Page 71 of Marked By His Hunger
As if they were bowing.
My heart slammed violently in my chest.
I didn’t know what was coming.
But I knew—it wasn’t human.
And it wasn’t dead.
And for the first time in my life maybe the ghosts weren’t the most dangerous thing in the room.
“The death-walker shouldn’t be in here,” someone grumbled.
A few agreed.
Nerves assailed me and I felt my stomach twist.
My new roommates looked around, and I knew they weren’t sure what to do.
I didn’t want to put them in a position where they had to choose to defend me or their own reputations.
We were, all of us, here to learn about our magic. To learn control.
But that didn’t mean they were responsible for me.
“The dead should stay dead.”
“It’s bad luck having her here!”
More grumbles sounded, and my emotions were getting the better of me. I had to leave.
Had to get out before I broke down and cried in front of them.
“Serena?” Ursula started.
I shook my head.
And I did the only thing I could think of.
I ran.
Chapter 8-Draugr
The castle top was cold tonight.
It always was—but tonight the chill bit deeper, sharper, as if the very stones knew what I was resisting.
Every night, I stood watch.
Not because I had been ordered to.
Not because the Institute required it.
But because it was the only lie I could live with.
The only way I could convince myself to remain out here—on the wind-lashed battlements, beneath a sky that never truly slept—while she existed just beyond those walls.
Inside.
