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Cinder

When Cinder had cut a deal with the centaurs, she'd anticipated that it would lead to trouble. What she hadn't anticipated was that it would lead to her having to kill someone, just to keep their operations a secret. The very idea of killing anyone of her own free will just seemed far, far away, something well out of her reach, her sight. It was incomprehensible. And yet, here she was, carrying out step one of Operation Assassinate Aimery Park.

Cinder sighed as she stared down at the Astronomy textbook she'd randomly picked from the hundreds of others gathering dust in the library bookshelves. Around her, students doodled, took notes, and snored quietly on the pages of their books. Normal kids, living normal lives. Cinder wondered what that felt like.

The door to the library swung open and Cinder didn't need to look to know who it was. Only one teacher patrolled the library looking for students to punish during weekends and holidays. And if that wasn't a dead give-away, the way students elbowed each other awake and quickly hid their doodles between the pages of their textbooks was enough. Aimery Park had arrived. Which meant it was time for Cinder to act.

She threw back her head and loudly groaned. "Ugh, I hate Astronomy! I mean, who cares about the stupid constellations and planets? What do they have to do with us?"

Students eyed Cinder as if she were crazy, glancing fearfully at some point near the entrance. But she barrelled on. "The only thing worse than Astronomy is the Astronomy professor!" she moaned, even more loudly, "He's always got this gross, creepy smile on his face. Do you think he knows how ugly it is? How can he stand to look in the mirror every morning?"

The smart clacks of expensive boots on marble grew steadily louder as their owner made his way over to her, and students hurriedly gathered up their things in their haste to get away.

Cinder forced herself to keep going on her suicide tirade. "And what's more, he's not even that smart! He forgets the names of stars and constellations and planets and all of that other stuff all the time. Seriously, what kind of an Astronomy teacher forgets the teachings of their own subject? A really dumb one, that's who!"

"And I suppose your intelligence is equal to Merlin himself, Miss Linh?" A cold voice murmured just behind her.

Cinder stiffened, and slowly turned in her seat to look up into the smug face of Aimery Park. He shook his head, clucking his tongue with disappointment. "You really should know better than to insult a teacher behind their back, Miss Linh. I'm afraid that sort of infraction is inexcusable."

Cinder said nothing, trying to appear terrified and regretful at having been caught (which wasn't hard)

"I do believe a detention is in order." Aimery continued, a certain amount of glee lacing his voice.

Cinder shook her head vehemently, accidentally smacking herself in the face with her own ponytail in the process. "No, no, please Professor Park. I'm sorry! I promise, I've learnt my lesson, I won't do it again."

For the first time since Cinder had met him, Aimery's smile reached his eyes. "I'm afraid I can't take your word for it Miss Linh. I must make an example of you. We can't have children insulting their teachers willy-nilly, can we? Of course not. It is our job to educate clueless young people such as yourself with all the knowledge you will need to get by in the world. And that includes respect."

"But I had detention with Jael on the last week of school!" Cinder complained, "He sent me to the Black Woods to gather dittany! And I hate the Black Woods, especially at night, with all the horrible creatures and poisonous plants. I could've died!"

"But did you learn your lesson, Miss Linh?"

Cinder pretended to hesitate. "Well, now I wouldn't dare put fire drake droppings into anyone's pumpkin juice, so I guess so. But it was horrible! The trees are so creepy in the dark, and the centaurs are so territorial-"

"Then it is an effective detention for you Miss Linh." Aimery said triumphantly, "And you know, we could use a few more leaping toadstools in the Potions department. I believe that a trip to the Black Woods would do wonders for your attitude."

Cinder buried her annoyance under a dramatic groan. He didn't even let her finish her complaints about the forest! She'd worked hard on coming up with all the reasons why it was such a terrible place.

"Just so long as it's not a full moon." Cinder said, feigning a shudder. "Of all the creatures in our world, and even the muggle world, werewolves are definitely the worst. If I see one, I just freeze up. I'd be easy game on a full moon."

A cold gleam entered Aimery's dark eyes, and Cinder knew she had him hooked. There was nothing Aimery liked more than making a student suffer.

"I'll send you a letter with the date of your detention in a few days' time." Aimery told her, "Please don't try to get out of it Miss Linh. You'll only make it worse for yourself if you do."

With those ominous words, Aimery turned on his heel and marched off in search of another student to torture, his blood-red cloak swishing around his legs.

"So how did it go?" Kai asked Cinder as they walked along the edge of the lake.

"I think I have him hooked." Cinder told him, "He's definitely giving me detention in the Black Woods, and I planted the idea that I would hate it if there were werewolves out and about."

"Great. I guess." Kai said awkwardly, "When is your detention?"

"Not sure yet." Cinder said, "He said he'd send me an owl in a few days to tell me."

"Leaving all of us to stew as he decides which is more important, your safety or his amusement." Kai grumbled bitterly.

"Oh, he'll definitely pick his amusement." Cinder assured him, "I don't think Aimery has ever spared a thought to the safety of others in his life."

Kai chuckled. "Yeah, fair point. So, we're calling phase one a success?"

Cinder nodded. "Yeah, I think so."

Kai sighed. "I'm not sure whether to feel pleased or disappointed."
"Me neither." Cinder admitted, "I know that we don't really have much of a choice and that its necessary and all that, but still, it doesn't seem right."

"I'm just trying to think about what a horrible person Aimery is to make me feel a bit better about all this." Kai said.

"How's that working out for you?"
"Not very well. My brain just keeps screaming at me, "Killing people is wrong!"."

Cinder chuckled ruefully. "Yeah, mine too."

Kai smiled and put his arm around her shoulders. "Well, for what it's worth, I'm glad to be reluctantly killing evil people with you."

Cinder leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder. "Me too."

A/N: Just something to tell you guys that I haven't forgotten about Kaider. Can you guess what the crew's plan is to kill off Aimery?

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