Unfamiliar (Unfamiliar Series #1)

Chapter 17

I can't help but feel relieved when I step outside of the gymnasium, the academy grounds still cloaked in darkness. I look up at the sky and watch as a cloud of my breath drift upwards toward the satellites that are flickering high above like strobing stars.

I am powerful, I am not weak, I remind myself, even though I've let Bastet dissipate I still feel her power. I am a protector of witches.

The realizations bring me a rush of happiness as I close my eyes and tilt my head up, letting the stress and fear drift away, like dead leaves buoyed on a river as they're carried away, one by one.

A scream abruptly splits the air, cleaving the silence open and replacing it with ice that runs up my spine and makes the hairs on my arms and neck stand up.

I've yet to hear someone scream in such a way in my life as my eyes snap open and I look around.

I can't see where it came from, but it repeats and I run, my sneakers quietly padding on the concrete sidewalk as I sprint in the general direction of the scream and navigate the best that I can in the dark.

I round the bend of the gymnasium, only to come to a skittering stop.

A dark, human-shaped lump is lying in the middle of the sidewalk, its form illuminated by the moon. The limbs are sprawled around it in a way that is unnatural and I see the wrongness in it immediately. I hurry to their side, my heart in my throat as I drop to my knees beside the motionless form and roll them onto their back.

Dark brown eyes stare skywards, unseeing and blank as light blonde eyebrows sit perched above them. I recognize the person, but I don't initially know where from as I can only stare at the bloody patch on their chest, the fabric of their shirt torn away to reveal a gaping wound that is weeping blood as my limbs go cold.

I press a finger against their neck to check for a pulse, hoping against all else that I will feel the steady thrum of blood pumping through their veins.

I feel nothing.

I sit back on my heels as nausea makes my throat tighten, threatening to drag me under as blackness begins to creep into the corners of my vision. My breath is coming out in gasps as I can only stare.

I know him.

My stomach heaves and I scramble to my feet and take a few steps back, my hands shaking violently when I realize that there's blood on them from rolling him over. I turn and vomit on the grass lining the sidewalk, my throat stinging from the stomach acid that makes it burn. Tears run down my face as I empty my stomach until I'm left dry-heaving and weak.

I scrub the tears away when I'm done and wipe my mouth with my sleeve before I dare to approach the body once more, my stomach churning as I look down at it in shock.

Lying dead at my feet is Finn Delacroix.

****((((Short chapter I know, but bear with me! The next chapter will be MUCH longer I promise, don't forget to hit that vote button for your fav chapters!))))****