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⊹ Book 1 of the Aldergrove Duology ⊹
After being told he has only six months left to live, Clementine decides to track down his sister's murderers, leading him to Aldergrove Academy, a place...
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Staring into the water made Clementine think of his sister. He remembered when Anette taught him to swim so that he could accompany her to get fish. He didn't miss those murky, rancid swamps, but he did miss her.
What would she think of him now? He'd been in this godforsaken place for an entire week and he'd only killed one Ravenblood. He had no idea how many more were inside the school, and he had already almost died three times now—more if he counted the monster in the halls and beast in the forest.
He was letting her down, wasn't he? He'd come here to wipe out the next generation of Ravenblood—he'd come here to take them all down with him. But he had a little over five months left...and he hadn't made enough progress.
As a pair of girls dived into the pool, he took his eyes off the water and looked over at the door. He needed to get that roster, death caps, and not to mention more ceraroot. But he had to be patient. He had to wait until dark. And as he glanced out the window, he was relieved to see that the sky was growing dimmer.
"Hey, Clementine!" came Elliot's voice.
He sighed and looked over at the pool. Elliot was climbing out, and as he headed over, Clementine did his best to dismiss his frown.
"We're going to head back soon. Are you sure you don't want to dip in for a few minutes? It's nice," Elliot said, looking back over his shoulder at the pool.
Clementine shook his head and yawned. "I'm all right. I just want to get back and go to bed, to be honest." He hoped his fake yawn would convince Elliot to turn that 'soon' into 'momentarily'.
Elliot frowned sympathetically and looked back at Mavis and Mathew, who were comparing her dragonfly-like wings to the fin-like spikes on his back. Then, he looked back at Clementine. "I can ask them if they want to leave now, if you like."
"We'll be right out," he said, and then, he wandered back over to the pool and waved at Mathew and Mavis, signalling them that it was time to get out.
Clementine got up and headed over to the changing rooms, and as his allies disappeared inside, he leaned back against the wall and waited.
He watched the students in the pool closely—all of them were in groups of at least three. He saw the largest group eying each trio, and Clementine was pretty sure they were planning to make a move. He didn't recognize any of them, nor could he tell what they were just by looking. He really needed to sharpen his skills if he was going to survive long enough to take out all his enemies. Could he ask Elliot for help? He'd already taught him how to spot a wolf walker; could he help him tell what everyone else was from a quick glance?
