Page 31 of Savage Elites

“Cormac,” Two boys from the year below flung open the door and barreled into our common room. “Something is going on!”

Cheers and raucous laughter from further down the hallway cut through the peaceful atmosphere.

Cormac placed his plate on the coffee table and stood. “I’d better see what’s happening.”

I set down my tea and rose. “It sounds serious.”

As we walked toward the door, some first years followed after us, their eyes alight with curiosity.

“Stay in here, where it’s safe.” Cormac’s voice hardened. “I mean it.”

The younger students returned to the chess game, and we stepped out of the common room into a hallway filled with cheers and catcalls and closed the door behind us.

Cormac clenched his teeth. “The noise is coming from the sixth-form common room.”

I gulped. “Right.”

The last time I had been in that room, Geraldine had offered all the boys a ten-thousand pound reward for taking my virginity. But I doubted that she would give me any trouble now that she knew I was pressing charges for assault.

Cormac and I stepped through the doors of the sixth form common room, and a gust of freezing air blew over our skin. Instead of the fight I expected, everyone gathered around the open windows. Some even hurled down open cans of soda from the wall of vending machines.

I spotted Leopold on the far right window, rushed to his side, and grabbed his elbow. “What’s going on?”

He spun around, face shuttering. “Nothing. Let me walk you to your room.”

I tried to walk around him, but he blocked my path. “What’s happening outside?”

A group of girls rushed around the window spot he had occupied and roared with laughter. Whatever they murmured to each other was obscured by the roars and bellows from some of the male occupants of the room.

“You don’t want to see this.” He grabbed me by the shoulders.

I stood on my tiptoes. “Leo—”

“Willow.” The hands around my shoulders tightened, and Leopold fixed his panicked, aquamarine eyes on mine. “Listen to me.”

“Your sister’s been pigged!” screeched a passing girl I was sure had been at Ashley’s initiation. “I can’t wait until it’s your turn.”

All the blood drained from my face and into my plummeting stomach. “W-what?”

“You heard me, Pigsty.” She continued to the window, casting me a nasty sneer over her shoulder.

Someone from the other side of the room shouted, “Look at that pig getting roasted!”

A ball of dread hit me in the gut. There was no time to demand explanations. I had to go down and see for myself. Rushing through the people streaming toward the window, I headed toward the common room door.

Leopold grabbed my arm. “What are you doing?

“I can’t just stand by and let them do this.”

“You’re protecting her after she let those girls violate you?” he said.

Irritation clawed at my skin. I wasn’t a doormat or someone willing to forget such a terrible betrayal, but I wasn’t heartless, either. Leopold’s nostrils flared, mirroring how I felt, but if he thought allowing something terrible to happen to Ashley was justice, he didn’t know me at all.

Staring into his aquamarine eyes, I said, “I’ll never forgive her for that, but if I stand by while anyone’s being assaulted, I’ll never forgive myself.”

“You know those assholes might turn on you?” he asked.

“That’s no reason not to fight back.” I yanked my arm out of his grip and sped down the hallway, nearly bumping into Prakash at the top of the stairs.