Angel of Death by Lydia Hub (elon musk reading list txt) 📕

“He’s mad at you, you know.”
“Isn’t everyone?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Well, this afternoon I totally screamed at Anissa and then I made you mad and I wasn’t very nice to Hannah at diner.”
“Relax, everyone’s like that their first week.”
“Sure.” We sit in silence for a few minutes before Fisher stands up, stretching.
“Well, I’m-” Brittany pokes her head in the door and stops him mid-sentence.
“What was that fight about?” She asks, curiosity radiates off her skin.
“Nothing!” I snap, suddenly my blood boils with anger. I stand up, my fists ball up over and over. “It’s none of your business.”
“Oh.” She says stepping back into the hall. “I’ll just go back to my room.” She says pointing towards her door. Fisher looks from me to her and cautiously steps in between like there’s a chance I’m going to leap across the room and rip her head off.
“Good night.” Fisher says to her, forcing a smile.
“Umm... yes. You too.” She practically runs back to her room.
“You really need to learn to control your anger.” He says laughing.
“Me? You punched a hole in my wall and she needs to learn not to be so nosey.”
“You make friends real easy don’t you?”
“Good night.” I say, trying to push him towards the door, after a moment he stops being a wall and lets his feet move. Just as I get him through the door he stops and turns to face me. He has to bend his head down to meet my eyes because he’s so much taller than me.
“Good night.” He whispers, brushing a strand of hair away from my face. His fingers trace my jaw before he drops his hand. Just then we hear a noise and when we look, I just see Brittany’s head before it disappears into her doorway.
“She angers me.” I say.
“Same here.” He says with a laugh.
“You think she’s hot though.”
“There’s only one person I think is hot and she’s not that person.” He says touching my face again.
“Good night.” I step back into my room and shut the door.

When I wake up in the morning Octavius is knocking on my door again. When I open he’s go a large clipboard and feather pen. His hand moves feverishly across the clipboard.
“Get dressed.” He orders, his voice full of stress.
“I am dressed.” I say waving my hands over my robe.
“In your jacket. I’ll wait out here.” He doesn’t take his eyes off the clipboard as he says this.
“Okay.” I change quickly into the clothes Anissa made for me then meet Octavius in the hall.
“You’re spending the whole day in training and hopefully you’ll do your job this time.” He says taking off down the hall. I stay where I am.
“No.”
“What?” Octavius says whipping around.
“I said no. I don’t want to kill people.”
“You really should have thought of that before you killed.” His voice fills with anger. “Let’s go.” He grabs my wrist and drags me down the hall. His grip is tight, painful and I struggle to pry his fingers away from my skin.
“Let go of me!” I throw myself onto the ground and kick my legs around wildly.
“Octavius, let her go.” Fisher stand in Octavius way and we all know he’s not getting by.
“She needs to be at training in ten minutes.” He say trying to step past Fisher.
“So that means you get to hurt her?” Fisher pushes Octavius back a bit.
“Yes.” He answers, emphasizing his statement by tightening his grip on my wrist. When I cry out in pain Fisher’s face floods with pure rage.
“You have till the count of three to let her go.” Fisher’s hands clench and unclench at his sides. Obviously he’s trying to control his anger. “One.”
“Fisher move.”
“Two.”
“She has training.” Octavius’ voice has a hint of fear in it.
“Three.” Fisher lunges forward, his fist makes a loud crack when it hits Octavius’ face. Octavius crumbles to the ground, his hand falls from my wrist.
“Fisher!” I rub my wrist with my other hand, trying to ease the pain.
“What?” He asks, helping me up. When I look at Octavius’ face it’s quite obvious Fisher broke his nose. The bone sits at an unhealthy angle and blood pours out of his nostrils. It streams down his face and I almost throw-up at the sight of it.
“Nothing, let’s go to breakfast.”

When we get to the dining hall we see Brittany sitting alone on the other side of the room. We get our mush and sit as far away from her as possible.
“Have you ever realized how much this is like high school?” I say shoveling some mush into my mouth, I swallow it before I get a chance to taste it.
“I don’t really remember high school.”
“How can you not remember high school?”
“Well it has been six years since I graduated.”
“It’s been four since I graduated and I still remember it.” I say pushing my empty bowl away.
“I had two more years than you!” He laughs and leans across the table very slowly. I’m positive he didn’t want me to notice.
“Just think about it, there’s so much unnecessary drama. Next your going to tell me there’s a dance tomorrow.”
“You wish.”
“Ha ha. Sure.”
“Emma Peterson?” A man says coming up behind me. He has dark skin, dark hair, and dark eyes to match.
“Yes.”
“I need to talk to you.” He says pulling me out of my chair.
“I’m sorry my mother told me not to talk to strangers.” I try to pull my arm away but he’s too strong, they’re all too strong here.
“Now.”
“Hey, Marcus, cool it.” Fisher says standing up. He’s about a foot and a half taller then Marcus and I think I see Marcus take a step back.
“She assaulted Octavius.” He says snatching my arm again.
“Really? You think she could hurt Octavius?” Fisher laughs.
“Hey! Look at this.” I say flexing my tiny arm, it’s pitiful and even I can tell that. Fisher just pushes my arm down.
“Who punch Octavius then?” Marcus says glaring at me.
“I punched him. Okay? What are you going to do? Suspend me?”
“I don’t have the power to do that.” Marcus take another step back before he turns and walks out the doors.
“Wow, I’m proud. You didn’t punch anything that time.”
“Maybe,” He pauses to take a breath. “you should go to training.”

I argue with him for about half an hour before he picks me up and carries me to the training room. When we get there Fisher is asked to leave and I’m put back in the tiny, dark room. I stand in there for what seems like an hour before they open the door. The room is empty, there’s not crying girl strapped to a chair in the middle of the room. It’s just empty.
“What do you want me to do?” I say knowing someone is watching me. Slowly four doors appear on the white walls, one in each corner.
“Find the girl.” A voice says, it a voice I don’t recognize. Which means it’s not Octavius.
“What does that mean?”
“Find the girl.” They say simply.
“Yeah I got that.” I mumble, picking a door.

A maze! That’s what this is! I think as I step into the maze. The walls and floor are painted white and they make me think I’m a lab rat looking for a piece of cheese.
In my head I feel like I’m walking around randomly, but some how, in my chest, I know that every turn I make is the right one. I know this because I feel a tug in my chest, every time I come to an intersection the tug tells me which way to go and I don’t question it. After twenty minutes of walking I ‘find the girl’. Her blond hair is pulled back in a loose pony tail and she leans a gains the wall of the maze, looking bored. She wears a grey t-shirt and plain blue jeans.
“Finally.” She says pulling a stopwatch out of her pocket. “Twenty-two minutes.”
“What’s going on?”
“Your in training, what do you think’s going on?”
“I don’t know.” I snap at her suddenly feeling defensive. “I wouldn’t have asked if I knew the answer.”
“Wow. Octavius was right, you do have an attitude.”
“Can I go now?” I don’t wait for her response. I turn around, going the way I came. But now the pull in my chest is gone and without it I’m lost. After a few minutes the girl catches up with me.
“Where are you going?”
“To my room.”
“Your room is that way.” She says pointing to the left.
“I know that.” I say turning down the hall.

Three hours later I’m still wandering around the maze, the blond girl still walks with me, only now she’s silent.
“I give up.” I say dropping to the floor.
“Good job! You finished course one.” Octavius’ voice comes from some hidden speaker. “Trust the pull in your chest, without it your totally lost.”
Suddenly the maze walls disappear in a puff of blue mist. Then that goes and I’m left alone sitting on the floor of an empty white room. Slowly Octavius materializes in front of me. His noes is just a lump of bruised cartilage, obviously Fisher did too much damage to be repaired.
“You may go back to your room.” He waves his hand in one quick motions and a door opens on the far wall. “Go!” He yells shoving me towards the door.

Back at my room I change out of my training clothes because I know I’ll get yelled at for wearing it around the castle. When I’m done I knock on Fisher’s door but he doesn’t answer so I go to Anissa’s. Her door is open when I get there so I just walk in. The girl from the maze stand on a box in the middle of the room, her arms held out away from her sides. Anissa holds a measuring tape to one of the girl’s arms. The room is a sea of colorful fabrics, different blues, greens, reds, and purples swirl together on the floor.
“Hey, what’s going on?” I ask coming up behind her.
“Anissa’s going to make me a dress.” She says smiling.
“Why?”
“For the ball.” She says like I’m the dumbest person in the world.
“What ball?” I say sitting down on the floor next to a pile of fabric.
“It’s the best thing that we get all year. They give us crappy food and a gym for our only form of entertainment but at least they give us a ball.” She laughs.
“Cool.”
“I’m Chloe by the way.”
“Emma. But you know that already.”
“Yep.” She smiles.
“So what’s the ball like?” I pick up a piece green fabric.
“It’s so much fun!” She practically screams. “Anissa and the other stylists make dresses and tuxes. A lot of people go with dates and we have a photographer. They get a Dj, somehow. It’s just... amazing.” She gets a dreamy look on her face a she talks.
“So it’s kind of like prom?”
“Or any high school dance, but whatever, it’s super fun.”
“Do you have a date?” I ask trading the green fabric for a purple piece.
“Yeah, Fisher asked me.”
“Really?” I’m shocked. “When?”
“Last month.” She says stepping down from the box. Anissa motions for me to take her place.
“Arms out.” Anissa says talking a measuring tape out of