Chapter 36
Maeve
WHEN I RETURN TO THE castle the following afternoon, I find the dorm room empty. Isis isn’t even around, which means I’m completely alone.
This leaves me to unpack my overnight bag in the quiet. I put it on my bed, open the flap, and start removing the clothes I had on yesterday when I went to the inn. With every folded article of clothing I take from the bag, I remember the evening.
Severin sitting in the armchair, still looking uncertain. Then the feel of his body pinning mine to the mattress, his fangs in my throat. And after, when he looked into my eyes and told me that he’s mine.
Thinking about it makes the wound on my neck tingle with heat.
I reach up and trail my fingers over the puncture wounds, wincing at the throb of pain.
They’re scabbed over, already healing after Severin drew his tongue across the marks, but when I glance at them in the mirror, I see they’re still enflamed, each puncture wound encircled with red.
I don’t mind it, but Severin told me I have to keep them hidden while they heal; he doesn’t want anyone getting curious about who sunk their fangs into me.
After emptying my bag, I go to my vanity and pull a brush through my hair, then grab a thin autumn scarf and wrap it around my neck, hiding the bite marks. By the time I’m done, the girls still haven’t returned to the dorm room, so I decide to go in search of them.
They’re not in the bathhouse or in the dining hall. I catch Poppy’s friend, Beckett, in the main hall, and he tells me he saw her out in the courtyard.
“Thanks,” I say, lifting a hand to him as he rolls away in his wheelchair.
When I step outside, the sun is warm on my face, having chased away yesterday’s storm. It’s uncharacteristically pleasant for a November day, and it seems half the academy is outside right now, trying to soak up the last rays of warmth before winter sweeps in to steal it away.
I find the girls and Raelan near the Maze of Whimsy—the Whim for short—the semisentient hedge maze Poppy loves so much.
They’re sprawled out on blankets in the grass, their shoes off, faces tipped to the sun.
I step into the sunlight shining over Lyra, casting a shadow across her face, then wait for five seconds, until she scrunches her brow and opens her eyes to look up at me.
“Maeve! You’re back!”
Her voice rouses the others, along with Juniper and Yuki, who’re enjoying the sun also.
“Make room,” I say.
Lyra does, scooting over on her blanket so I can sink down into a cross-legged position next to her. The blanket is soft and warm, and I immediately pull my boots off and let my bare toes wiggle in the sun.
And they all stare at me—even the rat and the arctic fox.
I arch a brow. “What?”
The girls exchange a look, and Raelan glances away, plucking a dandelion from the grass and blowing its seeds into the wind.
“Are you . . . okay?” Poppy asks gently. Her glasses catch the light from the sun as she tips her head at me, her lavender hair pale and wispy as spun sugar.
Oh, right.
They want to know about last night.
It’s not a secret that I went to the inn with the intention of spending the night with Severin and letting him feed from me.
But until the moment he knocked on the door, I wasn’t sure he was going to come.
And until the moment he pressed his fangs into my neck, I wasn’t sure he was going to drink from me.
And now they’re all waiting to know what happened.
I reach up and push my hair back, then ease one side of my scarf down and tip my chin back.
The girls all lean forward, eyes widening, eager to see the bite marks on the side of my throat. Raelan glances over, but he doesn’t lean in.
“Oh my goddess,” Lyra says, lifting a hand like she’s going to touch them. But I pull out of her reach and slip the scarf back over my throat.
“Did it hurt?” Poppy asks.
A smile flickers across my lips. “Like the worst pain you can imagine.” My gaze lifts to Alina. She has her long blue hair braided back, and Raelan’s mating mark is on full display, the scar pale and almost glistening in the sunlight. “Is that what yours felt like?” I ask her.
Raelan definitely isn’t looking at me now, and I think his cheeks are going a slight shade of red.
But Alina isn’t embarrassed at all. “Yeah. But after a while, it turned . . .” She reaches up to touch her mark. “Pleasurable.”
Now Raelan’s cheeks are obviously a shade of red.
“Do you have venom?” I ask him, finally drawing his gaze to mine.
He shakes his head once. “No. Shifters don’t use venom.”
“What did the venom feel like?” Lyra asks. She’s on her knees now, and she keeps scooting closer to me, like a kid easing toward the cookie jar when they know their mom is already busy making dinner.
“It felt like . . .”
I think back to the initial bite, the immediate response I had to the excruciating pain as Severin sunk his fangs into my throat. Everything in me told me to fight for my life. But when his venom hit my heart, it was like . . .
“Like this,” I say, lifting a hand as if I can catch the autumn sunlight. By the looks on my friends’ faces, I can tell they have no idea what I mean. “It was warm. Like sunlight in my veins, flooding my whole body. After that, the pain just stopped.”
“Does it hurt now?” Poppy asks.
I nod. “Yeah, it’s sore. But it’s healing fast.”
“Are you going to do it again?” Lyra says.
Alina shoots her a look, but we’re all used to Lyra’s forwardness by now. And I don’t mind it.
“Yes. If he’ll let me.”
A breeze swirls through the courtyard, stirring up the fallen leaves and making the Whim’s hedges shimmy.
Will he feed from me again? I wonder. We didn’t discuss it last night or this morning before I left the inn. But now I wish I’d asked him.
Raelan twirls the dandelion stem between his fingers and asks, “Do you feel drained now? After giving blood?”
I consider it, then shake my head. “No. I thought I would, but I don’t. I feel more grounded, somehow.” My shoulders rise and fall in a shrug.
Then I remember what I forgot to tell them days ago. I was so caught up in thoughts of Severin feeding from me that I never told them the good news.
“And there’s something else,” I say. When they’re all looking at me, I smile. “For the first time, I controlled my energy sphere. It didn’t slip out of my hold.”
Alina smiles. “Really? That’s amazing!”
“Congratulations,” Poppy says. “You’ve been working so hard at that.”
Lyra pushes a bouncy curl out of her eyes and says, “What changed?”
I know the answer without having to dig for it. I’ve known since that evening on the spire, with my bare feet on the stone and the wind in my hair.
“Severin,” I say, keeping my voice low, just in case any of the other students nearby are listening in on our conversation. “His swordsmanship lessons have really helped.”
Now it’s Raelan’s turn to give me a small smile. “Surprising, isn’t it? The new recruits are always impressed by the discipline that comes with the sword.”
Right, I’d almost forgotten Raelan knows all about that. When he’s here at the academy, he doesn’t wear his armor, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t King Jorvick’s most trusted knight. If he weren’t, the king never would’ve sent him here with Alina in the first place.
“Maybe you two should duel,” Lyra says, her crimson gaze flicking to Raelan. “Dragon versus vampire. I’d definitely get popcorn for that one.”
Raelan flicks the stem at her face, and it gets caught in one of her curls, making the rest of us laugh.
“Who do you think would win?” Poppy asks.
“Raelan,” Alina says at the same moment that I say, “Severin.”
We meet each other’s eyes and smile.
“This definitely needs to happen,” Lyra says as she plucks the dandelion stem from her hair. She holds it up, then pops it into her mouth.
“Ew! Lyra!” Alina snaps, her nose wrinkling.
“What?” Lyra chews the stem a few times, then swallows it. “It’s a dandelion. They’re edible. And Cairn makes the best—”
“Dandelion lattes,” Raelan says with a heavy sigh. He tips his head to the sky and closes his eyes. “We know.”
“You’re just jealous he hasn’t made you one.” Lyra topples back onto the blanket, her red hair falling around her head in a halo.
“He hasn’t made one for any of us,” Poppy says. “He never comes around.”
Lyra rolls over onto one side, propping her head in her hand. “I know. He’s always busy.” Her crimson eyes flick up toward the soaring towers of the castle. “And I think he’s uncomfortable being here, since he used to work here and we’re together now. It’s why he doesn’t visit me on campus.”
Over Lyra’s shoulder, in the distance, a simple carriage rolls under the barbican and into the castle courtyard. Students move out of the way as it crunches over the gravel, coming to a stop in front of the academy’s entrance.
No one pays it much attention; people come and go from the academy all the time. But I’m watching as the door opens and a man clad in black steps out.
As soon as I see him, my chest squeezes, my heart giving a heavy thump. For a disorienting second, it doesn’t feel like just my heartbeat—more like I’m sharing it with someone. It makes my chest feel full.
And at that exact moment, he looks up and meets my gaze across the sprawling courtyard, like he can feel that I’m looking at him, or like his heart felt mine pounding from across the distance between us.
From here, I can’t see the color of his eyes, but I know they’re red. And I know they’re red because of me, because my blood is running through his system.
The idea that I’m sustaining him right now, giving him what he needs to survive, makes my stomach warm.
I definitely want him to feed from me again. As soon as I can get him alone.
Severin pulls his travel bag from the carriage and closes the door, then exchanges a few words with the driver before the carriage sets off, likely heading back toward Wysteria.
He climbs the steps to the castle’s entrance, his long jacket—the one that was speckled with rain when he arrived at the inn last night—flapping with the movement. And just for a moment, for a brief second as he reaches out to push one of the doors open, his gaze flicks to mine again.
Heat blossoms in my chest, reminding me of how his venom felt running through my body last night, the way it heated me from the inside out.
I give him a small smile, barely a quirk of my lips, but I know he can see it from there—vampire eyes and all. And as Severin steps into the castle and vanishes from my sight, I’m already wondering how I can steal him away and when I’ll be able to feel his fangs in my throat again.
Hopefully soon. Very soon.