Quoth The Raven

First Blood

Slash.

Amity froze in shock, not even registering the pain. She lifted her fingers to her forehead and touched it.

They came away covered in blood.

"Look at that," Boscha said, her lips curving into a grin. "I have to say, Amity, red really does suit you."

What. The. Hell.

"You've got a lot of potential, though, I'll give you that," she continued. "Maybe you can join the team, and—"

"I need to go to the nurse," Amity said tonelessly, grabbing her bag.

Her mind still reeled as she left the fencing hall. She'd lost. She'd really lost.

Well, one thing was for sure. If she somehow failed to escape Nevermore, there was something she had to look forward to.

Revenge.

...........

"What happened to you?"

Amity looked up to see Hunter in the doorway of the infirmary, reddish-purple eyes trained on the band-aid on her forehead.

"I challenged Boscha to a duel after I saw her defeat Bria and rub it in her face," she answered. "Unfortunately, Boscha won."

"Yeah, well, she's not the captain of the fencing team for nothing." Hunter sat down on the other bed. "I wouldn't worry about Bria, though. She can handle herself."

"You seem pretty sure."

"She was the queen bee before Boscha arrived, and she's got telekinetic abilities," he pointed out. "I mean, sure, Bria's gone a little off-kilter lately, but still."

Amity watched as he took out a syringe full of neon green liquid and rolled up his sleeve, revealing a series of neat black stitches holding his hand to his wrist.

She'd only seen stitches like that on one other person. Come to think of it, she'd only seen those eyes on one other person.

"You're a Reanimated," she realized.

Hunter looked surprised. "You actually know what those are?"

"My family's butler is one. His maker was careless and made an error with his intelligence, and they abandoned him instead of fixing it. We took him in a few generations ago." Amity raised an eyebrow. "What about you? Let me guess—your maker wanted a fully-grown adult, got a teenager, couldn't handle the responsibility, and dumped you on Nevermore?"

"Nothing nearly that cliche," he responded, injecting the liquid into his veins. "Me and my parents died in a car accident when I was two, but luckily, my uncle's a pretty accomplished necromancer. Only problem is, my parents had accepted their deaths, so Uncle Belos had to raise me himself. Literally."

You don't look like a toddler, was what Amity wanted to say. Instead, what came out of her mouth was "How'd that work out for him?"

Hunter shrugged. "For someone who was totally unprepared to take care of a kid, he's doing an alright job, even if he's a bit overprotective sometimes. He even designed me so I can actually age—that's what this is for," he added, holding up the syringe. "It allows my body to continue growing even though I'm technically dead. I stop taking it when I'm twenty-five."

Amity furrowed her brow. "If your uncle's such a good parent, why'd he send you here?"

"Normie kids treat outcasts like they're crimes against nature, and seeing as the Reanimated actually are, we get it worse." Hunter twisted his lips. "I didn't start hiding my stitches until third grade, but by then, people had already caught on. And I was too freaked out about what they'd do if I told people, so I kept my mouth shut about the bullying until eighth grade."