Page 121 of Depraved Boys

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.

He held me steady. “What’s going on?”

“Willow’s about to start a fight, and she’ll need some backup,” muttered Leopold.

By the time I reached the bottom of the stairs, Sebastian and Cormac had joined us. We all rushed down the hallway toward the fire exit. Leopold and Prakash ran on my left and right, while Sebastian and Cormac took up the rear.

I pushed open the fire door, and a gust of freezing wind chilled my skin. Cheers and jeers and shouted insults filled my ears, the intensity of which made my heart skip. Ignoring the biting cold, I pulled together the edges of my blazer and ran into the night. Frost and gravel crunched underfoot, and my lungs filled with frigid air.

Cormac and the kings jogged around me in silence along the side of the academy’s vast building, keeping up with my slower pace. As we rounded the corner, I caught the first sight of a crowd of boys.

Tall, iron lights illuminated the academy’s tree-lined garden and reflected off the thin layer of snow over the ground. I still couldn’t see or hear Ashley, as the boys had formed a tight circle around her.

As I sprinted across the frozen lawn, one of the boys broke away from the crowd, giving me my first glimpse of Ashley.

She was naked and crawling on all fours, with a curly, plastic tail in her anus.

My stomach plummeted, and my feet slipped across the snow.

Someone—Prakash, perhaps—grabbed my arm to stop me from falling on my face, but my insides spasmed, and all I wanted to do was hurl my guts. I had to blink to make sure I hadn’t fallen into some kind of fever dream, because what I saw was inconceivable and obscene.

“Spit roast!” one voice shouted.

“Cum slut!” another roared.

Ashley crawled out of sight, and the crowd closed in around her. Palpitations reverberated across my chest, and my breaths came in shallow pants.

Leopold clapped his hand over his mouth. “A butt-plug!”

“Fucking hell,” muttered Sebastian.

“Willow,” said Prakash. “Are you alright?”

“We need to stop this, now,” said Cormac.

Another round of cheers filled the air, followed by someone’s shout of, “In your face, Piggy!

The implication of those words sent a spike of adrenaline through my heart. I glanced around for something, anything to stop this monstrous display. My gaze caught a branch that had fallen from a nearby tree, and I rushed to its trunk and picked it up.

“What the fuck, Willow?” Leopold stood in my path.

My limbs shook with banked rage. “Out of my way.”

Maybe I’d read too many of Dad’s Norse mythology books, but fury took over my senses, and I charged at the crowd of boys. With one sweep of the branch, I whacked half a dozen of them across the backs.

“Get off her!” I screeched.