Of Boys And Beasts: Pandemonium Academy Royals #1 by Mona Black

Author:Mona Black
Language: eng
Format: epub

The birthday party is being held in the gym. It’s a modern structure that stands apart from the gothic buildings used for classes or as dormitories. The music can be heard from a distance, erasing any doubt as to whether the Academy staff might or might not know about these events.

I walk into the party dressed in the black velvet dress Zoey gave me. It may be a cast-off but it fits me like a glove. Brianna gave me a choker and earrings, made up my eyes, and in the mirror, I saw a confident woman, not a shy girl, so that’s who I am tonight.

If looks don’t matter, then why do I feel as if I’m wearing armor as I walk into this battle? Sometimes the armor is in your mind, and sometimes visual tricks like this dress help you build it up until you can walk through the fire and do what you have to do.

Vanessa follows me, also in black, satiny pants and a shirt that’s unbuttoned midway down, showing a lot of cleavage. She looks hot.

Then again, so do I.

Believe it, I tell myself. I look hot. I am hot. I’m everything these boys want.

I sweep by clusters of girls and boys who are drinking and talking and swaying to the music, and do I imagine the little hush falling over the congregation as I walk on by?

“Heads up,” Vanessa hisses from behind me. “Don’t look back. Bitches be there.”

“If looks could kill…” I mutter.

“Only if you know they’re on you,” she mutters back.

She’s like my bodyguard, striding behind me, and it makes me feel a little bit better as I pass by the vipers who harassed me earlier, who call out names at me, as I pass by Zoey’s quiet group whose gazes I can feel on me.

What have I done to them?

Moot question.

Father told me that we are born carrying our forefathers’ sins. Born fighting to free our souls. Father’s words grow fainter and fainter as the days pass, my old life like a half-forgotten dream, but I think about that as I head toward the center of the gym where tables with drinks have been set up. Born fighting, born sinning. What does it matter why they hate me, what makes them bully me? A desire for the others’ pain? A secret fear that others will prove better than them, prettier than them, more successful than them?

All I have to do is keep fighting. There are no answers. Only the battle.

The party is in full swing. A group of boys is dancing in a circle, arms around each other, waving bottles of booze. The air reeks of spilled wine and beer and also something sweet, a sweet smoke.

“Pot,” Vanessa says. “Gonna get me some. You know what pot is, right?”

“Sure,” I mutter. Father explained all the drugs to me, though I have no experience with them. He explained to me many vices so that I would know them and avoid them.

Vices that Ophelia told me aren’t vices at all, but pleasures.

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