Avoiding Enzo's concern after class, I hurried to the bathroom and promised to meet him and the others in the common room space. He looked concerned as I hurried off, but how could I explain what I was feeling to him when I didn't even understand it fully myself?

The girls' bathrooms were empty. So empty that the sound of my footsteps tapping across the tiled floor as I entered bounced and echoed around the space. The sharp scent of pine cleaner gave it a recently cleaned vibe I was still struggling to get used to.

Over my shoulder, I saw the door close behind me and watched as Enzo hesitated through the frosted glass of the door before moving off. Who put glass, even frosted glass, on the door to a bathroom? Even if there were cubicles, it still didn't seem right.

As if the school could sense my disapproval, the pipes in the walls gurgled loudly, and a smile curved my lips. The familiar noise reminded me oddly of home.

As I made my way to the furthest toilet from the door, I allowed my mind to reflect on everything I had learnt. I wasn't sure how much of the class I had taken in, but it felt like my brain was full and I just needed a minute to process it alone.

There was a sense of rightness I got from learning about it all, but that didn't stop it from being overwhelming.

Locking the cubicle door behind me, I sat on the closed toilet lid with my eyes shut for a minute. After breathing deeply for a couple of minutes, I felt myself calm and gradually find my centre again. The knowledge I had learnt still sat in my brain, but it no longer consumed me and I was grateful for that.

Part of me was beginning to understand why people kept diaries to record their feelings and emotions. A pen and paper had been a luxury the streets could not afford me, but here? Perhaps I could start one?

The door to the bathroom opened, startling me out of my calm.

"She came in here?" I heard Ariana's nasally voice ask someone.

"Yeah, we saw her." A girl replied quickly, sounding anxious.

I heard a cubicle door a little way up from me slam open as though someone had kicked it in. What was this? Some TV school drama. If it was, Ariana was winning an Oscar for biggest bitch and no one could convince me otherwise.

I snorted as I stood and heard a second door slam before quietly unlocking mine. My shoulder leaning on the frame, I looked at Ariana and her cronies as they blasted a third door open with a wave of what looked like blue fire. In the doorway, a nervous, mousy girl looked at me with wide eyes.

There was guilt there, too. I shook my head slightly, as if to reassure her. I didn't know what had led them to doing this, but I did know that I wasn't the person to judge someone for doing what they had to do to survive.

Returning my attention to the three blondes, I allowed a small chuckle to escape me. "What are you hoping to achieve?" I asked, my eyebrow raising along with my question.

Perhaps I should have been scared. They clearly had magic they could control and I... had nothing more than a strange buzzing in my ears and potentially something inside me. But with no control or training I was pretty out classed and very aware of the danger.

That didn't stop me from at least talking the talk, if I couldn't walk the walk.

Three faces turned on me and I was struck by the slightly unhinged look in Ariana's eyes. Fantastic. Why did the crazy witch bitch have her eye on me? I tried to recall our brief encounter this morning, but nothing stood out as particularly triggering for her.

Ignoring them all, I strolled casually over to the sinks and washed my hands. I kept my back to them to show how completely unconcerned I was.

The mirror above the sink allowed me to watch their stunned expressions for a satisfying moment before they recovered and stalked over to me.

An unseen force connected with the back of my head, slamming it into the wall hard enough that I briefly saw stars.

My hands scrabbled at the back of my neck and then tried pushing at the sink, pressing into my stomach as I fought against the hold. The issue I was discovering with magic was that the only way to fight it was by using magic itself.

All my scrappiness and prior fight experience was useless against an invisible opponent and attackers I couldn't even reach.

"What did I warn you?" Ariana asked with a false sweetness.

"I don't remember." I threw back, my voice muffled by how squashed my face was as I fought to escape.

"What did I say about thinking you matter and getting ideas above your station?" She hissed.

I sucked in a breath before letting out a laugh. "Ah, it's not ringing any bells. Don't think you make as much of an impression as you'd like to think, babe."

The magic holding me in place released me slightly, allowing me to raise my head and turn to catch sight of her furious face. Only for it to return even stronger and slam me back into the tiles with even more force.

A hiss of pain escaped me and I felt a trickle of wetness running through my hair, moving behind my ear and down my neck.

I didn't have to raise my hand to check to know that it was blood. The funny thing was her thinking that her actions scared me. Like I hadn't faced danger before. Like I hadn't faced monsters before.

There was that feeling in my mind again as memories drifted just out of reach. This time when I reached out to grasp one, it didn't slip through my fingers, instead flashing up before my eyes and allowing me to catch a glimpse of a young Blake. The background was fuzzy, but he was fighting something shadowy, his concerned eyes darting to me briefly before it faded.

My eyes widened as I realised that it must be a memory from my missing day. A memory that had eluded me for years chose the moment when my face was squashed against the tiles of a bathroom to return. I didn't get a chance to focus on it as much as I wanted to.

"Look at you." Ariana crooned, "Thinking you're worth anything. You're a pathetically little human nobody, so don't think for a minute that Chase is even slightly interested in you."

That caught my attention. "Chase? What's that colossal idiot got to do with anything?"

I heard a shocked gasp. "Don't fucking speak about him like that." She screeched as my head pulled back and reconnected with the tiles again.

I bit back a groan, instead focusing on the intensity of her reaction. "I'm not even slightly interested in him. He's the one that tried coming onto me. If you're that concerned about where his hands are, you should be speaking to him."

"Yeah right, Chase is an Alpha and he and Ari have been promised to each other for years-" Darcy spat from somewhere just out of my view.

"Shut the fuck up, Darcy." Ariana cut her off and Darcy fell silently immediately. "Chase is my boyfriend in every way that matters and you'll keep your disgusting little hands off him human, or I'll be forced to remove them."

In every way that...? "You mean you are fuck buddies and he won't commit?" I laughed, hysteria bubbling up inside of me as I realised that this was all over some pathetic boy.

My head hit the wall again, but it was worth it.

"You don't know what the hell you're talking about filthy," my head hit the wall a second time, "human," I was beginning to wonder if I'd have any brain cells left or if this would destroy them all, "whore."

Each slam rattled my teeth, and I tried to guess how many more I could stay conscious for. My struggles were getting me nowhere, so I stilled, conserving my energy and trying to regroup and rethink how to get away.

"Interesting to hear you calling someone a whore, Ariana, after all the things you used to get up to at school." said a cool voice by the door.

My vision was a little blurry, so I could only just about make out some long, dark hair, but the voice was unmistakably Blake's sister.

"Kira, so lovely to see you," Ariana's tone was sickeningly sweet, "I'll just finish my discussion with the human, and then maybe we can catch up? I didn't get a chance at your family's party earlier in the year."

The force ground my face harder into the tiles, even as her word ground into me how little I knew, how little connection I held to them all and their world. Did she not understand that Kira had just called her a whore?

"A catch up would be lovely." Kira replied, "Release the human now, Ariana. My brother is attached to it and I'd like to find out why before someone kills her." Kira's voice was quiet, but the commanding edge was unmistakable.

What did she mean her brother was attached to me? Sure, we seemed to share memories, and he had been somewhat flirty, but we hardly knew each other, so to call him attached seemed extreme.

The magical force holding me in place released me as quickly as it had arrived, and my hand caught the edge of the sink to keep me upright. I took a couple of steadying breaths before turning to face them.

Ariana was staring at Kira and seemed to have forgotten I was there. "Let's go ladies." Kira said sharply and Ariana, Tia and Darcy took off without a backwards glance as they hurried to obey.

In the silence they left behind, I felt my body relax and my eyes searched for the girl who had led them here, but it seemed she had left at some point too. My eyes moved to my unusual saviour and a thank you hung on the edge of my tongue, but I bit it back.

"I appreciate your support." I said instead.

Kira laughed, an unsettling tinkling sound in the echoing space. "I see you are learning, Miss Winters, but I'm not fae, so don't worry about owing a favour."

"I'm not worried about that. As I said, your support is appreciated even if it is confusing. I just wonder why you intervened at all." I replied quietly.

Kira examined me for a moment from her spot by the door, her eyes lingering on the side of my head and neck where I knew the blood had run down. Lifting a hand, my fingers probed the injury to feel for the damage there.

The wounds felt pretty superficial, but head wounds bleed a lot and my hand came away stained red. My eyes shot to Kira and her darkening eyes.

For a moment, she didn't speak or move, or even look like she was breathing.

Then she spoke, her voice quiet, but her words sending shivers down my spine. "You should be more careful where you bleed Erica Winters. Sometimes the monsters here just can't control themselves."