Anchor of Secrets by Tessa Hale

27

I flew at Chloe,knocking her to the floor.

She shrieked, but quickly began to fight back, her knee going to my ribs.

Pain pricked, but the rage pulsing through me dulled the worst of it. My fist struck out in a blow to her torso as we rolled.

Chloe cursed, her palm slapping across my face in a stinging blow. The metallic taste of blood filled my mouth, and I bit back a yelp.

Students shouted and catcalled while Dash and Colt tried to grab hold of both of us. But we were too fast. Chloe rolled me over, her hands fisting in my hair and yanking hard.

“You’ll never be stronger than me. I’ve been training to rule my whole life,” she growled.

“Then why are you pulling my hair like a kindergartner?” I got off a punch to her ribs that had her wheezing.

But Chloe quickly recovered, scratching her nails down the side of my face. “I’m going to make your life a living hell.”

“Enough!” Colt yelled, but we ignored him.

My leg came up with a blow to Chloe’s pelvis that had her loosening her grip on my hair.

Rage bloomed in her eyes. “He should be rotting in the ground. You all need to learn your lesson.”

Chloe’s hand fisted, and she got off a punch that had me seeing stars.

Dash’s lessons flashed in my mind, and my hand came up in a palm strike to her nose. There was a satisfying crunch, and then Chloe was screaming.

Colt caught hold of me, pulling me off Chloe as I kicked and bucked, trying to get free.

“You broke my fucking nose!” she shrieked. But her voice didn’t sound right. There was too much blood gushing down her face.

“It should’ve been your neck!” I yelled back.

Suddenly, Ronan was in front of me, breathing hard from obviously running in the direction of the ruckus. “Firecracker…” He couldn’t disguise the amusement in his voice. “You broke her nose?”

I kicked out, trying to get free from Colt’s hold. “I’m going to kill her.”

Colt cursed. “Help me, would you?” He scowled in Dash’s direction, who was trying to help Chloe up. “You just had to start teaching her martial arts.”

Dash shrugged. “She wanted to learn how to protect herself.”

Ronan grabbed hold of my arms. “I’d say she’s an A-plus student.”

“You’re going to pay for this,” Chloe sneered.

Dash dropped his hold on her, and Chloe tumbled to the floor again. “Suddenly don’t feel much like helping you.”

Chloe gasped and spluttered, blood going everywhere. “My father won’t stand for this. He’ll have you brought before The Assembly.”

Dash’s eyes went cold behind his glasses. “And what do you think The Assembly will have to say about the death threats you’ve been leveling that everyone in this hallway heard? Or about your knowledge of Damien’s plans?”

Chloe paled. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Everyone heard about what happened.”

Dash’s gaze narrowed on her. “But no one knew it was Damien who set it up.”

“I-I just assumed,” Chloe stammered.

Mimi and Grace took a large step back from their so-called friend.

“What the hell is going on here?” Headmaster Abrams snapped as he strode through the crowd.

Chloe burst into loud, fake sobs. “She attacked me. She’s crazy.”

The headmaster’s gaze jerked to me, then back to Chloe. “Both of you, in my office, now.”

“Oh, shit,” Ronan muttered.

This was not good.

* * *

My foot tappedagainst the wood floor as I held an ice pack to my face. I could already feel the shiner coming on. The only relief I had was that Chloe was in worse shape.

She sat in a chair on the opposite side of the room, an ice pack pressed to her face, as well. But there was also rolled-up cotton in her nostrils that made it look as if she’d shoved two tampons up her nose. She glared at me.

Colt reached over and squeezed my hand. “You sure you don’t want to go home?”

“She can’t go home,” Chloe snapped. “She has to be expelled first.”

“Chloe,” Mimi whispered from her spot next to her friend.

Chloe’s eyes flashed with rage. “You don’t think she deserves at least that?”

“It doesn’t matter what I think. I just don’t want you getting your throat ripped out by a rabid wolf,” Mimi hissed.

Chloe jutted out her chin. “He can’t touch me.”

Colt’s gaze lifted slowly until it locked in on Chloe. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that…”

She paled a fraction but kept up her bravado. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“Test me,” Colt snarled.

The door to the headmaster’s office opened, and he stepped inside. Taking us all in, he sighed. “I can see you haven’t sorted this out.”

“I want her expelled,” Chloe demanded.

Headmaster Abrams sank into his leather desk chair. “That isn’t your decision.”

Her eyes narrowed on the school official. “My father will be livid.”

“I’m sure that’s true, but I’ve gone over the camera footage and talked to the students in the hall. You baited them.”

Chloe flushed. “I’m not allowed to speak my mind anymore?”

“Not if that mind is full of death threats,” the headmaster said.

“She attacked me!” Chloe shrilled.

Abrams winced. “I’m aware.” He shifted his gaze to me. “We have a no-violence policy on this campus. That’s in place for a reason. We can’t risk exposing our kind to the human authorities.”

I swallowed hard. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done it, no matter how much she deserved it.”

Headmaster Abrams pressed his lips together as if to keep from laughing. “Since both of you were in the wrong, you’ll both be serving detention today.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Chloe snapped.

The headmaster arched a brow at her. “Would you like to turn that into a suspension?”

She snapped her mouth closed.

“That’s what I thought,” he said. “I would also like you two to keep your distance from one another for the rest of the month.”

“My pleasure,” I muttered, and Colt choked on a laugh.

Headmaster Abrams turned to Chloe. “Am I understood?”

“Yes,” she clipped.

“All right, then. All of you, get to class,” he said.

Chloe launched to her feet, charging out of the office, Mimi on her heels.

Colt and I stood, moving at a more reasonable pace.

Headmaster Abrams looked up from his desk. “Colt?”

He turned to face the man. “Yes?”

The headmaster glanced out the open door. “You need to watch your back around that one. I don’t have a good feeling. But right now, my hands are tied.”

Colt’s expression darkened. “I don’t have a good feeling, either. But her father’s gotten her a lot of protection.”

“I’m aware,” Headmaster Abrams agreed. “I wouldn’t trust that man, either. He’s grasping for power, and he’s doing it through his daughter.”

“We’ll keep eyes on her,” Colt promised.

“Good,” the headmaster said.

But Chloe was sly and the worst kind of vindictive. Simply having eyes on her would never be enough.