Where was everyone else? But I knew—Yasuo’s gang had chosen their timing perfectly. Everyone else was in the dining hall eating cream-of-beige casserole.

I was fast and tough and good at flailing, but I was going to lose this battle. There were too many of them crowding all around me, too big while I was too small. Gradually, hands found purchase on my body and I was less able to wriggle free. Soon fingers clamped around both arms. I felt someone’s grip at my waist. I was in a vise of many hands.

So much for me having strength or power. Cunning, smarts, grit…All those things I’d thought I had meant nothing when it was me versus a half-dozen guys. I thought my heart was going to explode out of my chest. Trapped—it was the worst feeling ever.

Danny leaned close, studying my face. “How should we do this, lads?” Then he hauled back and sucker punched me in the gut.

It was a shocker, and I hadn’t had a chance to flex my ab muscles to prepare. My body tried to double over in protest, but hands held me tight from behind. My stomach churned and spasmed, and I retched up and convulsively swallowed back down a bit of dinner. I vowed I’d never eat cream-of-mushroom anything again.

“That’s no fun.” Colin shouldered Danny out of the way. “The fun is in making marks.”

Oh shit. I clenched, flexing every muscle, from cheeks to toes.

Toes, I realized. I inched my leg forward along the path, and the feet that’d initially hooked around my ankles were gone.

The guys might’ve had me in a vise, but that meant they were holding me up, too, and I used it, bracing my elbows against them. I swung up my legs, curled my knees to my belly, and then kicked. Both feet shot out like a bucking donkey. Aimed straight for Colin’s groin.

He doubled over, arm curled over his boy parts, and then he just hung there, his body gone rigid, looking like a freeze-frame from a movie.

Meanwhile, the other guys exploded all around him, shouting, “Oh!” and, “Right in the nuts!”

Apparently, getting kicked in the testicles was a spectator sport with boys, because they’d let go of me and were springing around like they were on pogo sticks, hopping, clapping their chests, smacking one another’s shoulders, shouting their sympathy or amusement, and words of advice, like, “Breathe, dude.” Or “Jump up and down!” But Colin ignored them, focused only on gasping for air. It looked like he was trying to speak, but when his mouth moved, nothing came out.

I began to back away, slowly sneaking my way out of the cluster, but a hand wrapped around me, feeling more like talons in my flesh than the other grips had. “We’re not nearly done with you,” Yasuo snarled. There was something dark in his expression, something that told me he wasn’t just toying with me. He was playing for keeps.

I scanned the guys, mentally assessing my options. As Colin was coming to, they gradually brought their attention back to me. I could’ve handled one Trainee, two even. But a whole gang? Even if I could’ve taken them down, I had no idea what the repercussions would be. All these cute, floppy-haired boys, and every one of them was a killer.

“Check out her bug eyes,” Danny shouted. “You scared, D?”

Yasuo whispered in my ear, “You should be.”

My eyes sought Trainee Toby. He was on the outskirts, a witness but not a participant. Not yet, anyway. Great. The one guy in this gang I needed to kill happened to be the last one I wanted dead.

Someone called, “Is the little girl scared?”

Well, yeah. I was frightened out of my wits. I thought of my dream, of breaking into the castle and spying on the vampires. This was just a handful of Trainees, and I couldn’t stop them. What would happen if I was caught in the keep? Who knew how many dozens of vampires awaited me inside? But I knew not to show my fear. I wouldn’t be daunted. I wouldn’t fail before I even began. I could handle this.

I pinwheeled my arm, breaking Yasuo’s grip, then pivoted and jogged a quick few steps back. “Scared? You’re a bunch of lame-ass douche bags.”

“Language,” a voice called in half laughter, half warning.

I spun, momentarily startled and confused, then spotted Priti, jogging toward us on the path, a handful of older Guidons following dutifully behind. I never thought I’d be so thankful to see such a thing.

“Be more creative,” one of them said as she passed, and the girls’ laughs and the easy thump-thump of their pace began to neutralize the tension of my situation. “Yeah,” another added, “call them apes instead.”

The last girl in the caravan turned and jogged backward to address me. “Boors,” she said with a smirk. “Call the boys boors. Vampires dig the old language.” She spun around again, continuing on the path toward the dorms.

Was she scared of the Trainees? She sure didn’t seem it. With enough blood, could I be stronger than these guys? I knew I could never beat a vampire, but could I beat a Trainee? Watching Priti and the Guidons head down the path, something told me that, yes, I could.

I’d figure out how to spy on the guys. I wouldn’t be afraid—I just needed to get stronger. Be more wily.

I broke into a dash before the Guidons shrank too far in the distance. Who’d have guessed I’d ever race toward the older girls? But, I decided, I’d choose whatever evil hazing they could dish out over Yasuo’s gang any day.

The guys grumbled something; then I heard Toby say, “Leave it. I want to get dinner.”

Good old Trainee Toby. I couldn’t kill him in a million years—I was screwed.

Yas shouted at my back, “We’re not done.”

I raised a hand in a wave but didn’t turn around. He was right: We weren’t done, not by a long shot.

I dug deep, knowing what I had to do. I’d get back to the dorm, but it wouldn’t be to lock myself in and hide for the night.

I needed to hit the gym.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Leaving the dining hall so early meant I had extra time to work out, plus I had the gym almost to myself. Normally, I would’ve liked that…though, normally, I wouldn’t have just come from being accosted by a boy gang led by my former best buddy.

Before I’d headed back out, I’d given myself a moment to wallow. Frost was at dinner, and having the room to myself was too irresistible. Besides, now that I was alone, I couldn’t shake this trembly feeling, like my insides had turned to Jell-O. I told myself it was because I’d changed into thin workout clothes in our chilly room, but after that showdown with the guys, I couldn’t help but wonder, Where’s Carden?

I wasn’t sure whether I should worry or be mad. Surely he’d felt me freaking out. So why hadn’t he come? Even if he hadn’t sensed my alarm, usually he would’ve found me by now, simply to say hi. To steal a kiss.

Just the thought had me putting a hand to my mouth. The guy had some kiss—not that I had a lot of experience in the matter. There’d only been Carden, plus the one time with Alcántara, if you counted being touched by his cold, precise lips a kiss, which I hated to.

It wasn’t like my vampire not to pursue me. I missed it. Missed him.

My eyes went to the book he’d given me for my birthday, and before I could tell my hands otherwise, I was pulling it from my shelf. All the better to feel sorry for myself, right?

I flipped through, straight to the secret compartment in the back binding, and pulled out the photo of my mother. I’d shown it to Carden—was that why he was upset with me? It was probably lame of me to open up so much. Had it been too much too soon? Maybe he’d panicked.

If vampires were immortal, it sure put a different spin on relationships. Like, forever really was forever. Maybe he wasn’t ready for the sort of commitment implied by pictures of one’s dead mother.

With a sigh, I put away the picture and pulled out the rubbing I’d done of runes found in a cliffside cave. Viking graffiti—how cool was that? It was such a human thing, looking at it often made me feel better. Like, maybe I wasn’t alone in this whole humanity thing. A sort of reminder that this too shall pass.

I tore out a sheet of notebook paper and hastily copied the runes on a piece of scratch paper before tucking the rubbing back in its hiding place. I had to know what those symbols said, and now, just a few weeks into my Old Norse Dialects class, I finally had the tools to translate. Besides, there was nothing like a project to take my mind off my troubles.

Master Dagursson had taught us the runic letters, and they actually weren’t too hard to get the hang of. It was what Old Norse was written in before it was Latinized, and there weren’t that many runes anyhow. As for the Norse itself, though German was my expertise, the two languages shared some links, and my grasp of basic grammar was improving.

It took me just a half hour to get it.

I worked it through, finally, slowly reading, “Vampíru drottinn Sonja.” I deflated. “Goddammit.” The thing translated to “Sonja, ruled by vampires.” Well, of course she was. Because if there was a Sonja, that poor girl was ruled by the vamps, that was for certain.

I kicked back in my chair, for the moment putting aside the annoyance of it all to let it blow my mind. There’d been some girl on this island, as many as a thousand years ago, named Sonja. She’d maybe been like me, tucking her body into that same niche on that same cliffside, probably hiding from vampires just as I had. She’d been ruled by vampires. Just like I was. It was nuts.

I felt a connection across the ages. What’d happened to her? Had boys also turned against her? Mocked and tormented her?

Had Sonja been forced to kill her best friend, too?

Enough. My own drama made me sick, and this stupid translation was no longer helping one bit. I slammed the dictionary shut. Enough wallowing.

I had to get out of there. Feeling bummed wouldn’t help anything. It was time to hit the gym.

It was an impulse I never usually had. Seriously, never. But my interaction with the guys had thrown me. I’d been feeling so strong. But pitted against those big almost-vampires, being physically overwhelmed, trapped and held, it was a rude reminder of how weak I really was. I’d work out till my muscles burned. Till I was too tired to wallow.