Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 89379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 447(@200wpm)___ 358(@250wpm)___ 298(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 447(@200wpm)___ 358(@250wpm)___ 298(@300wpm)
“Okay, so my secret is I eat, like, a lot,” he confessed when he saw me eye his tray.
“Hey, no judgement,” I replied.
“The plus side is I have a fast metabolism, so I don’t gain weight. Maybe that’s also why I’m always so hungry. My body burns up the food super-fast.”
“Maybe,” I agreed.
Two students ahead of us began heatedly arguing over a spell that had supposedly gone wrong in one of their labs, and Ren shot me a raised eyebrow.
“You got the ratio wrong,” one student said. “It should’ve been sixty-forty, not seventy-thirty.”
“For crying out loud, will you give it a rest?” the other complained before whipping around in annoyance and accidentally knocking their companion off balance. The student fell back a few steps, bumping into me and causing my water bottle to fall from my grasp.
“Oh, I’m so sorry!” the girl apologised, but I waved her off.
“Don’t worry about it.” I recognised the startled look in her eyes. She knew who I was, or more specifically, who my parents were.
“No, seriously, that was so clumsy of me,” she went on.
“Really, it’s fine,” I assured her before bending to pick up my water when I saw someone had gotten there already. One of the school’s caretakers grabbed the bottle and handed it back to me. I thanked him, and he gave a quick nod before going on his way.
A moment later, that distinct gone-off eggs and burning smell hit my nose and invisible spiders began crawling down my spine. My attention went to the caretaker walking away with his back to me. I expanded my senses and realised the scent was coming from him. I knew everyone who worked at the school, if not by name, then at least by sight, and I’d never seen that man before.
On instinct, I left the queue and hurried to follow him.
“Darya, where are you going?” Ren called, but I didn’t stop to reply.
To my annoyance and irritation, lots of students were entering the cafeteria, slowing me down substantially. By the time I got into the corridor, the caretaker was gone. I no longer smelled him, and the spiders crawling down my spine sensation had evaporated.
I frowned and returned to the cafeteria, finding Ren by the entrance, a curious look in his eyes. “What was all that about?”
“Nothing. I just had a weird feeling for a second.”
He eyed me sceptically but didn’t question me further. We joined the queue again and paid for our food before sitting at a table by the window. Belinda, Anna, and Liz were just a few tables away. I spotted them shooting me a few bitchy looks before giggling with one another.
“I bet she’s the type to come into your house and open the fridge without asking permission,” Ren said, and I glanced at him.
“Huh?”
“Belinda Williams,” he replied. “She seems like one of those friends who comes into your house and looks in the fridge to see what you’ve got to eat without even asking first. It’s my own personal version of the psychopath test. They get extra points if they do it in front of your parents.”
I chuckled at that. “I don’t think anyone’s ever come into my house and done that. My parents are far too scary.”
“Or maybe you’re lucky not to have any psychopaths in your life,” he countered, and my gut twisted, my thoughts immediately going to Vasilios.
Ren seemed to realise his error when he said, “Oh, Darya, I didn’t mean to—”
“It’s fine,” I cut him off, not wanting to talk about that particular person. “I don’t think Belinda’s a psychopath. She’s got a superiority complex, but deep down, she’s just insecure. Why else would she feel the need to throw her weight around?”
“True,” Ren agreed before taking a big bite out of one of his sandwiches.
Watching the other students come and go, I opened my water bottle and took a sip. My lips tingled oddly. The water tasted funny, and it was only then that I noticed the seal had been tampered with. I stood immediately.
“Darya?” Ren questioned.
“I’m not feeling well. I have to go,” I blurted, then dashed to the nearest bathroom. Safely inside a stall, I prepared to stick my fingers down my throat and force myself to vomit, but faintness hit me swiftly. My mind raced back over the events of the last half an hour, and in those few seconds, it became clear what had happened. My water had been tampered with, and only one other person touched the bottle.
The man in the caretaker’s uniform had taken advantage of the disruption in the queue to put something in my water.
He’d poisoned me, and I had no idea why.
***
When I came to, my head was groggy and sore. My hands felt dry and sticky, and I held something in my right hand. My nose was filled with the familiar, coppery tang of blood tainted with the heavy weight of death. Something was very, very wrong here. I was lying on a cold, hard surface. My entire being recoiled, and I hadn’t even opened my eyes yet.