Satanic Shadows (The Broken Realms #1)

by Leigh Rivers

I step into my bedroom, a hand presses over my mouth. A large, cloaked, masked person keeps their hand on my mouth as they use the tip of their finger to trace something on my wall. My eyes widen as the wallpaper burns, a symbol appearing, and I try to kick my legs out when the middle of the symbol starts to swirl. Terror takes over me as my wall starts to twist, my heart rapidly beating out of my chest in fear when it grows into a dark hole.

This place isn’t normal. These people—things—aren’t normal. The school uniform is tight on my body. The black shirt buttons up to my throat, there’s a black tie with an academy crest, and a matching pleated skirt sits high on my thighs. I feel like I’m in a dream. A nightmare. Today is the first day of classes, and I’ve already been denied a meeting with the headmistress to get answers. Everyone is taller than me. Freakishly taller. Some don’t speak my language, and I’m sure they’re not human. I know they’re not. No one on this island is except me.

“You don’t belong here, human. You’ll be ripped apart by the end of the fucking week.”

“I think the human likes being on her knees for everyone. Maybe she should stay there. It seems to be the only place she belongs.”

Welcome to Quarrierton Academy, where violence is praised, and the weak and mortal are punished.

The professor walks to her desk and pulls out a second phone. “You will have one mobile, and the individual you are trying to contact will have the other. Each one has a unique number. You dial it into the keypad and…” She does this as she talks, and the other mobile begins to play a polyphonic ringtone.

“You’ll never be free of me. That’s a promise. After we’re done with the academy, I will follow you to the ends of your world and make your meaningless life hell.”