“Hold your horses, Black,” Owen says, raising a hand to calm me. “Not like that. Look around you. You see many girls in our class?” he asks. There’s no point in answering. I know as well as they do that there are less of us than I can count on one hand this year. “They’ll wanna keep the few girls they have.”

“See, the odds are against us,” Piers says with a shrug. “Third, it was your stupid idea to fight the ogre that got us in this position in the first place. If anyone is going to get punished for it, it should be you.”

Punished. There’s a certain triumph in their faces as their leader speaks the word. I grit my teeth. Great. This school is already going to put me through one hell, and now these boys are determined to put me through another.

I’ve seen their type before. Sexist, ego-driven masochists with no regard for anyone but themselves.

“Eat your own dicks,” I spit, and I turn on my heel and march stiffly away from them. I don’t deserve this bullshit.

Surprisingly, Sawyer is waiting just a little ways away and catches my arm as I walk by, forcing me to slow my pace. He falls into step beside me. I’m still fuming, but I try not to let it show. This isn’t Sawyer’s fight, and the last thing I want is him trying something heroic.

“Avery,” he says soothingly, and I look up at him. He’s smiling gently. “Look, don’t worry about them, okay? Just do your best.”

I raise my eyebrows. I remember the score screen at the end of the trials. Sawyer didn’t score too well himself, just above Piers, if I recall correctly. That means if I and the other boys do well, then he could be the one on the chopping block. He would profit off me doing poorly, maybe even more so than the others.

But he’s by my side. He’s right here, encouraging me, smiling at me like he doesn’t care at all that my success might mean his failure.

It’s for this reason that I force myself to smile up at him through my anger.

“Thanks,” I say quietly. He grins and loops an arm around my shoulders, pulling me against him in a short one-armed hug. His body is warm, and he’s still shirtless too. I have to fight to keep a blush off my cheeks.

“We’ll get through this,” he says.

I smile. I know I will. Piers and the others have made their first mistake by underestimating me.

I am not to be underestimated.

Chapter Six

Erin stands next to me as I stare at myself in the mirror of the residence wing’s bathroom.

I look absolutely frightening.

“Just hold still,” she says soothingly as she dabs rubbing alcohol on my cuts. It stings, but I try not to react. I have to clench my fists until my fingertips leave little red half-moon marks on my palms to keep from crying out and swatting her away. After all, she’s just trying to help.

One cut above my eye has so much dried blood caked around it that it makes my eyebrow look twice as thick.

Erin finally steps back to survey her handiwork, but just shakes her head. “You should shower,” she says, twisting the cap onto the bottle of rubbing alcohol. “It’ll get most of the mud and blood off, and then we can look at your other cuts. I have some sticky bandages, too.”

I take her advice, even if it means I won’t have time to eat before the next set of afternoon classes.

I wince as the hot water hits my cuts and gashes, but it feels nice on the bruises. And there are many of them. One on my arm is already turning purple, so I give it some extra time under the water, which is turning brown as it goes down the drain. From dirt or blood—I try not to think about it. None of these injuries are life-threatening, anyway.

Erin helps finish patching me up after I dry off, even though I tell her to go on without me. She puts adhesive bandages over the smaller cuts on my back, where I can’t see while I dab more rubbing alcohol on those across the front of my legs. By the time we’re done, I look like I was attacked by a small creature made of long, whip-like arms.

If anyone asks, that’s what I’m gonna say happened. Not, I think, that Piers and his posse have decided it’s a good idea to rough up the girl they’ve determined is the biggest threat to their existence here.

There’s just enough time to grab a couple of cellophane-wrapped sandwiches on our way to our next class. Sawyer spots us heading down the hall towards Creature Studies 101 and jogs over.

He’s chosen the opportune moment to approach, what with the half a ham-and-cheese I just shoved in my open mouth.

“That one looks like it hurts,” Sawyer says sympathetically, touching one of the particularly bad cuts on my cheek. I nearly spew meat and cheese all over him.

I have to clench my fist to keep from recoiling from his touch.

“Shit, Sawyer,” I snap through my mouthful of food. It does hurt, but his touch is surprisingly gentle. It’s almost … nice … even. It could just be the contrast between this tenderness and the violence from the other boys, but I feel a little spark ignite inside me. I have to look away from Sawyer’s clean-shaven face as I try to swallow the rest of my food before I make an even bigger fool of myself.

Sawyer is just shaking his head. “Those cowards. I’ll try to look out for you tomorrow. Just try to avoid those guys for now.”

Tags: Eden Beck The Monster Within Fantasy
Source: readsnovelonline.net