I rushed back to the recesses of my dorm before anyone could see me cry.
Fourteen steel bunk beds with no bedding were stacked together in the dingy moist room. Thankfully, it was empty because the last thing I needed was to explain the tears streaming down my face.
It hurt before just to see him every single time. And now, it felt like my heart was ripped into shreds.
Lesra probably didn't realise how much. She probably thought that it was hot to have a Lycarus boyfriend who didn't remember you anymore. Who thinks you're just a regrettable and insignificant moment in his life.
Ex-boyfriend.
I clutched the green moon-shaped pendant hanging around my neck and wiped my face with the back of my hand.
"Look who we have here."
My stomach dropped at the sleazy voice. Great. Today couldn't get any worse than this.
Footsteps, two pairs of them, closed in on me, the sound echoing against the dark walls. I closed my eyes, hoping that they'd grow a conscience for just this one time and leave me the fuck alone.
Just this one time.
No such luck.
"If it isn't the little Lycarus wannabe." Valeria's voice cracked in amusement. "Crying again? What, your daddy forgot to wipe your ass today? Oh wait, he's dead."
She laughed at her own twisted statement, the high screech threatening an ear bleed.
She stepped closer, her witchy fingers wrapping around my jaw and forcing me to look at her perfect princess face, haloed by platinum hair, braided and falling over her shoulder.
Calon stood right next to her, arms crossed, and expression blank. But I knew his eyes were already mapping out where to hit me to get maximum impact.
"Get out," I muttered, clenching my jaw and swatting her hand away.
I had had enough. And God forbid I wasn't in the mood for another round of insults.
Valeria and Calon had made it their personal mission to pick on me relentlessly after I accidentally won a sparring match against Valeria during initiation training.
Normally, I was no match for her, but that day, it occurred to me to try a leg sweep, making her lose her balance and sending her toppling to the floor.
And she might have also broken her nose on the metal rail in the process.
I stood up and glanced wearily at the slight crookedness of her nose, a testament to the fact that sometimes it was better to lose than win.
Because now I was heavily paying for it.
"Oh?" Valeria gasped dramatically. "Did you hear that, Cal? She's got a voice. Maybe that mutation is gradually giving her a spine too."
Calon chuckled darkly and fixed me again with his cruel stare. "Doubt it."
I tried to step back because I knew what was about to come and if I planned this right, I could somehow find a way to sidestep that incoming blow.
But Valeria struck fast.
Her hand darted out and wrenched the pendant off my chest. It clattered to the floor with a chime.
My breath caught.
"Pick it up," I whispered.
Valeria tilted her head. "Why? Would you cry if I didn't? Would you write me a poem about it?"
"Pick. It. Up."
"Do it yourself." She sneered and spat on it.
I couldn't believe her. Rage flared through me but I held it in.
I leaned forward, bending to reach the flash of green now littering the floor but before I could think, her hand was around my wrist, twisting it back hard until I whimpered. Calon finally shot forward and shoved my shoulder, sending me stumbling into the wall.
Valeria yanked my head back by my hair. "I bet your boyfriend-turned-soldier gave himself up to be a Lycarus because he couldn't stand your stench either. I would've ripped out my memory too if I had to be near you."
Pain exploded in my scalp and my chest. My eyes blurred.
Please don't cry, Maeve. Don't give them the satisfaction. Just don't.
But then I felt it.
It started at my toes, a slight tingle. And then it felt like searing heat was running up my body like electricity. My bones were buzzing, vibrating like they couldn't handle this new surge of energy.
Valeria didn't notice the change at first; her mind was cooking up insults and spewing them through her mouth at rapid speed.
Until she stopped. And her eyes widened.
"What the hell?" She recoiled. "Calon, did you see that? Her eyes…"
But Calon was already reaching out to yank me towards him when it happened.
The moment he touched my shoulder, my hands raised as if they knew exactly what to do and shoved him.
Hard.
And I didn't realise how hard until I saw the moment my hands collided with his chest and he flew across the room, smashing into the wall and crashing onto the dresser, splintering it.
Valeria gasped and staggered back, staring at me with wide, furious eyes.
My breathing was rapid and I could hear my heart beating in my ears. My hands were shaking and I could almost see a faint green glow shimmering underneath the skin and vanishing the next second.
Calon groaned on the floor, clutching his ribs.
"You-" Valeria stammered. "What are you?"
She ran and knelt beside Calon, who was struggling to sit upright, pieces of wood and dust sticking to his hair.
"You're dead," he spat between laboured breaths. "You're dead, freak."
He scrambled to heave himself up, cradling his body and cursing, while Valeria clutched him on his side, pushing him towards the door. And then they fled. As miserably as they could.
The door slammed shut behind them, the sound echoing down the corridor.
I stood alone in the silence, my heart threatening to explode. I looked down at my hands again, my mind running on overdrive.
The scanner had specifically said that my mutation was mild. Just like every other week for the past three years. Since I was rounded up from the misty streets, crying and wailing, by men in hazmat suits.
But what the hell just happened right now?
Because whatever it was, it wasn't mild.
And things might have just gotten a whole lot worse.
But before I could freak out completely, the lights seemed to dim and my vision went black as I dropped to the ground.