by Kirah Nyx
Stepping back from the Siren, Samael demanded, “Get up.”
The corpse jolted upwards and climbed to its feet.
Smacking her hands over her parted lips, Ivy’s bulging eyes stayed glued to the Siren as it lurched to a stop in front of Samael. A sharp glint pierced Ivy’s eyes; she recoiled and squinted away from the reflective shine. The lights of the chandelier had shone off a silver object in Samael’s hand, something Ivy hadn’t noticed until then. A dagger.
“Take it,” said Samael. The Siren took the dagger.
Shifting on the bench, Ivy’s fangs began to gnaw on her bottom lip. Her hands gripped the edge of the bench tightly, her nails digging into hard stone. Droplets of blood oozed from the fang-marks on her lip, but Ivy didn’t notice. The Siren held her disturbed gaze.
“Lift it.” The Siren’s shaky, slimy hand raised the dagger. The blade hovered near her pointed chin.
Ivy flinched as something touched her trembling hand. It was Addie, holding on tightly, equally as distressed. Behind her, Felix leaned forward and whispered in her ear, “Don’t look, Ivy. Close your eyes.”
She knew he was right. She should look away, or leave. But she couldn’t—her horrified eyes wouldn’t cooperate. Her jelly legs wouldn’t budge.
“Cut.”
Several students winced before the blade even touched the Siren’s neck. But Ivy cried. The Siren yanked the blade across her neck. A sob tore from Ivy’s lips just as Felix’s hand slapped over her eyes. But he was too late. She’d seen enough; the blood spraying from the gaping hole in her throat, the collapse of her legs sending her to the floor in a gurgling heap, and Samael’s stony face void of any remorse.
An applause slowly scattered across the students, but Felix’s hand remained firmly pressed against Ivy’s stunned eyes. The leaked tears dampened his palm, but he didn’t move away. Slowly, he stood and used his other hand to guide her up. Felix escorted her out of the classroom, and only removed his hand from her eyes when her back faced Samael.
Ivy had never been more ashamed of her species until then. And, she had never feared Samael more in her life.
15
Ivy, Addie and Penny were in the Assembly Hall for breakfast. Sucking on a blood-pop, Ivy rested her chin on the heel of her hand. She slurped and nodded as Penny rattled on about the test scores posted on the message board that morning.
“Obviously, I’m glad I passed,” said Penny. “But I don’t think I should’ve received a ‘satisfactory’. My prediction was accurate; Instructor Clarence is going to be a father to a girl. He told me so himself after the tests. But, because I couldn’t predict his meal, I ‘didn’t fulfil the assigned task’. That’s so unfair, don’t you think, Addie?”
Addie smiled before she pecked Penny on the cheek. “You’re extraordinary in my eyes,” she said.
Ivy gagged theatrically. That earned her a stern stare from Addie.
“You’re just jealous,” said Penny. “Because we’re in love, and we passed.”
Rolling her eyes, Ivy yanked the blood-pop from her lips. “I’m in like,” she sassed. “It’s close enough.”
“With the Videer?” Addie quirked her brow. “Have you seen him lately?”
“Not since my birthday,” she grumbled. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Then don’t bring it up,” replied Penny. She bent down to riffle through her schoolbag, and whipped out crinkled a bundle of loose paper.
“What’s that?” asked Addie, plucking a piece of paper from the pile. She scanned it briefly before she said, “When are you two going to let this nonsense go? You’re turning into conspiracy theorists.”
Penny made a face at her girlfriend as she handed Ivy the rest of the paper. It all related to the four provinces and Shifter attacks within the past six months.
“Now,” began Penny, leaning over the table. “I’ve narrowed down the exact locations of the attacks.”
Ivy nodded and flicked through the cluster to the hand drawn map. Bright red markings circled Stonehenge Village, Ichor, and the Apricot Alps. But her home city, Verato, wasn’t circled.
“What about Verato?” asked Ivy.
“That’s just it,” said Penny. “I’ve circled the places that have both been attacked and are home to the province crypts—the largest and most secretive crypts in the world.”
Ivy glanced up from the map questioningly. “What d’you mean?”
“In the Stonehenge Village, beneath the monuments, is the chief crypt in the Pisces Province. That’s only two miles away from the village. Ichor was above the chief crypt for the Vela Province, and the Sanatorium in the Alps was the main entrance to the crypts in the Centaurus Province.”
Addie frowned and leaned forward to peer at the map. “That’s odd,” she said. “What about Verato City? That was attacked, but the crypt beneath the city isn’t the chief one for the Orion Province.”
“Verato City was attacked,” agreed Penny. She lowered her voice as they huddled closer together. “But, I think it was a decoy, to throw authorities off the trail. They might see the pattern of the four provinces, but not the real pattern.”
“Which is?”
“The chief crypts of the province,” she whispered. “And Orion’s chief crypt is not in Verato. It’s here, at the Academy.”
Ivy looked down at the table, as though she could see through the many layers into the forbidden crypt. She knew that it was there, everyone did. But, as for the Academy crypt being the primary one in the entire province? That, she hadn’t known.
“Who told you that?” she asked sceptically, lifting her gaze from the table.
Penny riffled through the stack of paper until she yanked out a particularly aged sheet. From the torn edge, Ivy suspected that Penny had ripped it out of a book from the library.
“This,” explained Penny, “is from ‘The Keeper’s Handbook’. I found it in the Videer careers section.”
Addie took the sheet of parchment and read it swiftly. “She’s right,” she said. “The main crypt for this province is here, at the Academy.”
“It’s not big enough,” argued Ivy. “It’s perimeter matches the manor above it.”
“Does it?” asked Penny. “Or, does it span the entire island, and we’re only told it’s small?”
“Ifs and buts and maybes,” dismissed Ivy. “We need solid proof.”
“This is proof,” said Addie, shaking the parchment in her hand. “It specifically states that Blood Island is home to the largest crypts in the Orion Province. Yet, we were led to believe that it was merely a training crypt for the Videer students.”
Penny added, “Just like Ichor.”
“So, these attacks, then,” began Ivy. “They’re about more than kidnappings. Why else would the Rebellion target where the main crypts are?”
“Definitely,” agreed Penny. Even Addie appeared on the verge of convinced. “But, there’s a bigger question to ask.”
Ivy and Addie looked at each other, but came up short.
“What could be in those crypts that Rebellion want so badly?” Penny paused and smoothed out a piece of paper with her notes scribbled all over.
Ivy looked down at the notes. The names Canyon Clover and Linda Laundelle shouted up at her in bold letters, the taken Vampires.
“And,” Penny added, “why do they need these two to get it?”
Ivy didn’t understand why her parents couldn’t simply wait until the midyear holiday to see her. They had arranged to meet her, Felix and Samael for a belated birthday dinner that night at the Kilda Village. Ivy would much rather go to the Fae party on the shore than have dinner with the psychotic prince.
Alas, Addie and Penny went without her to the party, and Ivy wandered around the manor alone. She’d promised Penny that she’d do more research on the crypts in the library until she had to leave. Yet, her selfishness prevented her from staying true to her word. Instead, she searched for Domenic around the school.
After an hour, she knew
that Domenic wasn’t in the library, the Hall, the basement, the art room, the sickbay, the alfresco, or the lab. Ivy decided to amble around the foyer in hopes of seeing him. As she pranced down the carpeted staircase to the atrium, she saw a crowd of Videer pass through the landing above.
Ivy halted and looked up at them, but deflated when she noticed their youth. They were too young a class for Domenic to be among them. Dom was a senior, but those Videer were either juniors or middlers. One of the Videer, in a brown cloak, tore away from the others and came down the staircase toward Ivy. She noticed that, as the cloaked figure neared, it recoiled towards the wall, as though afraid Ivy would tear it apart.
“Excuse me,” said Ivy, jumping in front of the cautious Videer. “Sorry. I wanted to ask if you know—”
The Videer slipped off the hood. Ivy swallowed as a fierce crimson burned at her cheeks. She knew the Videer. It was the girl she had attacked during her bloodlust. If memory served, the Videer’s name was Archer.
“Oh,” breathed Ivy uncomfortably. She licked her lips and guiltily met the girl’s anxious gaze. “Archer, is it?”
Archer nodded stiffly. Her hand slipped into the pocket of her robe. Likely fishing for a weapon she could use against the unhinged Vampire.
Ivy held up her hands submissively, “I’m not going to hurt you. I … I’m sorry for …” Heaving a deep sigh, Ivy rubbed her hands over her face and spoke into her palms. “I’m really sorry for hurting you. I didn’t … know what I was doing at the time. I—” Lamely, she dropped her hands to her sides and let her guilt-ridden eyes finish her feeble apology.
Archer’s hand slipped out of the pocket, holding nothing. She relaxed marginally, and said, “You were in bloodlust. They told me.”
“Still,” said Ivy with a shrug. “It’s no excuse.”
Archer nodded and seemed to silently accept her apology. “What did you want to ask me?”
Ivy blinked. She had almost forgotten. “Oh, I was, um, just going to ask if you knew a Domenic Marroc.”
“I know him,” she said suspiciously. “Why?”
“I need to talk to him. I was wondering if you’d know where I could find him.” As an afterthought, Ivy added, “Not to feed on him, or anything. Only to talk to him about … something.”
Archer considered her for a moment, her gaze as steely as the blade tucked in her Keeper cloak. “He’s on patrol,” she said eventually. “I was about to find him, myself.”
Ivy’s bit her lip and nodded awkwardly. “Right, well … I’ll let you get to it, then.”
“You can come with me,” she said before Ivy could leave. “I know he wants to see you.”
Ivy frowned and tilted her head to the side. “How would you know that?”
“He told me.”
Archer waved her hand, indicating for Ivy to move. She did, and Archer stepped down the stairs. Ivy tottered beside her.
“He talks about me?” she asked as they reached the foyer.
“Sometimes.”
“He knows,” she realised. “He knows I attacked you, doesn’t he?”
“Yes.”
Ivy’s brain suddenly screamed at her. Profanities that would have her grounded for decades if her father ever heard them ripped through her thoughts. Of course she had to go and attack a Videer Domenic knew. That was just her luck.
They went into the Blood Forest. Neither of them spoke for the rest of the journey. Ivy parted her lips several times to speak, but found that every feeble sentence she could muster up fell flat before it could reach her tongue. Fifteen minutes into the woodlands, Ivy decided that any conversation now would only increase the intensity of the awkward silence.
It took Archer the better part of an hour to locate Domenic. He wore his full combat gear, and crouched over a gnome burrow. With a stick, he poked around the burrow, checking for any residents. No gnomes popped up to berate him. It was vacant.
“Dom!” shouted Archer.
Rising to his feet, he turned, and the moonlight sparked off his daggers. A smile greeted Archer, but it fell from his lips the moment his gaze slewed to Ivy.
Ivy hovered as Archer approached him. It was clear in his obsidian eyes that she wasn’t wanted there. For some unfathomable reason, she’d pictured a completely different reunion to this.
The black cloak he normally wore was folded neatly on a boulder behind him. Knives, daggers, axes, and swords were strapped to his muscular body, and Ivy wondered if he wanted to hurl any of those weapons at her. His molten eyes suggested as much.
Archer removed an envelope from her pocket and handed it to Domenic. For the first time since he’d noticed her presence, Domenic tore his gaze from Ivy and looked down at the folded parchment. His gloved fingers wrapped around it.
“It’s from grandma,” said Archer.
Ivy blinked. Her brows shot skyward and a brewing pit of nausea suddenly emerged from nowhere, taking root in her belly.
Gulping back bile, she placed her hand on the tree trunk to her right. Every scrap of focus that she could muster channelled on her ability to not scream in despair.
She had attacked his sister. His little sister. There was absolutely no way she could squirm her way out of the mess she’d gotten herself into. If anyone had attacked Ivy, Felix would’ve kill them. Literally. There would be no mercy, no forgiveness, no second chances.
Archer turned and walked toward Ivy. A malicious smirk flashed on her hard features before she disappeared out of sight. Archer had intentionally brought Ivy to Domenic, knowing he hated her. Ivy couldn’t blame the girl—it was her revenge, and it was well-deserved.
Domenic tucked the envelope into his back pocket and studied her coolly. “What do you want?”
His sharp tone sliced her gut to shreds. Looking down, Ivy kicked the dirt distractedly. “I didn’t know she was your sister. I didn’t know you even had a sister.”
Ivy chanced a glance up at him and saw that he, too, stared at the ground. His hands were buried in his pockets, his jaw tightened, but Ivy saw it—the soft spot in his black eyes. She took the opportunity and discreetly neared.
“I wasn’t in my right mind,” she pleaded miserably. “I knew I was sick, and I was going to talk to my mentor about it. But before I could do anything … Archer came into the landing, and I smelled her blood. It went dark after that.”
Despite her plea being mostly truthful, it was partly deceit. She’d had no intention of seeking out her mentor, and it hadn’t gone dark at all—she remembered every bit of it. But she didn’t think total honesty would benefit her.
His lashes fluttered as he looked up at her, head still bowed. Ivy took another step forward.
“I feel terrible,” she said. “I think about it all the time. I have nightmares about it. And, now that I know she’s your sister … I don’t see how I can ever make it right.”
“You can’t,” he said coldly. His softening eyes and the crease between his brows contradicted his claim.
“I know. But, can I please try?” She took another step closer. Only the burrow separated them. “Archer said you wanted to see me. She said you talk about me.”
A dimple appeared on his cheek as his jaw ticked.
“I think maybe you miss me,” she suggested cautiously.
He didn’t correct her, which only encouraged her.
“I missed you. A lot. I looked for you in the library every day. I thought about you all the time. This—” her fingers scooped out the necklace from her cleavage. His unreadable dark eyes shifted to the pendant he’d gifted her. “—never leaves my neck. I always wear it.”
“I did miss you,” he admitted crisply. “I do miss you, Sky. But … This?” He gestured between them. “It can never work. We can never be anything.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” she said exasperatedly. “But we can still be friends, Domenic.”
“Until you’re hungry again,” he snapped. “Then, who will it be? Archer, my grandmother, my friends? Me?”
; Ivy bit her lip shamefully and dropped the necklace. It bounced against her top before it calmed.
Lolling back his head, he sighed heavily. Domenic met her wounded gaze and said, “My decision was made before you hurt Archer. When we quarrelled, it was awakening. Our lives are different, we’re different. You’re a Vampire, I’m a Videer. We can’t be anything, Ivy. Not even friends.”
Cloudiness obscured her vision. It took her a moment to realise that tears welled in her eyes. She blinked them away, and averted her gaze to his boots.
“I care about you,” she whispered ashamedly. The tears returned with renewed strength and rolled down her cheeks. “I want you in my life.”
Domenic turned his back on her. Ivy’s face scrunched up as she watched him scoop up his cloak from the boulder.
As he slipped on the cloak, he said, “Ichor is almost rebuilt. We’ll be returning at the end of the holidays.” He fastened the cloak and kept his back to her. “It’s for the best. I wish you well, Miss Skylar.”
The sting struck her like a hatchet to the gut. Her bottom lip, damp with tears, wobbled childishly as he left without another word. She stood there, staring at the trees he vanished through for a while. Until she finally dropped to her knees and submitted to the sobs that wracked her body.
The purples and reds of the sunset seeped into the woods. It was then that he found her by an empty gnome burrow. Ivy sat cross-legged, picking petals off daisy flowers. Broken branches and fallen bird nests were scattered around her in artistic circle of toiled nature.
“Ivy.”
She stiffened and slowly looked over her shoulder at him. Samael emerged from the woods, dressed in a formal all-black suit and white tie. The dinner, she realised.