Chapter 2 - Surprise Visit

*Ten Hours Earlier*

The rain pours down over me as I finally stare up at the ivied walls of Witloch Seminary. Thunder rumbles through the air and my teeth chatter, rain dripping down my back from the end of my ragged ponytail, my breath heaving in my lungs after sneaking through the woods for days, evading the many guards and detection systems set up to defend the students of this school.

Protect them from people just like me.

But I’m here now, aren’t I?

A smile spreads slowly across my lips as my eyes sweep over the cheerfully lit upper floors of the school. My gaze drops to the barred windows of the basement, knowing that what I really seek is going to be hidden away somewhere down there.

I take a deep breath, setting my shoulders and darting close to the wall, my feet squishing in my soaked boots. I crouch low, moving from window to window at the basement level, peering down into the rooms of the staff members who work here – most of them at rest at this late hour, watching TV, or looking at their phones.

Only one or two of them entertain a romantic guest in their rooms…but. No time to dwell on that now.

After all, I’m looking for something very specific.

A smile spreads across my lips when my eyes finally land on the lovely mane of white-blonde hair with streaks of gold so soft and shining that they look like tinsel. I take a moment, letting my eyes move over her, watching as she scrolls through one of the celebrity websites that have always been her guilty pleasure.

Though I don’t know why she bothers. Half the people featured in the magazine live here – or at least, their over-bred kids do.

My well-trained eyes flick over the room, taking in her bare little wardrobe, the tiny bed with a blanket so lovingly folded over the end. Safe, secure.

Completely anonymous in its innocence.

I grin, reach out a hand, and knock on the window pane. 

Cosette gasps and spins toward me, her shock only growing when I give her a little wave and blow a kiss.

She stares at me for a long, horrified moment until I roll my eyes and point vehemently to the lock on the window. She just continues to stare, frozen, until I bang on the glass, baring my teeth at her.

She jumps up and dashes over, her small hand making quick work of the lock. She shoves the big window up, shaking her head at me. “Sabrina,” she whispers. “What are you doing here!?”

“What?” I ask, crouching in the rain and doing my best not to shiver. I’ve got a reputation to uphold, after all. “Can’t I come visit my favorite cousin?”

“Brina,” she growls, her blue eyes narrowing to a glare. “You’re not supposed to be here –“

“Ya,” I say, leaning forward. “Which is why it would be really bad for someone to see me crouching outside your window –“

She gasps, realizing I’m right, her head whipping from side to side as she tries to see into the darkness beyond me, desperate to ensure I wasn’t seen.

“Oh, quit it, Cosy,” I murmur, slipping my feet between the bars and starting to lever myself in. “You know I’m not sloppy enough to get caught.”

“Brina!” she gasps, swatting at my feet and then my legs, pissed off but ineffectual. “There are bars for a reason!”

“Well, they should have made them smaller,” I say, grinning wickedly as I squeeze my body between them and drop into her room. “To keep the lil ruffians like me out.”

Growing up I always hated being so tiny, especially with seven gigantic Alpha brothers to push me around. But as I got older, I figured out that having a small frame has its perks.

Cosette just gapes at me like I’m some very horrible and very unwelcome ghost as I stand dripping in her little room.

“Nice digs,” I murmur, turning to shove the window closed and flicking the lock again. “Do you have a tub? I could seriously use a hot bath –“

“Sabrina!” Cosette hisses, striding forward and giving me a shove.

I grin. I love Cosy when she gets all riled up. “Honestly,” I say, “this kind of greeting for your favorite cousin!?”

But then her lip starts to tremble, and her eyes line with tears, and she stares at me like she absolutely hates me. I sigh, shaking my head at her. “No good, Cos,” I whisper. “You’re not getting rid of me.”

“What are you even doing here!?”

“The less of that you know, the better,” I say, crouching down and starting to untie my boots. She shrieks and gives me another shove that sets me right on my ass. I whip my head up, glaring at her.

“You’re going to ruin my life!”

“Oh, I am not.”

“Sabrina!” Her voice gets all high and squeaky as she starts to pant, completely panicked. “You’re – you’re an enemy of the state –“

“Not yet,” I murmur, continuing my work on my boots. “Nobody fucking knows I exist, Cosy. Which is the whole point.”

“Your father was just jailed for treason and about fifty other violent crimes that he for sure committed on behalf of the Pride Syndicate –“

I grit my teeth. Obviously this is not news to me - fury over my father’s death sentence is the only thing that’s kept me going over the two long fucking weeks it took to walk here with no money, no resources, starving and freezing, staying off the roads and out of towns.

“If they catch you here –“

“Well, they’re not going to catch me,” I snap, whipping my head up to glare at her as I tug off my boot. My neat-freak cousin squeaks in protest as brown muddy water splashes on her floor. “Getting caught was dad’s mistake. It won’t be mine.”

Cosette’s shoulders slump with misery. “Sabrina…” she whispers, pleading, shaking her head.

“Look,” I snap, tugging off my other boot and tossing it aside as I stand, my soaked clothing squelching. “Do I love you or not?”

She groans, her head hanging back, because she knows the answer – and she also knows me well enough to know that I’m backing her into a corner with this.

“And would I ever do anything that hurt you, Cosette?”

She sighs, staring up at the ceiling, refusing to look at me. “I think your desire to move forward in the world outstrips how much you love me, Sabrina,” she whispers.

I reach out and take her hand.

She winces at the touch of my frozen fingers, tilting her head back down so that her blue eyes meet my green ones. “You’re wrong,” I reply, trying hard to keep my voice steady. “I’ll burn the whole world down. Every bit of it. Except for you.”

I mean it too.

She sighs, shaking her head. “But even if you’ll do your best to keep me safe while you set it all aflame, you’re still going to make me light the matches, aren’t you?”

I grin, pleased that she’s already realized that protesting is useless. Cosy always was cleverer than most, even if I’m the only one she let see it.

“We don’t have to go straight to setting shit on fire,” I say, grinning. “I’ll settle for that hot bath first.”

“Don’t make me do this, Sabrina,” Cosette whispers.

I sigh and shake my head. “Sorry, Cosy. It’s already begun.” I tilt my head to the side, looking her up and down, my stomach grumbling. “Hey. Got anything to eat?”