“Mind if I sit here?” I asked.

The entire table went silent as Johanna glanced up at me, and motioned to the stool across from her. “By all means.”

I’d come back so late last night that everyone was already asleep, and I’d left before anyone woke. They probably thought I’d ditched them all again. Quiet chatter broke out as I settled in, glancing up and down the table. I took care to avoid a certain male gaze, but noticed that too many people were missing. Alexandra was still in bed, but…

“Did Lucas come back?” I asked.

Wrong question, apparently, as the Graeme girl on my right ground her teeth.

“Vonlowsky had to have a talk with him. He’s out blowing off some steam,” Alec said vaguely.

Wait—Alec?

“How are you back already? I thought your leg—”

“Was nearly blown off?” he finished for me.

I nodded, taking in the dark circles under his eyes.

“It was in pretty bad shape, but Love managed to save the leg. That woman is a bloody miracle worker. She let me out this morning with a cast.”

“Well, that’s good.” I’d been under her care for days after the warehouse. He was lucky.

“It is, and I have you to thank for it. Johanna told me you came into the simulator and said you weren’t leaving until you’d found us. My mistress would’ve let us die. Thank you,” he said solemnly.

Any ideas I’d about him and Anastasia had gone out the window when I’d seen her lack of empathy for her servants, particularly when he’d been bleeding to death.

“No problem,” I mumbled, picking through the fruit on my plate. People thanking me wasn’t something I ever thought I’d get used to.

“I don’t think you ever got a proper introduction to the rest of your team,” Alec said, alleviating some of the awkwardness.

“Scarlett and Sebastian from House Graeme,” he said pointing to the German twins on my right.

“As in one of the ruling families?” I asked.

The blonde on my right, Scarlett, gave a sly smile. “Yes, and I’m the heir,” she said. It almost looked like the word commoner was on her lips, when Alec continued.

“Camilla Divin and Constantine Berg.” Alec motioned to the two I already knew on my left. The small girl with cloudy eyes gave a wide smile. Her curly brown hair was pulled back into three bunches on top of her head, going straight down the middle.

“Berg, that’s another family. You’re a…” How could I say half-breed without actually saying it? They’d wanted to kill Lucas, and I wasn’t trying to burn any bridges quite yet.

“Constantine is part-Witch, as is Camilla,” Johanna said, noticing my effort and giving me the answer.

“I’ve just never read about ruling families that were—”

“History is written by the winners, Selena. There’s much I doubt your school has told you about the Council,” Johanna said quietly.

I nodded and kept my head down. There was a clear power struggle between the half-breeds and full-blooded Supernaturals…but it could wait.

“Liam.” Alec went on to the boy with curly, red hair. He looked gangly, and hardly more than fifteen.

I offered him a small smile to ease the tension, but it may have looked more like a grimace. His gaze dropped to the table, focusing on the eggs in front of him.

“And Oliver,” Johanna finished for him, rolling her eyes when Oliver gave a little bow. He was the one with blue eyes who’d helped take Alec to the infirmary yesterday.

“At your service,” he flirted, throwing his arm around Johanna as if she were his little sister.

She just shooed him away, muttering about daft boys. I would hardly have called Oliver a boy; he was probably as old as Alec, who sat on the other side of her, laughing to himself.

“You knew each other before here?” I asked casually.

The playfulness in Oliver’s eyes died.

“In passing,” she said cryptically, leaving me to put the pieces together.

I piled fruit into the crepes. “Does it have anything to do with a prison break?”

Wrong.

Wrong.

Worst thing I could possibly have said.

The table went stone cold silent as they turned to me. Johanna was the only one who didn’t look like she was about to murder me.

I sighed, setting my fork down.

Please don’t make me fight my way out of this room.

“What do you know about that?” Johanna asked, and her eyes had gone completely yellow. Black slit irises were all that remained, making her look distinctly reptilian.

“Your mistress likes to talk,” I said slowly.

“She’s no mistress of mine, girl. Let’s be clear that while you may not have been raised into this world, ignorance is not bliss.”

“I’m not trying to be ignorant. I’m asking questions. If you won’t answer them, you can’t blame me for how I put snippets together. I’ll tell you what I know, but I have questions of my own you still haven’t answered,” I said, hoping I hadn’t just overstepped their gratitude. I wasn’t going to be walked over, though, for a misinterpretation.

Johanna settled back, running her thumb over her bottom lip. “Fight me,” she said. It wasn’t a question.

“Umm…I’m not sure I understand,” I said.

Oliver laughed, and he wasn’t the only one. Most of their group was now either grinning or rolling in their laughter. “Oh, but you will, mate. You will,” Oliver said, wiping his eyes.

Johanna didn’t smile, as she stood and motioned for me to follow. “Shall we?”

What had I just gotten myself into?

* * *

“I really don’t understand the relevance here,” I said.

We’d decided to take this fight outside, since the simulator was still broken. We all jogged to the other side of campus where no one would hear us. I was never one to back down from a brawl, but this was lunacy. We had no weapons, but she exuded an easy confidence, almost a swagger, as she approached. The others stood off to the side, watching with arms crossed and sly smiles. Her nine thought she would win without question, and my friends never doubted me.

Guess we’ll see who really belongs on top.

“Everything has a price. You want answers, and I want honesty. I’ve never known someone to lie to me during a duel. I will be able to tell if you try,” she said.

She’s lying… But her lips were turned up in an easy grin. Her eyes never left me as I approached, and that should’ve been my first indication that this fight was going to be different. That she wasn’t kidding.

It should’ve occurred to me that I’d never seen her use her ability. A lot of things should’ve occurred to me before I’d agreed to this, but by the time she was swinging, it was too late.

I narrowly escaped her punch as I ducked to the side, and her knee came for me. Pain exploded across my abdomen, knocking me back a few feet.

What is she?

In the time it took my stomach to start healing, she was already on me again. I dove to the side.

“What do you know about the prison break?” she said, coming up fast while I was still down.

In the half second it took her to advance on me, I shot my foot straight for her face. Her eyes went wide an instant before my foot met her chin. There was a wicked snap as her head lurched back so hard she stumbled.

Whiplash is a bitch, isn’t it?

I rocked forward to get back up, landing nimbly on my feet. Dirt danced in the wind, but with the sun on my face in the heat of a late August day, I felt peace.

“I told you that Anastasia ran her mouth yesterday before I went into the simulator. Something about how unimpressed she was with Vonlowsky’s teaching, and that she was more amused by your prison break.”

Johanna watched me as she stretched, cracking her neck all the way. The sound sent shivers up my spine, and not in a good way. She wasn’t a hulk like Aaron or Lucas, nor was she incredibly fast like Amber. She couldn’t teleport me like Tori, or use flame and ice like Alexandra and Blair. She was something entirely different, something I’d never encountered before. I just didn’t know what.

“Truth. What’s your question?” She grinned.

I smirked back, wiping my sweaty palms across my pants. My scars tingled as sweat rolled down my back, and the tiny white tank top I was wearing became see-through. Dirt was already smeared all over it and me, but Johanna didn’t look any better.

“Who was the prisoner?” I asked, letting her advance on me.

She cut her hands through the air like knives, changing her fighting style completely. While I was used to dodging punches, this was different. With her fingers held together stiffly, she made jabs left and right. I moved to shield myself with minimal success. For every blow I blocked, one landed. At first, I didn’t understand the madness behind her movements, or why it felt like her fingers were shattering bone. Even as quickly as my body healed, the pain didn’t immediately recede. I moved to escape her hands, but she slipped through—striking a very small point just below my jaw.

“Me,” she said just as pain blinded me.

“Ugh!” I cried out, stumbling forward. My legs weakened, and my knees cracked when they hit the floor, but the white in my vision was receding. I was coming to, and Johanna was ready for it.

Brown boots crossed my vision. She was going for a final blow to seal the win. A quiet trance took me as I let my eyes fall shut.

“Why did you want to know who it was?” she asked, but her voice was slow. Warped, even. Or maybe that was just me.

The way she moved was unnatural and eerily similar to someone else I knew. I felt the tautness of her arms through my power as she pulled back, preparing to land the blow.

You are the master puppeteer. You control everything! my subconscious screamed, snapping something in me, and somewhere deep down, I knew I couldn’t let Johanna strike my head.

It was as if time itself slowed, and a wave of sudden clarity washed over me. I reached up and plucked her hand from the air then threw her to the ground with all my strength. Her body hit the dirt like a bug meeting a boot. I couldn’t pull my gaze away from the impact as I stood. She stilled for a moment in the hole her landing had created, and that was that.

“Because I want to know what you did to land yourself here,” I said, waiting for her to get back up. Seconds ticked by, and I started to feel a little uneasy with all the glares being thrown my way.

Really? She can try to take my head off, but I throw her in the dirt, and we have an issue? Assholes. At least they were loyal.

I took a timid step back in the direction of campus. Johanna wasn’t moving, and thirteen pairs of eyes were glued on me. The tension settled in, and I was starting to regret agreeing to this.

“I was born.” Johanna coughed.

I whipped my head back around, staring wide-eyed at the source of tension. “What?”

“Anastasia Fortescue killed my best friend, and the Council sentenced me to death for it.” Wisps of brown hair had come lose from her braid and now fell strikingly around her tanned face. This story kept getting darker and darker at every turn.

“But your friends…their families are on the Council…” How she could bear to be near them if they’d endorsed this?

“The Council is divided, Selena, but every time a family stands up to the Fortescues, they find themselves wiped off the map. My friends risked their lives to break me out, and now we’re paying the price for what I am.”

“Because you’re not pure-blooded,” I whispered.

It finally made sense. Why I’d never heard of mixed Supernaturals before a few days ago. Johanna had a voice, and power of her own, but it wasn’t a purely Supernatural one. And that made her a threat.

“I’m happy to see you’re not quite as ignorant as I thought,” Johanna said. Beneath her wild hair and impassive demeanor lay a person who was boiling with contempt—because of the hand she’d been dealt in this world. And I understood that.

“I’m here…because I didn’t have a lot of choices,” I blurted. Telling the truth, but still not breaking Anastasia’s rule. We were all brought here as prisoners, and even though I couldn’t say what Anastasia had blackmailed me with, I could say I wasn’t willing. I didn’t want this any more than they did, and her offer to get revenge suddenly didn’t seem quite as appealing. There was a reason she’d put me here, with her other prisoners, and I wanted to know what it was.

Johanna paused, regarding me carefully. She looked at her friends, and then mine—who were not looking very pleased with me right now. Blair in particular looked like she wanted to take a swing at my head, and it didn’t take a genius to know why.

“You told us she asked you, and you thought it was the right thing to do!” Blair said, striding forward.

I held up my hands and nodded slowly, swallowing hard. “Yes, it was the right thing to do given my options. I’m not allowed to say more than that,” I said, trying to put as much emphasis on the word as possible.

I got that she was a bit pissed, but honestly, I hadn’t known that this was a group of prisoners when Anastasia brought me on. I’d really thought we were just going to be a hit squad, and when the Vampire/Supernatural tensions died down, I’d go free with a shot at hunting whoever had sent the Vampires after me, and the demons before them. Johanna’s story…changed things. I needed to give them something, because I wasn’t going to be a pawn in whatever game Anastasia was playing. Not anymore.

“I can’t say I’m terribly shocked. You’re not exactly the type to fight for glory, or what’s right,” Johanna said. She laughed quietly to herself, and I wasn’t sure what she found so funny. Maybe she was the one losing it.

“And you? Why are you here?” Johanna asked, turning to Blair.

My cousin looked at me, clenching her jaw like she wasn’t going to answer at all. “Because she said she needed us,” she said eventually.

“And the rest of you?” she asked, turning to those of my team who were here.

Aaron, my sister’s ex and the man bound to me in ways I didn’t yet understand. Tori and Amber, my roommates who’d become more, who’d become my friends. Blair, my cousin-turned-protégée, and closest friend. They’d stood by me through it all. I didn’t deserve the loyalty, but somehow, they thought I’d earned it. And yet, they all gave Blair’s answer. They were here because I’d said I needed them. I’d just never come clean about what I really meant—that I needed them to put me back together when the time came, and not just as punching bags or Vampire bait.

“I didn’t know how to bear this sentence alone,” I said—making every head turn toward me. I hated being this open. I hated the vulnerability. I hated the shields I couldn’t seem to keep up, as every facet of my life came down.

But they deserved the truth. My team deserved my thanks. Johanna deserved to know that she wasn’t the only prisoner, and her friends needed to know that I didn’t want to lead anyone to their death.

Johanna laid a hand on my shoulder, turning me to her. She was smiling despite what had brought us all together.

“You’re not like the others raised in this world, but I don’t think the one who raised you was any kinder. Guard your heart, and tread lightly. You never know what mask evil wears…but you, Selena, I trust you.” She paused, glancing at something behind me. “Get through the next week, and then we’ll talk.”

The tension was thick, and I still didn’t have all the answers, but some part of me knew that they truly meant me no harm. We all had our reasons for ending up here, some simpler than others, but at the end of the month, we were going off to fight—whether we liked it or not.

The only thing that was abundantly clear was that Anastasia was planning something. I hoped I’d get the chance to end her before whatever it was came to light—because knowing her, it would already be too late if it ever did.