I pull back my arm and my fist shakes.

Matteo laughs, and the sound grates on my last nerve. The only thing worse than being punched for no reason is then being laughed at for it in front of everyone.

Screw this. I step forward with my left leg, pulling my right one back, and I kick him in the balls with all my might.

Matteo’s eyes widen; he grunts and crumples to the floor. Blackwood raises an eyebrow.

“I slipped,” I say with an edge in my voice.

“Well, now you’re even,” she says. “There will not, and I repeat, there will not be retaliation later. This is it. You walk away with an even score.”

“Understood,” I say, even though I really don’t. And just like a switch has been flipped, everyone starts moving at once.

“That was your third mark, Matteo. Meet me in my office after class,” Blackwood says. He stands up and I reflexively take a step back.

“Come on,” Layla says. “Let’s get you to the infirmary.”

Matteo walks past me and Ash says something to him, only I can’t hear what it is.

LATER THAT EVENING I sit in front of the fireplace in our room on an ancient-looking rug patterned with trees. I watch the fire pop and dance over the logs and lift my hand to lightly touch my bruised eye. The strong-smelling poultice the nurse left on my face all day brought down the swelling, but I’m positive I’m going to have a shiner for a good two weeks. If people weren’t gossiping about me before, they will be.

I’ve decided to talk to Blackwood tomorrow. They might not have a phone here, but there has to be a way to get in touch with Dad. There’s no chance he would want me staying at a school where students attack me in the middle of the hallway and teachers expect me to hit them in retaliation.

I look up at the dark wooden clock on the mantel, which looks like a cuckoo clock without the cuckoo: 11:54 p.m. I’m positive that sneaking out right now is a bad idea. But I’m also positive that I just got sucker-punched for some mysterious reason and if I don’t go meet Ash I may never know the truth about this place.

Layla’s bedroom door creaks open for the first time all night. As far as I can tell, she’s been avoiding me, and I just keep hoping she hasn’t decided I’m too big a liability.

“I didn’t know he would do that,” she says quietly.

“What do you mean?” I say, turning toward her.

She holds her door open but doesn’t actually come into the living room. “When I said Matteo was all bark, I just want you to know that I had no idea he would hit you.”

My eyebrows scrunch together, pulling at my sore face in the process. “I didn’t think you did.”