Obsidian Eyes Read Online Free Page B

themselves.
    “You’re missing the point, Hamilton, there are no sides.” Jared’s predatory eyes raked the other boy, his arms crossed over his chest. “Allie is a student, same as you and me.”
    Allie watched the body language between the two youths. Cold waves came off the one called Hamilton, the sneer he showed Allie now turned on Jared.
    “You take being head boy too seriously, McLaren.”
    Allie took the measure of the boy. He liked to throw insults but she suspected he had no real skill with a weapon. She bet herself he would never openly challenge Jared, whose ability with a blade she had already tested.
    Approaching feet interrupted the confrontation, cut short any retort and defused the hanging tension. Three soldiers rounded the corner. The solid black of their uniforms was relieved only by the strip of blue and green tartan running down the side of their pants, signalling they came from the King’s Royal Aeronautical Corp. Their highly polished boots rapped on the slate in unison as they approached.
    “McLaren,” the leader called out in recognition.
    Jared’s head swung in their direction. “Lieutenant Harris,” he said with a familiar tone.
    The red headed lieutenant bowed his head. “Could you tell us where to find Lord Lithgow? He is not in his laboratory.” His gaze roamed over the group. The other boys, sensing their sport well and truly over for the afternoon, slunk away.
    No longer the centre of male attention, Madeline chose to disappear with them, leaving Allie alone with Jared and the soldiers.
    “Try the Alchemy lab,” she said. “He’s working on an experiment this afternoon.”
    Lieutenant Harris moved his gaze to her. His eyes narrowed as he looked at her more fully, a quizzical expression on his face for a fleeting moment.
    “That way.” She gestured, pointing down the hall.
    “I’ll walk with you.” Jared nodded to Allie, then turned and walked down the hallway with the soldiers.
    Allie took the opposite arm of the corridor, toward the girls’ dormitory. Once she could no longer hear their boots clicking, she let out a breath and steadied her pounding heart. She never expected to see Christian Harris again, let alone in these hallways. Given the way his gaze lingered over her, she wondered if he recognised her?

full day of pretending indifference to the casually slung barbs of the noble girls completely sapped Allie’s energy and drained her mental armour. She sought refuge in the forest-painted bedroom. Peace and quiet washed over her as she lay on the bed and stared at the night sky. The constellations were different to the velvet sky that blanketed her for the last three years, yet another reminder of how far away her home lay. Dragging her eyes from the ceiling, she rolled onto her stomach and drew a textbook close. She flipped open the pages and tried to interest herself in Roman politics.
    Instead of Cicero’s rousing oratory, she kept hearing snippets of conversation circling in her head. Throughout the day, gossip-hungry girls whispered and variously described her as a thief, barely house-broken, and feral.
    The last one made her laugh. After three years of running wild in Egypt, her father demanded she return to England to civilise her. He became concerned at reports of her wandering barefoot through the Cairo streets with a group of youths. Not unlike the roaming packs of feral desert dogs, scouring the streets for food and fighting over scraps.
    Allie suspected a deeper motive drove the decision to move her to York, one yet to be unearthed.
    Eloise bounced into their room clutching her satchel to her chest. Once the door snipped shut behind her, she reached in and withdrew a frog and a companion rat. Both freshly dead by the looks of them.
    “How was the alchemy experiment?” Allie flipped the textbook shut and tried to ignore the frog and rat doing a jig across the room as they danced in Eloise’s grip.
    “Fine, until those soldiers turned up. They