Chapter Fifteen
Chapter
Fifteen
He says my name as if he’s announcing the winner of a prize. And now it hangs in the air, rippling through the silence.
How?
It must have been Jannet and Stella.
He saw their wounds, asked the right questions, and they led him to me. But they didn’t know my name.
“Who’s Rebecca?” I ask, feeling at my watch for the chain.
The Night Dean opens a drawer in his desk and draws out a manila folder.
He flicks through it before pulling out a document.
“Rebecca Charity,” he says again. The old-fashioned lamp on his desk shines through the paper, illuminating what’s printed on the other side.
A picture of me, at eighteen. A form, writing too small for me to make out.
But I recognise it. Penny made me fill it in when I agreed to join Callisto.
“Born on the seventeenth of March, in Wishaw, Lanarkshire. Daughter of Simon and Mairi Charity. Recruited in July, four years ago. Current ranking: Cross.” Slowly, he puts the form down on his desk. Cold sweat dampens my shirt.
Shit.
“Oh, and Type-S blood,” he adds, glancing at the form again. “I’m guessing you’re hiding that with garlic.”
I should run. I’ll fail my mission, but that’s all right. Penny will be disappointed, but she’ll find something else for me to do.
And if I can’t get out, I won’t go down without a fight.
“Where did you get that?” I ask. My voice comes out low and calm. “The Red Ribbons?”
“Do you really think they’d be able to get their hands on your recruitment form?” He waves the paper at me. I see Penny’s signature at the bottom, in blood-red ink.
He found Penny. My heart quickens. “What did you do to her?”
“To Penelope?” he asks, raising a brow. He utters her full name far too comfortably. “Nothing.”
“Then how—”
“Who do you think told her about the vampires in Inverness?” he asks, leaning back. I want to slash the smug smile off his face.
I take in his words. He told her about the Silverbirch vampires? “How do you know her?” I ask.
“She infiltrated the university, just as you did. Eight years ago.”
“You’re lying,” I say.
Penny would have told me.
“It wasn’t official,” he says. “Only twelve human students. I was testing the waters. Penelope was sent here to kill me, but soon she realised having me as an ally was far more beneficial.”
“Bullshit,” I say. My voice is tight. No. Penny wouldn’t.
She loathes vampires. Even more than I do.
“And as you can imagine, having a mole in Callisto is also advantageous for the Council.”
Every nerve in my body feels like a string about to snap. It can’t be.
“No,” I whisper again. He’s fucking with me. There’s no way.
He pushes a small glass dish across the desk. “Have some shortbread,” he says. “You look like you’re about to pass out.”
“Why am I here?” I finally ask, ignoring his offer.
“When I announced the number of open slots for human students, I knew Callisto would inevitably try to slip someone through the cracks,” he says.
“To gather intel, to protect the other students—regardless, it’s better for me to know who that hunter is from the get-go.
” He pauses, staring at me too intently.
“I’m assuming Penelope told you your mission was something far more exciting, of course.
She probably said your parents’ killer is here. ”
“Do you know who—”
“No,” he interjects, with a wave of his hand. His Familiar reaches across the desk, grabbing a piece of shortbread, swallowing it whole. Nocth hasn’t mentioned my real mission.
“You’re wrong,” I say, getting my nerves back in order. “It doesn’t make sense, Dean. Why would you put your vampire students at risk by letting someone like me in?”
“Because you’ll prove useful soon enough, Rebecca,” he says.
He glances at his Familiar, clears his throat, and says, “Marcus.” His Familiar, Marcus, goes to a little fridge hidden next to a bookcase and draws out a bottle of blood.
He leaves, and I hear a microwave whirring next door.
“You’ve already proved useful, in fact. Uncovering the Red Ribbons was quite helpful.
” Marcus hands him a wineglass filled halfway with blood.
The glass is ornamented with vines, its stem too long.
“Though you should have been a little more cautious. I had Gustavsson find the rest of them; they’re currently awaiting trial in London’s Council base. ”
I think of the last few weeks. Being scared of the dean finding out who I am. And he knew all along. Penny fucking told him.
I take a shaky breath as another question rushes through me. “Why am I Aliz’s roommate?”
“Oh, I couldn’t help myself,” he says. “Knowing Callisto’s origins—”
“If the Astras find out about this, they’ll kill you.”
“I am an Astra,” he says before taking a short sip of blood. “Aliz Astra is my cousin, though I’m five centuries her elder. And considering what’s happened…” He gestures at my neck.
“I could kill her,” I say in a cool voice. The words don’t ring true. I can feel the first prickle of a headache pressing against my temple.
“If you were going to, you would have done so already.” He glances at Marcus again. “Get Miss Charity some water.”
Penny wouldn’t do this to me. She wouldn’t send me here without warning me first. She isn’t a Council mole. She can’t be.
Marcus hands me a small glass of water. I want to throw it at him, but instead I take a sip, trying to stay calm.
She wouldn’t lie. She wouldn’t hide something this big. No.
I want to scream.
“Does Aliz know what I am?” I ask, chest tight.
“Of course not.” He finishes his blood, and Marcus takes the glass away. “The heir is blissfully unaware of most things happening around her.” He says this, but now I can’t be sure. If Penny has been lying to me for four years, why on earth would I trust someone I’ve known for weeks?
Someone I was practically making out with before he called us.
God, what have I done?
“I would stop taking the garlic if I were you,” he says. “If you do end up killing the Astra heir, you would be in serious trouble.”
“Why would I stop taking it?” I ask. “She’s not going to bite me.”
“You can’t be sure of that. The effects of the unsealed contract won’t be limited just to you. She will also experience them.”
“Effects?”
“Haven’t you noticed any changes in her behaviour? Is she more erratic?”
Erratic. I remember her lips on my neck. Her fangs, grazing my skin.
“I don’t know her well enough to notice changes. We both said it isn’t going to happen. Plus, I can’t be compelled.”
“I know. But I don’t think you fully understand what that mark will do to you,” he says, crossing his arms. “She won’t need to compel you. You will ask for it.”
Something tightens inside me, but I don’t let him sense it. He looks away from me, back at the door. “I told you she would start acting erratically,” he says in a lower voice. “She’s coming back for you.”
I look at the door, unable to shake the panic creeping through me. Aliz might try to bite me.
And I might let her.
“Go,” he says. “And keep me updated on your search for Ada’s library.”
I get up. Does he know that was my mission? He would have mentioned it. So maybe, hopefully, Penny is holding her cards closer than he thinks.
“Don’t give me orders,” I say, leaning on the desk. I slide the chain out of my watch, shake it, and hold the blade to his neck. Marcus doesn’t move, as though he already knows I’m not going to kill his master. “And don’t forget what I am.”
“Don’t worry,” Nocth whispers, placing his hands upon the silver. His skin turns red before a dozen tiny blisters form around the metal. I draw it back just as they burst, and a second later, his skin heals itself. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”
Aliz and I walk back in silence. My expression is enough to keep her from asking what happened. I don’t look at her. I need to be alone. Talk to Penny. Scream at her. But the angrier I get, the worse the itch on my neck becomes.
Aliz guides us up Tynarrich’s maintenance staircase, accessed through a small door in the back of the stone building.
The wooden staircase creaks with each step.
The lights on the wall are dim, some no longer working, forcing us to walk in shadows for two floors. Halfway up, Aliz stops and looks at me.
“What did he say?”
I keep walking, brushing past her.
“Cassie, I can tell you’re upset.”
Does she know my real name? Is she also lying?
“He said you’d want to bite me.” My voice is like ice. “The mark will make me ask for it.”
“Even if you do, I won’t.”
I take a step back down, so our eyes are almost at level. My face is dangerously close to hers.
“I felt your fangs on my neck, Aliz,” I say. “We both know what you wanted.”
Her lips part. As red deepens her cheeks, she grabs my hand. “Yes,” she says. “I wanted to bite you. But now I know the consequences. Trust me—”
A sound, halfway between a chuckle and a gasp, escapes my lips.
I can’t trust my own fucking shadow.
I snatch my hand free and don’t reply, climbing up the stairs faster than before.
“Whatever he said—” she starts, trying to keep up.
“Leave me alone,” I snap. “We aren’t friends.”
This time she lets me leave. When I reach our room, I close the curtains around my bed tight, squeeze my eyes shut, and try to breathe.
What has Penny done?