Chapter 71: BURN IN THE ROOM

Aina

Aina’s phone buzzed in her hand again. She glanced down. Another text from Ally.

Ally:Girl, I’m serious, things are BAD on this side! If you’re still in the athletic locker rooms, DO NOT COME OUT. Just hide! This is our last day before the trip and everyone is insane. Sophia is on a full-blown witch hunt. She just told Iris she knows something new about you!!

Aina stared at the screen, her stomach churning, but then a wave of pure, exhausted annoyance washed over her. She shook her head in disbelief.

"Oh my gosh... what worse can Sophia actually do to me?" Aina muttered aloud, her voice trembling with frustration. "That girl is an actual, literal witch."

Aina raised her hand, her eyes falling onto her fingers. Every single one of her fingernails was heavily wrapped in thick white bandages and medical tape. Just last week, Sophia had trapped her in the old greenhouse and meticulously, ruthlessly plucked out her fingernails one by one with iron pliers just to get her to confess where Amilia was. The agony had been unimaginable.

Aina stared at her bandaged hands, her chest heaving as bitter resentment bubbled up in her throat. Even during my worst, most miserable days back in the Whitelock Pack... people were never this evil. This place is an absolute nightmare.

Her angry gaze flicked back through the glass window of the sauna. Malric was still sitting there, breathing slowly, completely peaceful.

Aina’s blood began to boil. It’s him, she thought, her teeth grinding together so hard her jaw ached. It’s all his fault. If he hadn’t hunted me like an animal in the woods, if he hadn’t brought all this attention to me, Sophia wouldn’t even know I exist. Everything is his fault!

A dangerous, reckless spark flared to life deep inside Aina’s chest.

She looked at the digital temperature control unit mounted on the wall right beside the sauna door. Then, her fingers slowly reached into her blazer pocket, wrapping around the heavy brass ring of janitorial keys. Because she was hurt and contributing nothing to the team she was forced to clean the facility every afternoon and open it up every morning, she had the master keys.

Aina swallowed hard, her heart pounding against her ribs like a sledgehammer, but her hands didn’t shake. Not this time. She stepped up to the control panel. She grabbed the digital dial and violently cranked the temperature setting all the way to maximum capacity, a scorching, dangerous level meant only for steam cleaning the wood.

Then, she pulled the master key from her pocket, slid it into the heavy metal deadbolt of the sauna door, and turned it with a sharp, definitive CLICK.

Locked.

Aina grabbed her heavy hamper of towels, sprinted quietly around the corner, and positioned herself directly against the back exterior wall of the sauna structure, completely hidden from view but close enough to hear everything.

She dropped her laundry hamper, slid down the cool stone wall until her butt hit the floor, and pulled her wired earphones out of her pocket. She plugged them into her phone, pulled up a video of funny cat compilations, and popped the earbuds in.

Not even two minutes passed before the quiet was shattered.

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

Aina pulled one earbud out. The sound of heavy, furious fists slamming against the thick sauna glass echoed loudly through the empty washrooms. Aina’s lips slowly curled into a dark, deeply satisfied smirk. "Ah..." she whispered to herself, leaning her head back against the wall. "That... is the sound of absolute magic."

She put her earbud back in and tapped play on her video.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

The pounding got louder. Stronger. More frantic. Malric was clearly awake now, realizing the room was rapidly turning into an actual oven. Even sitting on the outside wall, Aina could feel the intense, radiant heat bleeding through the wooden partition and stone. Her own skin was beginning to sweat just from sitting nearby.

Yes... she thought viciously, a manic little chuckle escaping her lips as she watched a video of a cat falling off a couch. Burn, you arrogant royal jerk. Burn! Now that is what you deserve.

Ten minutes passed. Then twenty. Then a full thirty minutes.

The pounding had transformed from furious fists into desperate, heavy, metallic thuds. Malric was using his full, unbridled Alpha strength, roaring curses that were muffled through the thick insulation.

Aina was casually scrolling through her phone, enjoying her little piece of vengeance, when suddenly— CREEEAK... CRACK!

Aina paused her video and pulled both earbuds out. The sound coming from the front of the sauna wasn’t just pounding anymore. The heavy metal frame of the door was screeching under terrifying, unnatural pressure. Aina peeked her head around the corner just a tiny fraction and her eyes went wide as saucers.

The reinforced metal door frame was physically warping. The heavy deadbolt area was bending outward, the metal shifting and splintering under a barrage of furious, superhuman strikes. The heat radiating off the glass was so intense it was warping the air around it.

Yo... Aina thought, her eyes practically bulging out of her head as cold terror instantly replaced her smug satisfaction. I need to dip. Right now! "I need to go before this man actually breaks out and murders me with his bare hands!" she hissed under her breath.

Dropping to her hands and knees to stay below the line of sight, Aina shoved her phone into her pocket, abandoned her laundry basket, and began crawling like a frantic lizard across the wet tile floor.

The second she cleared the washroom doorway, she scrambled to her feet and took off like a bat out of hell.

Her sneakers slapped frantically against the stone ground as she booked it through the grand coliseum, sprinting past the empty bleachers and flying past the coach’s locked office. Her lungs burned, her heart was hammering a million miles an hour, and her injured hands throbbed with pain, but as she burst out into the bright afternoon sunlight of the main courtyard, a huge, breathless, unstoppable smile broke across her face.

She was running for her life, completely terrified of the utter wrath of Prince Malric once he escaped that molten box.

But at least, Aina thought, a hysterical, triumphant laugh bubbling up in her chest as she sprinted toward the main dorms, at least I finally got a real hit on that guy! A slap wasn’t enough. Now... whatever horrifying punishment comes my way by the end of today... it was 100% worth it!