“Who’s your friend, Blair?” the other twin asked.
“Ignore them,” Blair said underneath her breath as I slid behind my desk. Despite her warning, I couldn’t resist shooting another glance at the mesmerizing twins. The second one smirked, showing his fangs and snapping me out of my trance.
“That’s Kassius and Kayden. They might act nice, but don’t fall for it. They’re extremely dangerous.” Blair flipped her history book open.
I didn’t get the chance to ask why. A man in his late forties strode in, leaving no doubt that he too was a vampire. It wasn’t his long black cloak, or his shoulder length hair that was parted in the middle, framing his face like an oily curtain, but the haughtiness in his dark eyes as he took me in. “Class, we have a new student. Onyx Logan. Half fae.”
All eight students turned to stare at me, and even the fae looked disgusted, as if it was my fault that a pureblood impregnated my mother.
“Does she have magic?” a blonde girl with amber, catlike eyes asked. Eyeliner enhanced the effect. Even though her ears made it clear that she too was fae, she looked down her narrow nose at me. Beside her, a dark-haired fae girl with exaggerated proportions who looked at home in her uniform studied me. I couldn’t read her expression.
“Headmistress Lady Cardinal hasn’t tested her yet, but we will find out soon,” Professor Sullivan replied as if I wasn’t in the room.
I gritted my teeth but didn’t say anything, which was probably a good thing since Professor Sullivan produced a sharp stick and slammed it down onto his table. “Now, who can summarize for Miss Onyx what we discussed last time?”
Only one hand shot up. It was the blonde girl from before, and I already disliked her.
“Yes, Miss Peony?”
“Fifty years ago, the treaty between the Winter and Summer fae courts was broken, with each party claiming that the other had instigated it. A war ignited between the light and dark fae, and some light fae chose to flee the Summer court and the faeland itself to find safety in the human world.”
I blinked, surprised we were learning anything about fae. I had expected the class to be all about vampire lore. Mom hadn’t been able to tell me much.
“Correct. A plus for Peony.” Professor Sullivan scribbled it down into his notebook. “Can someone tell me what happened next?”
Peony’s hand shot up again, and I wanted to scream, “How far up their asses are you trying to get?” but managed to keep my mouth shut yet again.
“Someone besides Miss Peony. Blair?”
Blair stiffened, but said, “The fae found themselves trapped in a world of iron, which weakened them and drained much of their magic.”
“And?”
Blair’s cheeks heated red, and her green eyes flashed. “Needing help to survive, the fae turned to the vampires, who were kind enough to agree to coexist together.”
I barked out a laugh at the ridiculous statement and quickly masked it as a cough, but not fast enough, given the glares I received from the professor and the vampire twins.
“Do you have a question, Miss Onyx?” The professor tapped his stick against his palm.
Blair gave a tiny shake of her head, but instead of following her lead, I gave in to my sassy side, bursting out, “The fae were forced to work for the vampires. The vampires exploited the fae and surrounded them with iron to keep them in check.”
Gasps sounded all around me.
“One minus for rudeness,” Professor Sullivan said in a silky voice. “And detention from five to ten tonight to study up on history.”
I opened my mouth, but Blair kicked my shin. “Shut up, or you’ll be here well past midnight.”
I closed my mouth, and Peony smirked at me, clearly satisfied that I had gotten into trouble. The dark-haired girl beside her shook her head with a disgusted expression.
The rest of the class passed uneventfully, and Lord Sullivan blabbered on about how the vampires had given the fae work, saved us from a life on the streets, and were the greatest thing that had ever happened to us.
When the bell rang, I jumped out of my chair, ready to get out and talk to Blair somewhere in private about the brainwashing Nocturna Academy was pulling, painting themselves in a saintly light.
“What the hell was that?” I asked as I put my books away and followed Blair out of the classroom.
“What, you don’t like to get vamp philosophy drilled into you 24/7? Too bad, this is Nocturna Academy where a vamp’s word is law, and our opinions are worth shit.” Blair delivered this with a wink, which only depressed me more. If she didn’t take rewriting of history seriously, what else was going on in the academy?
Since we were surrounded by students, I didn’t dare to ask and decided to adapt her carefree tone for now. “What’s next? Biology? Do they teach us what important proteins our blood has to justify them drinking it?”
Blair didn’t laugh. Instead, her face turned serious. “Don’t joke about that. Every tenth fae is killed or seriously injured in bloodlust.”
Her words brought me to an abrupt halt, my feet refusing to move. I had known that our blood tasted better than humans’ and that vamps loved drinking it while tangling in the sheets, but I hadn’t been aware of how dire the ramifications were.
Blair slapped me on the arm. “Hurry up, or we’ll be late for PE.”
I tilted my head and waited for the other students to pass. “The vamps want us to be fit? Isn’t that counterproductive to us fighting back?”
Blair threw her head back and sighed, probably reaching the end of her rope given all the questions I asked. “Nope. PE is mostly about walking elegantly in high heels, learning how to move gracefully, and how to dance to entertain the vamps.”
“Oh.” A class designed to underscore our pretty object status.
“Onyx Logan, report to the headmistress’s office immediately,” a voice droned from a loudspeaker I couldn’t see.
My heart leapt into my throat. I shifted my bag on my shoulder, hating that I was summoned, but also feeling curious about meeting the woman who ran this academy. “Guess I got out of PE this time.”
Blair pointed toward a door at the end of the hallway. “It’s the last room, just before the doors to the staff tower.” I turned to leave, but she grabbed my shoulder. “Onyx, be careful. Don’t say anything stupid.”
My throat laced tight, and my pulse skyrocketed. If teachers could withhold food or whip me for not wearing part of my uniform, just how much power did the headmistress Cardinal hold?
Chapter Four
Quite a bit, it turned out. The corridor ended in a set of double doors, doors that had a heavy iron lock across them and a bronze sign reading Staff Only. To the left waited another set of double doors that led to the headmistress herself. Sweat broke out over my palms, and I hated that I was letting a simple test get to me. Blair hadn’t told me what the test entailed, but I had an idea, and it made the hairs on my neck stand up. If I didn’t have any magic to boot, I could kiss goodbye the opportunity to do an easy job like tending indoor gardens for rich vamps. They’d find another use for me in no time, like hard labor.
I was about to knock when the door to the office opened and a blond fae guy burst out. “Excuse me,” he said in a smooth, caressing voice.
Our gazes met. Holy shit. A full head taller than me, he stood only a foot away, easily close enough for me to touch. Messy, yet elegant, honey-colored hair spilled around his pointed ears, forming sexy curls I wanted to twirl my fingers in. A pair of green eyes mixed with gold surveyed me and as I stared like a complete moron, I inhaled the mixed scent of cinnamon and mint. Given how the air around him crackled, he was a pureblood for sure.
“Um,” I managed.
“Excuse me,” he repeated with a wink, moving to step around me. He wasn’t a student. This guy looked a bit older than us, maybe in his early twenties, and he wore one of those collared sweaters with the alligator on it. Was he staff? That didn’t make sense when the vamps were in charge, but Mom t
old me that a few fae managed to make it to an independent status if they followed the vamps’ rules to the T. Despite only having a tryst with my fae father, Mom had managed to get quite a bit of information out of him. One of her skills as a waitress was getting others to spill their guts. Before I could become all teary-eyed about missing her, I pulled myself together.
I turned and stared after the male fae, unable to stop gawking at the way his black pants caressed his perfect ass, when a stern female voice called from the office, “Enter.”
Snapping out of it, I shuddered and faced the source.
The door had remained open after the fae guy had left. Lady Cardinal sat behind an elegant mahogany desk, tapping a stick on her palm in a motion that reminded me of one of those bird pendulums drinking water. Lady Cardinal had short, graying blond hair styled in curls around her big forehead, and dark makeup that brought out the paleness of her skin.
“Sit down, Onyx Logan,” she ordered, voice like satin sliding over a blade.
I couldn’t even swallow the lump in my throat. My legs carried me into the oval room and under a line of three small chandeliers. Behind Lady Cardinal, the shutters were closed tight, blocking out the sun. Her eyes sparkled with intelligence and malice.
As I sat opposite her in a leather chair, she pushed away a pinkish-red crystal that looked as if blood had congealed in the center and merged with the stone. The crystal thrummed with some kind of energy that made me dizzy. At least she’d stopped tapping the stick.
Maybe, just maybe, if the headmistress found no magic, she’d throw me out of Nocturna Academy. Blair and I hadn’t successfully found the exit anywhere.
Without any explanation, Lady Cardinal extended her hand and shot me an impatient look. Tentatively, I held out mine. Her fingers seized my wrist like manacles. Her stony grip tightened to the point of pain as she lifted my forearm to her mouth. The headmistress’s irises filled with reddish black lines for a split second, and my heart thudded as I realized what was about to happen.
“Let go!”
She didn’t, and even though I yanked with all my might, I failed to pull out of her steely grip.
She opened her mouth, fangs flashing, and bit my wrist.
Hot stabs of pain tore through me, ripping an involuntary scream from my throat. Yellow and red flared behind my eyelids. I hadn’t imagined a bite to hurt so much. The pain dragged out into eternity, pressure rising until my hand went numb, and finally, the headmistress released my wrist. Shaking it, I pulled my still-screaming forearm back to my body. The bitch had bitten me!
“That was my personal space you violated,” I blurted. “We’re not just your servants, but your food, too?” Blair’s words came back. One in ten fae met their death or came close at the hands of the vamps, and from her tone, that grim figure must extend to half fae, too.
Lady Cardinal dabbed her mouth with a purple cloth and maintained that calm, silky tone. “I taste no magic in your blood. It’s almost as if you are purely human. A disappointment for your prospects, really.” Her attitude only served to threaten tears. No. I would not cry in front of this monster. When I realized she was staying calm to exert power over me, I forced out a breath, trying not to seethe or look at the wound on my wrist. Losing my cool wouldn’t do me any good.
“If I’m so useless, does that mean I can go home? I’m only half fae.” Negotiating with Lady Cardinal made me feel like a person again.
“Look at me,” she ordered, her words pulling like invisible cords.
I turned my gaze up at her without knowing why. I was the wooden puppet. I should’ve gotten up and left now that she’d tested me, but my body weighed a million pounds, merging with the chair.
“Are you still a virgin?” As she spoke, Lady Cardinal caressed the pink crystal.
Her question snaked into my throat and pulled out the last thing I wanted to admit.
“Yes.” Shit, what was happening to me? I couldn’t tear my gaze from the headmistress’s eyes.
“Splendid. You may yet survive Nocturna Academy. You may go.”
The room came back into focus, and I took a gasping breath, pushing the chair back from Lady Cardinal’s desk. Had that crystal faded in color a bit? The whole room felt strange. Lady Cardinal’s implication made me feel as if I was drowning, so I scrambled around for any floating piece of debris I could grab. “I’m not even meant to be here. That boy was wrong about me. The SD lied to my mother about my nature and made a mistake.”
Lady Cardinal offered a smug smile. “Oh, did they? You’re not the first student to say this. Thankfully, we always collect evidence to the contrary.” She opened a drawer, pulling out a tablet and turning it on. It started up with a happy beep from another world. I waited, a vise wrapping around my throat, as she turned the tablet toward me.
Black and white footage, no doubt shot by one of the Security Department men, showed my kitchen. I wasn’t there, but Moore stood opposite my mom, and as I watched, Mom started to brew the pot of coffee that had been there when I entered the apartment. Moore reached into his pocket and pulled out a checkbook.
He slapped it down on the kitchen island beside our tin can of spare change and proceeded to write a check. As he did, Mom turned away from the coffee and eyed the number written in the box, a number I couldn’t make out. But I didn’t have to see the amount because Mom’s eyes widened with excitement, the type of excitement I’d feel if Lady Cardinal announced that she was putting me on a bus that would take me home.
“She—” I started.
“Sold you,” Lady Cardinal said, snapping the tablet off. “Now, get back to class.” The headmistress punctuated her sentence by opening the drawer, putting the tablet back in, and closing it with a click. Lady Cardinal gave me a curt nod to the door.
I had to get out of here like yesterday.
No amount of convincing would have made me stay. Ice flowed through my veins and down my back, chasing away the pain in my oozing wrist. Mom had just sold me as if I were a piece of jewelry at the pawn shop. And why not? For the amount that must have been on the check, she might not have to work for six days a week at Burger Planet.
I burst through the office doors and let them swing shut behind me.
I’d learned everything I needed during those few horrible minutes.
Getting out of here and living completely on my own was the only way to survive.
Chapter Five
After my encounter with headmistress Cardinal, the last thing I wanted was to go to PE and draw attention to myself by showing up mid-class. Thus, I decided to excuse myself and spend the next forty-five minutes before lunch break surveying the academy again. Blair had pointed out to me the cafeteria and the library, but I was less interested in the comforts Nocturna Academy offered, and more in how to get out of here.
My first idea was to explore the gardens, but I dismissed it quickly. Since it was daytime, I would be in view of anyone who glanced out of their window, and the last thing I needed was to alert the headmistress or any other vamp of my intentions of fleeing. Even if I found a hidden exit, I wouldn’t get far with all the muscled humans the academy employed and who were probably stationed at every exit. I wasn’t too keen on another run in with Moore, so I decided to explore the less obvious spots. I found a few empty classrooms and tried to wrench the darkened windows open without any success. Next, I tried to go into the cellar but was met by a vampire decked out in a black t-shirt that was about to rip over his biceps and black pants that highlighted his muscular thighs. Ugh, I was so over the meatball look.
“What are you doing here?” He towered over me menacingly. He was likely a student at summer prep for pissing off his parents. Great.
“Just looking for the cafeteria.” I tried a weak smile.
“It’s upstairs.” He narrowed his eyes at me.
“Thank you.” I rushed back up the stairs just as the gong rang. Lunch had arrived without me achieving anything. I was apprehensive to see Peony and the others again,
but my grumbling stomach demanded that I did not skip another meal. Putting on my big girl pants, I headed toward the cafeteria, telling myself that I would be fine. I’d find Blair and stick to her like glue.
Decked out with globe lights, chandeliers, and white tablecloths, the cafeteria resembled a fancy restaurant. The paintings of nature scenes on the walls almost made it an inviting place. But then I noticed the hot plate that kept bottles of blood warm for the vamps. I swallowed hard, remembering that I was in a deadly place. The students sat scattered around the tables. Peony and the girl with the dark hair and shapely figure sat together on one end of the room. Peony caught my gaze and flicked a golden curl back, surveying me. Tingles of nervousness ran over my skin. She wasn’t done trying to show me who was boss.
I found my roomie a second later, courtesy of her unique carrot pixie hair, and hurried toward her, grabbing a tray. Blair had chosen a table on the opposite end of the dining hall. She got up and waved me over to the lunch line, where food waited, buffet-style. It was as if Nocturna Academy wanted to lull us into a false sense of comfort. Fat chance. Lady Cardinal’s words swam like a shark in the back of my mind, threatening to bite at any second.
And Mom...
“How was PE?” I wouldn’t think of it now, or I wouldn’t hold my food down.
“Fine.” Blair loaded her plate with mashed potatoes and pulled pork, and I heaped the same on mine, deciding she knew what was good here.
“Don’t burn your food,” a female voice snickered behind me, and I whipped around to find Peony and her dark-haired friend. Great, just what I needed.
“What are you laughing at?” If I didn’t stand up to the bullies now, it would only get worse.
Peony ignored me, heaping salad onto her platter and a few olives.
Her dark-haired friend chuckled. “Your friend set the beam on fire in PE.”
I raised my eyebrow at Blair, confused.
“To teach us posture, the vamps have us balance across a beam like idiots,” Blair grumbled. “I fell thrice and had enough of getting new bruises.”
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