Chapter 28 #2
I touched the daggers strapped to my thighs. Theo had a belt of small knives across his chest, while Blake carried a sword at his waist. These were just what we’d found lying around the Drakharrow tower; Blake had literally pulled the sword from a display on the wall and sharpened it himself.
It hadn’t escaped my attention that on an ordinary day at Bloodwing, highbloods wouldn’t need weapons: They were weapons enough.
They had no real enemies, not since they’d turned against one another in the last civil war.
They were at the top of the fucking food chain.
Yet now, suddenly, they were faced with an unexpected threat—themselves.
Behind us, the doors to Drakharrow Tower thudded shut, sealing Visha and the others inside.
I hoped we’d been thorough enough and no more infected were in there with them.The lamps burned low in their brackets.The sky was still dark.
It was hard to believe that just a few hours ago, Florence and I had been calmly dressing for the ball.
I stayed by Blake’s side, matching his stride, my gaze drifting to his profile. He hadn’t said that he’d smelled Collette’s blood—like a highblood might have. He said he’d heard it rotting.
“Blake.” I kept my voice soft.“How did you know about Collette? You said you could hear her blood rotting.What did you mean?”
He slowed slightly. Theo glanced at us both, then took a few steps ahead and stopped, waiting, giving us at least the illusion of privacy. “Pendragon,” Blake said quietly, “we can talk about this later. This isn’t the time.”
“But what are we talking about, exactly? What’s going on? Something is happening with you. Don’t keep me in the dark. Talk to me.” I touched his cheek. “Don’t shut me out.”
Blake looked down at me. In the torch glow, I could see his pupils glimmering like coals. He took a deep breath. “Do you remember what happened in my room tonight? Before you fell asleep?”
My face flushed. “Of course. I mean, most of it. You were amazing. And then I woke up and … you were gone. Why did you leave?”
His shoulders sagged. “Good. That’s … good,” he murmured, ignoring my question.
Suspicion prickled. “What happened to the room, Blake? The window was broken. Everything was trashed. Did you do that? Why? And why didn’t I wake up when it happened?”
He lifted a hand and gently stroked my hair. “Something was wrong. Very wrong with me. But … I fixed it. I swear to you, it’s under control now. Do you trust me?”
“I trust you,” I whispered.
I saw relief fill his eyes—as if he truly hadn’t known what my answer would be—and my chest ached. There’d been so much hate between us. So much mistrust. Would we ever be able to fully move past it?
But I knew. Knew. Eyes of red or eyes of gray, body whole or body broken—this man was mine. I was never letting him go. No matter what happened. Still, I knew he was holding back. I opened my mouth again, but Blake cut me off.
“We have to go.” His face had locked down again. His jaw tightened. “This isn’t the time to linger in the halls. Theo’s waiting. Come on.”
Still not far from Drakharrow Tower, we rounded the next corner and froze in unison.
Dead bodies littered the corridor, slashed apart and broken.
The hall was filled with the scent of death and blood.
A girl’s body hung out a smashed window, her skirts billowing in the breeze.
A boy lay where he’d been thrown against a wall, his head smashed open like a melon.
There must have been twenty or thirty bodies just in the span of that single corridor.
“What the fuck happened here?” Theo whispered. “Were they infected?”
Suddenly the stones rang with the sound of tramping feet.
At least fifteen highbloods fanned across the landing ahead, most wearing telltale badges.
Bloodguards. Quinn Riley sauntered at their center, her lips curling in a triumphant smile as she saw Blake and me.
Beside her stood Edward Ashveil. I spotted Larissa, Gretchen, and Lucian towards the back.
All of them were armored and carrying proper weapons.
“Did you do this?” Blake called, gesturing to the bodies that filled the hall.
“We’ve been working hard, cleansing the school, if that’s what you’re asking, House Leader,” Quinn said sweetly. “Protecting highblood lives is what we do, after all. Now, if you don’t mind, Lord Drakharrow would like a word. He’s waiting for you—right here in the school refectory.”
I paled. Theo whispered an oath.
“You’ll come quietly. You won’t make this difficult.” Quinn was trying hard to project confidence, and yet, I knew. Inside, she wasn’t quite as certain as she looked.
“And if we don’t?” I declared loudly.
“Then, we spill your blood.” Edward spun the longsword in his hands in a lazy circle on the ground.
“Even though it would be a waste to lose a single highblood right now. Be serious, though— you’re outnumbered.
Two highbloods and a …” he chuckled “ … I don’t even know what to call you.
There are simply too many insults to choose from.
” He chuckled again. “Lowblood? Foulblood? Washed-up dragon rider?”
I could feel Blake bristling and put a hand on his arm. Around Edward, the others laughed.
“It’s simple math,” Lucian called from behind Quinn. “Don’t be idiots.”
“Fuck, I can’t believe that cowardly little prick was going to be Visha’s archon,” Theo muttered. He was already poised to fight, leaning forward, body tensing. Beside me, I could feel Blake doing the same.
“Visha was too smart for that,” Blake muttered. “Ready?”
I nodded tightly. The nearest Bloodguard rushed towards us.
Blake met him, head on, pulling his sword from his belt.
Steel screamed against steel, and the corridor exploded into a sea of blades and bodies in motion.
Blake collided with the first Bloodguard, his movements a blur.
His sword flashed, and a head fell with a thump to the flagstones.
He pivoted towards me, eyes alight with adrenaline, already splitting another guard from neck to hip.
“Pendragon, run! Get back to the tower!”
It might have been good advice, but it was too late—Gretchen’s blade swept towards me.
I dove beneath it, my knife slicing her thigh.
She shrieked and stumbled, but Lucian’s rapier was lunging for my ribs.
I twisted aside, throwing a fist into his jaw.
Theo ripped two knives from the bandolier across his chest. One left his hand at a mind-numbing speed, landing in Edward Ashveil’s shoulder.
The other he used to parry a thrust from Larissa.
Kicking the heel of his boot into her knee, he dropped her to the ground.
We were holding our own. We might have even carved our way out.
If a second wave hadn’t swept in from behind.
They poured into the hall, twenty or more Bloodguards with Silvio Santos at their head. They were even more heavily armed than Quinn and her group, all in House Mortis armor.
They’d had this planned. They’d been waiting for us to come out. Were they starting with us, or had they already swept the Avari tower?
Theo hurled knife after knife until I saw him reach for his last. A Bloodguard blocked it, smashing his shield into Theo’s face, while three others crashed into him, hammering him down, then wrenching his arms behind his back.
“Theo!” I started towards him, but a gauntleted fist caught me in the ribs. Pain exploded, and I doubled over. Two Bloodguards were there in a flash, pinning my arms back so tightly I couldn’t lift them.
Silvio approached. Reaching down, he plucked the remaining blade from my left thigh-sheath and tossed it aside with a grin. Blake roared as I struggled—the sound brutal and animalistic. He took a step towards me, his sword dripping red.
“Hold, House Leader,” Quinn called. “One more step, one more twitch, and your cousin bleeds out.” She had a knife to Theo’s throat.
I met Blake’s eyes, horrified. He stopped, chest heaving, knuckles white around the hilt of his sword. He lowered it, point down, and was ringed in an instant.
Silvio grabbed me by the hair, pushing me down on my knees. He grinned at me. “We meet again. This time I really do think I’ll have a taste, curls.”
I spit up at him, gratified when my saliva actually managed to hit his jaw.
He laughed, wiping it away. “Easy, baby. Lord Drakharrow wants to see you. We can’t party yet.” He turned to Blake, whose eyes were full of blood and murder. “Good to see you again, Drakharrow. You’re talking to the new Mortis leader.”
Blake stared. “And what—I’m supposed to be impressed? Didn’t you graduate five years ago, Santos? What kind of a fucking idiot comes back to the same school?”
I burst out laughing, and Silvio smacked me in the face with a snarl. My head reeled, but it wasn’t enough to wipe the smile off my face. Then Quinn barked an order and Blake, Theo, and I were herded down the corpse-strewn hallway.
Before long, the refectory doors loomed before us—for the second time that night.
I could already feel Viktor Drakharrow’s shadow stretching out like a skeletal hand.
I thought of Florence: This was supposed to be a rescue mission.
If this was how badly we were faring, what were the chances she was doing any better?