LUNARETH ACADEMY: CLAIMED BY THE RUTHLESS BOYS

CHAPTER 11

ADINNA’S POV

I barely have time to realize what’s happening before Hunter’s hand grabs my jaw. His fingers are cold, firm and unshakable. I try to twist away, but my body is still weak from Jace’s kick. My voice comes out as a broken gasp, “Please.”

He doesn’t care.

He shoves half of the cookie into my mouth.

The taste hits me instantly. It tastes sweet at first, then bitter, and then metallic. I gag and try to spit it out, but his hand clamps over my mouth, forcing me to swallow.

The moment it slides down my throat, the pain begins.

It’s instant and violent. It feels like my veins are filled with ice and fire at the same time, burning and freezing me from the inside. My body convulses and my vision splinters.

I can’t breathe.

A raw and ugly scream tears out of me. The world twists violently around me and the library shelves appear to be bending and stretching like melting wax.

The taste of blood floods my mouth and somewhere above me, I hear sharp, cruel laughter. They sound distant and muffled, like I’m underwater.

I can barely see through the blur of my tears, but I catch glimpses of their faces. Jace has a satisfied smirk and Hunter has his regular detached stare.

One minute they’re watching me convulse and the next they turn and walk away, their footsteps echoing against the marble floor. The doors slam behind them and the silence that follows is unbearable.

I can’t stop shaking. I’m still on my knees. My fingers claw at the floor, my nails scraping against the cold tile. My skin feels too tight, and my chest too small to hold the agony ripping through me.

Somewhere far away, I hear Riley’s panicked voice calling my name again and again but I can’t answer. I can barely think.

Her arms are suddenly around me, shaking me desperately. She’s crying and talking to me. “You have to hold on. Please. Just hold on.”

I want to tell her to leave me, to run before they come back, but my mouth won’t move and then I black out.

And then I’m falling endlessly, through a sky made of fire. The clouds are alive, whispering my name in a thousand voices. The ground below twists into the laughing faces of Jace and Hunter, their eyes glowing with violet light.

When I hit the ground, it shatters like glass.

Suddenly I’m back in the library again, but it’s empty. The shelves tower higher than they should, stretching up into darkness. Every book whispers my name over and over in different tones.

I stumble forward, clutching my burning stomach as I gasp for breath. My reflection flashes in one of the glass windows but it’s wrong. My eyes glow faintly, silver at the edges. My veins are dark, crawling up my neck like roots.

“Stop it,” I whisper. My voice sounds distant.

The reflection smiles back.

And then everything tilts sideways.

The library melts away, replaced by the forest behind the dorms with moonlight cutting through the trees, silver and cold. I see wolves running in the distance, their eyes gleaming white. They look beautiful and powerful.

Then I blink and they’re gone.

In their place are bones. Dozens of them scattered across the ground, glowing faintly in the dark.

I try to scream, but nothing comes out.

The pain keeps rising, climbing up my spine, exploding behind my eyes.

Then everything fades again and there’s a blur of sound and light and pain and I hear Riley’s voice pulling me back. “Adinna! Please, wake up!”

When I open my eyes again, I’m not on the library floor anymore. I’m being dragged. The hallway blurs past me, the ceiling spinning in and out of focus. Riley’s face hovers above me, pale and streaked with tears, her injured hand shaking as she grips my arm.

“I’ve got you,” she keeps whispering. “You’re okay. You’re okay.”

But I’m not. I can feel the wolfsbane still burning under my skin.

The world fades in and out as she somehow manages to pull me all the way back to our dorm. The moment my back hits the bed, I gasp. My body jerks again, muscles locking.

“Stay with me,” Riley says, her voice breaking as she clutches my shoulders with trembling hands. “I can’t take you to the infirmary. He’ll find out. Jace will stop them from healing you. Just hang on.”

Her words echo like they’re coming from underwater.

The next few hours or maybe minutes, blur together.

Pain. Then blackness. Then flashes of light.

Sometimes I see Jace, standing at the foot of the bed, smiling. Sometimes I see my ex-boyfriend, his face soft and kind, but when I reach for him, his eyes turn violet and his hands drip with blood.

Once, I see myself kneeling on the library floor again, covered in slime, with Riley screaming somewhere in the distance.

The hallucinations come and go like waves, pulling me under every time I think I can breathe again.

At one point, I wake up and realize Riley’s still there beside me, whispering something while pressing a damp cloth to my forehead. Her injured hand is trembling.

I try to speak, but my throat feels like it’s full of smoke.

The words barely escape. “It hurts.”

“I know,” she whispers, brushing my hair from my face. “I know.”

I drift again.

When I finally wake completely everything is quiet. The pain is dull now, no longer tearing me apart but still there, heavy and lingering.

The room is dark except for the faint glow of the moon through the window. Riley is sitting at the edge of the bed with her hand bandaged and her face exhausted.

She notices me stir and turns quickly. Relief floods her face. “Oh thank God,” she breathes, grabbing my hand. “You’re awake.”

My voice comes out cracked and weak. “What happened?”

Her eyes soften, but there’s fear there too. “It was wolfsbane,” she says quietly. “A poison for wolves. Even a small amount can kill.”

The word makes my skin crawl.

“I read about it,” I whisper, my voice shaking. “In my textbooks.”

Riley nods. “It’s banned. No one should even have it, but…” Her voice trails off, jaw tightening. “Hunter did. He knew exactly what he was doing.”

I close my eyes, swallowing hard. The taste of the cookie still lingers on my tongue.

“You should’ve taken me to the infirmary,” I mumble.

“No.” Her tone is firm and panicked. “If I had, Jace would’ve found out. He would’ve made sure the healer didn’t help you. Maybe worse.”

I fall silent. The reality of how close I came to dying crashes over me .

For a long moment, neither of us speaks. The only sound is the faint hum of the night outside.

“I thought you were going to die,” Riley says finally, her voice breaking. “You stopped breathing for a few seconds. I didn’t know what to do.”

Her words hit harder than the pain.

I reach weakly for her hand. “You saved me.”

She shakes her head. “Barely.”

We sit in silence again, the weight of everything pressing down. My body still aches. My veins feel bruised. My mind won’t stop replaying Hunter’s calm smile, the way he said those words like they meant nothing.

Let’s feed the hungry.

The memory makes me shiver.

Riley notices. She pulls the blanket higher around me, her movements slow and careful. “You should rest,” she says softly.

I nod, though I know sleep won’t come.

My body feels foreign like something inside me has changed. There’s a faint hum under my skin, a strange echo of the power that burst out of me before.

I stare at my hands for a long time, half expecting to see sparks again but there’s nothing. Just my trembling fingers and faint blue veins that look darker than before.

Then all of a sudden there’s a knock on the door.

Riley and I freeze as we both turn toward the door.

For a second, neither of us moves.

Then comes an unfamiliar and stern male voice.

“The Headmaster wishes to see Adinna,” the voice says, each word precise and heavy. “Immediately, concerning the unauthorized use of magic and assault on another student.”