out of his eyes was called Tycho. And leaning against the tree between them was a long-haired girl with a stocky build named Ionna, gazing blankly at the sky. She could’ve been listening to our conversation, or she was in her own world.
“Nice to meet you guys. Are you all from Trono City?”
“Yep,” Nitsa replied. “We all went to the same school. Glad we can keep it up for another four years.”
“Cool.” I looked around. “So, do you know what everyone’s waiting for?”
Tycho jerked his chin at the entrance. “We can’t do anything until we’re placed in our class. Can’t unpack in our dorms. Can’t get our class schedules. So, they don’t even let us inside until it’s done. We’re to wait here until they get us for placement.”
“What’s placement?”
Ionna dropped her head to squint at me. Her friends all did the same.
“How do you not know?” Nitsa asked.
“I don’t know anything about this place,” I said, sweeping out over the colonnades. “Where I lived was isolated from the world. A jackass would call me queen of the cave people.”
“Ah, okay,” Theron said. “Then all this is going to seem strange if you’re hearing it for the first time. Maybe even cruel. Some could say barbaric.”
“Cool it,” Tycho hissed. “It’s one thing bitching this place out over a game of dice in our rooms. It’s another doing it here. If they hear you, you’ll get punished for insubordination.”
“He’ll what?” I said. “Who told you that?”
Tycho pulled a book from his bag. “It’s all here in the information they sent us.” He gestured at mine. “You know. With the pack list and stuff.”
