จำเลยอัคนี (ซีรีส์ชุด : จอมใจอสูร ลำดับที่ ๑)

“You lucky little bitch! Your mom actually married our city's billionaire! You're getting out of this shithole for good, aren't you?”

My best friend, Navis, sounded a little bitter. We grew up together in the slums until my rich new dad made me change schools.

“Don't be jealous, Navis. You know how beautiful my mom is.” I said with tears in my eyes. “I'm transferring to MoonRiver, so write to me often.”

Navis hugged me even though she pretended to be reluctant. She slipped something secretly into my hand.

"A gift for the beginning of the school year." She said. "Don't let anyone find out. Be safe."

It was a cloth-covered dagger?!

I smiled. Only I knew the significance of the dagger.

Moonriver Boarding School is one of the most elusive schools in the country. I’m hoping Moonriver will help accomplish my dream. I want to be the first female warrior.

I aspire to have status and dignity on my own. Becoming a warrior is the only thing I can fight for with my own hands. No woman has yet passed the warrior training test, but I believe I will be the first.

In our slums, there was crisis everywhere. In the past, my mom would bring home some messed up men. I hated them. They harassed me then, and I had to learn self-defense from an early age. This enhanced my love of warrior training. That's why I receive a dagger as a transfer gift.

Although I now have the opportunity to come to Moon River to study, who knows when my stepfather will change his mind. I must take advantage of this opportunity.

I look back at the car and see my stepbrother, Wyatt.

“Ready?” he says. I shrug. I guess I’m ready. He nods once then goes around the other side of the car.

There isn’t a handle. I wave my hand around the side of the car and nothing happens.

I slam the heel of my boot into the car. The driver sighs behind me and the door opens on it’s own. It’s followed by Wyatt’s cackles from inside the car.

“It's automatic,” Wyatt drawls. He pats my knee. “Here we go to Moonriver!”

……

“You’ll find your first day guide in the student center over there,” Wyatt says. His raises his eyebrows and his smile gets a bit more wolfish. “Good luck.”

I roll my eyes. “Thanks.”

I slam the door to the car shut the walk into the castle. There’s a tall, blonde woman standing smack in the middle of the hallway. I watch as her eyes skim over my entire body from my mud-caked boots to my vintage band tee. They widen slightly. I catch a tremor in her lip.

“Miss, are you sure you’re in the right place?” she says.

I look around and hold my hands out. “My brother said this is the student center.”

The woman’s eyes twitch ever-so slightly. She sticks out a perfectly-manicured hand. “Kathy,” she says. “And you are?”

I stick out my own hand, nails coated in chipped black nail polish.

“Chloe,” I say with all the fake sugary sweetness I can muster.

“Chloe,” she repeats like maple syrup laced with rat poison. “You’re from Greendale, right? I didn’t know fashion was so—” Another once over, lingering on the holes of my tee. “– Interesting there.”

My face heats up despite every bit of rage bubbling deep within me. I drop her hand.

“So how’d you end up at Moonriver?” she goes on.

“My step-father just enrolled me. Figured it’d help me get out of Greendale,” I cock my head. “Isaac Jones?”

Kathy’s eyebrow flies up. Her sneer drops into a malicious smirk. Fuck, this isn’t what I expected. “

“Oh, so you’re Camila’s daughter?” she says. “Camila Martin. Lowly caretaker to the rich’s kids? Tell me, did your mom drug Isaac? Is that why he got rid of his wife?”

She cocks her head in a mocking manor to the way I just did. “I heard he lost most of his fortune in the divorce. Surprised he can even afford to send two kids here.”

“He didn’t,” I snap. “And my mom didn’t give Isaac shit. He pursued her, well after he and the former Mrs. Jones split. They may have gotten quickly married but, I assure you, their relationship was all natural.”

“Interesting,” Kathy drawls. I’m two seconds away from bashing her perfectly white veneers into her skull. She waves a hand. “Well, I’m sure you’ll find your father to be a hot topic in town. Everyone loves the gossip associated with the billionaire and his gold-digging mistress.”

She brushes past me. Her heels click on the floor as she walks to the front door. I can’t help but see red. The dagger feels like a hot weight in my pocket.

But this was Moonriver. This was a whole new territory with new dynamics to learn. With a crack of my fingers, I turn and put on the fakest smile I can muster. Kathy’s waiting for me by the door. I turn to follow her.

She winds me around campus and blathers on about things I truthfully could not give a shit about. I’m about to speak up and tell her to skip all the bullshit when we pass a building so unlike the rest of them.

It’s a large pyramid, seeming like it was plucked out of Egypt and smacked in the middle of the forest. The only thing that makes it feel more of this century is the obsidian it’s made of. The light hits it and it shimmers slightly.

“What’s that?” I ask Kathy.

“Oh,” she laughs. “That’s the Hayes Pyramid. Home of the Hayes brothers.”

“Hayes brothers?” I say.

Kathy rolls her eyes. “Theodore Hayes runs the school,” she goes on. “He is in the running for the next Alpha King. The Hayes brothers are his sons. Four of them. They’re wickedly attractive and smart and funny. ”

“Sounds like they’re all winners,” I dead pan.

“The only winners,” Kathy corrects. She tips her head towards the pyramid. “Are whomever they choose as their mates.”

I look around the pyramid and see a bunch of women frolicking about. Some are singing, some are sparring. They all seem to trying to put on some sort of show. For fuck’s sake, one of the girls is doing splits in the lawn and throwing her head back as if she’s in some sort of pornographic films.

Suddenly, I hear a cry. All of the women in the yard, myself and Kathy all turn towards it. A girl comes out from the backside of the pyramid. Another group of girls immediately go up to console her. Kathy fakes concern in a coo.

“Poor girl,” she says. “Probably another reject for mother.”

“Mother?” I whip my head towards Kathy. “Aren’t we, like, under twenty?”

Kathy hums. “Yes, yes. The peak age of mating is twenty but sometimes strange things happen,” She says. “A baby was left on the front door of the pyramid yesterday. A girl. No one can seem to find her mother. The Hayes brothers, as generous as they were, took her into their house. Now, they’re trying to find a girl to help them raise her.”

“Raise her?!” I gasp. “We’re all students with full time class schedules. No one has the time to raise a baby!”

It seems that Moonriver is even more complicated than I anticipated.