Unfamiliar (Unfamiliar Series #1)

Chapter 17

Relief drapes over me like a comforting shawl when I step out of the gymnasium, the academy grounds still cloaked in darkness. Silence stretches around me, endless and infinite as I close my eyes for a long moment. My eyes are still sore but the rush of the meeting helps me ignore the pain, even if for a moment. 

I look up at the sky and watch as a cloud of my breath drift upwards, satellites flickering high above like strobing stars. In the center of Salem, seeing real stars is rare since the city lights block them out. 

I am powerful, I am not weak, I remind myself. 

Even though I've let Bastet dissipate I can still feel her power humming beneath my skin like a second pulse. It's a tingling, new sensation, unlike my powers of an Unfamiliar I am connected to her in particular, like a new lifeline. 

I am a protector of witches.

The realizations bring me a rush of happiness as I close my eyes and tilt my head up, letting the stress and fear drift away. Like dead leaves buoyed on a river as they're carried away, one by one. I could help others, protect them. 

You're powerful enough. 

I feel a jittering, electrical sensation under my skin. Possibilities rush through my head. Perhaps this could be the beginning of change, all with the help of the Coven of Midnight. 

I wonder if the others would help protect Unfamiliars. 

Perhaps this is a coven I could really fit into with a noble cause. 

A scream abruptly splits the air. 

The harsh sound cleaves the silence open and replaces it with ice that runs up my spine and makes the hairs on my arms and neck stand up.

What was that?

I've yet to hear someone scream in such a way in my life as my eyes snap open and I look around.

I can't see where it came from, but it repeats and I run. My heart jumps to my throat and my sneakers loudly clap on the concrete sidewalk as I sprint in the general direction of the scream. I can scarcely see, the moon covered by a brief cloud as I am plunged into abrupt darkness that disorients me. 

Please be okay, please be okay. 

It's a hope that is feeble, all I can hold onto is that maybe it's some sick prank. 

I round the bend of the gymnasium, only to come to a skittering stop.

A dark, human-shaped lump is lying in the middle of the sidewalk. I stand very still, freezing in place as I blink at it in confusion for a long moment. Surely this had to be a prank. Its form is illuminated by the moon as the cloud moves and light streams down in a thick, watery curtain like a morbid spotlight. The limbs are sprawled around it in a way that is unnatural and I see the wrongness in it immediately. 

No one should be able to contort in such a way and not be in immense pain. 

This isn't good. Oh god. 

I hurry to their side. My heart is in my throat and hands as I drop to my knees beside the motionless form. They don't stir as I roll them onto their back, noting then that they're wearing a cloak. 

A member of the coven? 

Dark brown eyes stare skywards, unseeing and blank as light blonde eyebrows sit perched above them. I recognize the person, but my thoughts scatter as I can only stare at the bloody patch on their chest. The fabric of their shirt is torn away to reveal a gaping wound that is weeping blood as my limbs go cold.

I huff out a soft breath, unable to make a sound as I feel the urge to scream but can't. I press a finger against their neck to check for a pulse, hoping against all else that I will feel the steady thrum of blood pumping through their veins.

I feel nothing.

I sit back on my heels as nausea makes my throat tighten, threatening to drag me under as blackness begins to creep into the corners of my vision. My breath is coming out in gasps as I can only stare.

I know him.

A ringing fills my ears, sharp and piercing.  

My stomach heaves and I scramble to my feet and take a few steps back, my hands shaking violently when I realize that there's blood on them from rolling him over. I turn and vomit on the grass lining the sidewalk, my throat stinging from the stomach acid that burns as it comes up. Tears run down my face as I empty my stomach until I'm left dry-heaving and weak.

Nonono. 

I scrub the tears away when I'm done and carefully wipe my mouth with my sleeve. I avoid the blood on my hands before I dare to approach the body once more, my stomach churning as I look down at it in shock.

Lying dead at my feet is Finn Delacroix.