“No shit.” I upped my pace, wanting to escape my thoughts of Mom. “What happened to Kristen?”
Lily shook her head. “She was left to her own devices. I don’t want to start rumors, so all I’m going to say is that she had a hard time adjusting.”
Was that why Kristen was so desperately hanging on to Peony, hoping to finally find a home? If so, she had chosen the wrong girl. All Peony cared about was herself.
We reached the library, and feeling like I owed Lily for the intel, I motioned for her to follow me. “The best place to study is upstairs.”
The library had four floors and we hiked up the wide, spiral staircase until we reached the top one. I was about to go to my favorite study table in the corner when voices from behind the bookshelves stopped me. Normally, this floor was empty since the newer desks were on the lower floors, but today that wasn’t the case.
“You won’t regret it.” Kristen’s voice floated over.
“Hmm, I don’t know about that,” another girl replied.
“What is—?”
I shushed Lily and took a step forward so that I could peek around the shelves. Kristen sat opposite the female vampire who had glared at me in PE, Mei Wu if I recalled correctly, an heiress from Hong Kong. She had delicate features and sleek, raven hair pulled into a tight bun, revealing diamond studs.
“Please, have your family buy my contract. I swear they won’t regret it.” Desperation shone in Kristen’s brown eyes.
Mei petted her quilted Chanel bag. “You don’t even have plant magic or any other magic for that matter.”
Kristen’s hand began to shake, and she quickly placed it underneath the table to hide the tremor. “I’m a good spy. I’ll find out anything you want.” She leaned forward. “I’ve lived and partied with LA’s Elite for the last eighteen years. The Cali vamps see me as one of them. They don’t hold back around me. Whatever is going on, I can report it back to you.”
At this declaration, Mei stopped playing with her purse. “Prove it.”
Kristen smiled. “It would be my pleasure. What do you want me to do?”
Mei tilted her head. “Find out why Thorsten Steinberg is here. Something’s up with that.”
Kristen’s smile faded. “But he’s not from LA. He’s from Europe.”
Mei let out a sigh. “He is, but his sire is from the US. I know why Thorsten is in the country, but a vampire of his position shouldn’t be working as a guard at the academy. I want to know what scandal has gotten him in here.”
Kristen nodded. “I’ll do my best. You won’t be disappointed.”
“I better not be.”
The girls rose, and I whirled around and grabbed Lily’s hand, dragging her down to the third floor. Thankfully, the stairs were carpeted, muffling our steps. We hid behind a tall shelf as the two girls passed us. My heart was still hammering a few seconds later as I tried to process what I had heard. My suspicion that Thorsten didn’t fit here was spot on. Why was he working as a guard at Nocturnal Academy? It was considered a lowly position in the vamp society and didn’t make sense given who he had been sired by. Also, I had never seen Peony pay any guards before him any attention, let alone throw herself at them. Thorsten wasn’t supposed to be working here. I swallowed hard. What if he too was a spy? Was he collecting information on all of us, biding his time to ruin us?
Dizziness slammed into me, and I swayed. Lily steadied me, her small hands strong on my shoulders. “Are you all right, Onyx?”
“Fine,” I croaked. “I just need to sit down.”
She tried leading me to a table on the third floor, but I shook my head. “Upstairs.”
She didn’t protest, and I managed to crawl up the stairs, gripping the chestnut wood railing for support since my knees felt like they were about to give out.
Upstairs, I sat down and pulled my history book from my bag. We had a paper due on famous vampires, and mine was Edgar Allen Poe. Since our history book didn’t cover him, I’d have to use the library for some old-fashioned research to write my essay. No internet or anything else that connected us fae to the outside world. We were cut off completely, just the way the vamps liked it.
“So why is everyone so fascinated by Thorsten?” Lily broke the silence.
I shrugged. “No clue.”
Lily put her pencil down. “I think you know more than you’re letting on.”
I rubbed my eyes, tiredness seizing me. “You don’t need to concern yourself with him, just do well on your exams, and you’ll be good.” She opened her mouth, but I shook my head. “I have a headache.” I put my book back into my bag. “I need to be alone. I can’t talk and write my essay at the same time.”
“Got it.” Lily lowered her gaze and shut up. An acute sense of loneliness hit me, and I almost apologized, but I bit down on my tongue and descended to the first floor where I checked out two books on America’s great poets, then left the library. I considered going into an empty classroom, but I doubted I’d be able to study with thousands of questions running through my mind. So when my feet carried me to Home Décor, I didn’t hesitate. The door into the Siamese triplet room was open. I closed it behind me, doing a loop, making sure no one was hiding in a corner before I approached the teacher’s desk.
Was I really going to do this? Yes, I needed some peace of mind, and I would only get it once I discovered what Thorsten’s endgame was. Thankfully, I knew a secret way into the staff tower thanks to Preston.
After fumbling under the desk for a minute, I found the metal handle of the trapdoor, which slid open horizontally. A ladder led down, and I closed the door behind me, navigating in the darkness.
At the bottom of the ladder, a tunnel led me to another ladder that went upstairs. A chilly breeze hit my neck as I climbed toward the faint light. The second trapdoor at the top opened into a storage room full of spare linens. The door at the back of this room would open into a fancy corridor with red-carpeted floors and polished wooden doors. The staff members’ quarters. I knew because I had used the secret tunnel before to meet Preston.
Straining my ears, I listened for any noise coming from outside the teacher’s floor. I didn’t hear anything, which didn’t necessarily mean it was empty. Vamps were like cats, moving quietly before pouncing. I swallowed hard, knowing I couldn’t let my fear get the best of me. Thorsten was our Career teacher, which meant he’d have a direct influence on my future. I needed to understand him. I needed to discover his secrets so that I had a bargaining chip when he threatened me. It was time to even the score.
Blood rushed in my ears as I pushed the door handle down and gingerly opened the door an inch. When nothing happened, I opened it further and slipped into the corridor. It was empty. Good. I stared at the half a dozen polished doors. Which one was Thorsten’s? And what would I do after I found him? Did I expect him to conveniently have an incriminating conversation I could overhear? I shook my head. I was a fool.
“You shouldn’t be up here.”
I turned at the familiar, cold voice. Thorsten’s arctic gaze drilled into me, as if he could see to the bottom of my soul. He stood only a foot away from me, and I cursed myself for my carelessness.
“Do you have a death wish?” Thorsten crossed his muscular arms, disgust curling his lip.
“No.” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I want to live.”
Thorsten snorted. “Then fall in line, do your best, and stop getting yourself into dumb situations.”
I bit my lip. Thorsten was clearly not on my side. Why help me if he despised me so much? Why keep my secrets? “Why are you working as a guard at Nocturnal Academy?” I asked quietly.
An emotion I couldn’t name flashed across his face before he closed the distance between us with a few long strides.
I flinched, expecting him to manhandle me, but he didn’t even touch me.
“Don’t come back here again. If you hope to sleep your way to the top, the academy isn’t the right place for that. There will be plenty of whoring opportunities once you g
raduate. Not long now.”
Hot, despicable tears shot into my eyes. I tried and failed to blink them away. “Why do you hate me so much?”
A muscle feathered in his jaw. “I don’t hate you. You’re not worth my hatred.”
A bark of laughter tore from my throat as two twin tears streamed down my cheeks. “Got it.” My lip trembled. The other vamps had made me feel like an object, but Thorsten, Thorsten was so much worse. He made me feel like I was nothing, absolutely nothing. Whirling around, I dashed back into the linen closet, down the ladder, through the tunnel, and up the stairs only pausing when I reached Home Décor where I broke down into sobs.
I was nothing. My life was no longer my own. I was on a fast-paced train heading straight for the abyss.
7
Focusing on homework felt impossible that weekend, even after I dragged my study materials out to the garden, near the fruit trees, far away from where Preston had fallen. The Outer Gardens were the only place I could avoid the vamps during the day and Lily hadn’t discovered my hideout yet. I kept my gaze on my homework and on the overhang on the other side of the wooden fence where several saplings struggled out of the stone. I thought of walking through the hole in the fence, to the area that looked like an unfinished part of the Outer Gardens. But some of the ground looked iffy near the drop-off, so I stayed put. I had fought way too hard to become an accidental death casualty.
Sunday came, and when Lily asked me what was wrong over breakfast, I stuffed half a pancake in my mouth and chewed, hating her annoying power of observation. She stayed quiet after that. My chest felt as if a boulder had settled there. I had to let out my pain somehow, but dragging her into my mess wouldn’t help me and only put her in danger.
By Monday, Lily had backed off a bit. Maybe she’d try to befriend someone else, someone who would actually be useful and not a hindrance. Our morning classes passed uneventfully, and I was even able to answer Lord Sullivan’s questions. He neither smiled nor glowered at me, which I took as a positive sign.
At the end of class, he made an announcement. “Your Career and Home Decor class will take place tonight just after sunset in the Outer Gardens. We are still waiting for your new Home Decor teacher to arrive due to an unforeseen delay, but she has requested for myself and Thorsten to see which of you has magic. She will be a bit behind when she arrives and wants to ensure that everything runs smoothly. Those of you who weren’t here for summer prep will be tested, and the others will be retested.”
I swallowed. I neither wanted to use my magic nor go out to the Outer Gardens at night.
Lord Sullivan’s black gaze lingered on me, and I wondered if he knew my secret, but then he paced past me, tapping his stick against his open palm. “Class is dismissed.”
Peony swept out of her chair, Kristen following like an obedient sheep, and Virgie brought up the rear of their clique. The fae trio acted like Z-list celebrities, putting other fae down and sucking up to the vamps, whom they considered A-listers.
“A night class?” Lily trailed me as I exited.
“I don’t have magic,” I said quickly. During this special class, I could get exposed. Or worse. What if it was an interrogation session to discover who had killed Preston? Maybe Thorsten had grown tired of keeping my secret. Maybe whoever revealed what had happened would get a big reward. I swallowed, telling myself that I was probably overreacting. Plus, wouldn’t Thorsten get in trouble for not reporting me earlier? Maybe he didn’t care. Maybe he was seriously mentally ill and liked to play games.
I could barely eat that night and got so wrapped in my thoughts that I let Lily sit with me and chat a bit about whether she should practice her gymnastics moves in PE.
“Don’t,” I told her. “Just keep organizing and cleaning. PE is meant to educate for a different purpose. Get put in the servant major after the Placement Tests.”
She sighed. “You’re right. I wish I came from one of the families who still had magic.”
“Maybe you do. Maybe you’re a late bloomer.” I tried not to think about the plague unleashed by the Unseelie Courted. Not only had it forced fae to flee to earth, but it had also made those who stayed behind infertile. I shuddered remembering Preston’s promise to use me for breeding in the Seelie Court.
Lily sighed loudly, bringing me back to the present.
“You’ll be fine.” I tried to sound encouraging. Just because I was doomed didn’t mean Lily had to be.
Since we had time to kill before our evening class, I tried to take a nap on my bunk, but relaxing proved impossible.
At last, the sun set, casting an orange glow through our tiny window before vanishing. I rose and punched the bottom of Lily’s bunk. Realizing I was being too nice, I made up by leaving the room as soon as she groaned and sat up.
“What’s your deal?” she grumbled, following. I was probably as confusing to her as Thorsten was to me. A wave of self-disgust rose within me, but I didn’t answer.
By the time Lily and I entered the Outer Gardens, the other students were already there, standing in the center. Lord Sullivan kept his distance from Thorsten, eyeing him from the side as if waiting to see what he’d do. Thorsten was dressed in a long-sleeved crimson shirt with silver cufflinks and black dress pants. He looked less like a guard and more like a young executive, one with access to the best gym in the land. Why did all the good-looking ones have to be insane? I shook off that thought and tried to look away, but couldn’t, too desperate to figure him out. Thorsten shifted leg to leg. Was he nervous? Lord Sullivan was treating him the way Preston had been treated. He was supervising Thorsten. Mei had a point about this being weird. If he was from a powerful family, why was he being treated as an underling?
Fortunately, with the hundred or so assembled students, neither vampire paid me any attention.
Thorsten studied his clipboard. “Four groups. Group one, to the flowers. ” He motioned to the fae standing on the far left. “Group two, to the shrubs. Group three, to the trees. And group four—” he motioned me to the right, right along with Peony, Lily, and Kristen. “—you’re going to the Young Section.”
The Young Section? Did he mean the saplings struggling on the far side of the garden, in the incomplete area? They were so weak, a tiny touch from my power might wilt them all. Then the vamps would have their prime suspect in the disappearance of Preston.
Peony already did. She sneered at me and leaned close as our group of twenty or so fae walked down the path to the far side of the garden. “Stop making eyes at Thorsten. When he’s ready to take a whore, he’ll look for someone accomplished.” She motioned up and down my body. “Not this.” Before I could reply, she added viciously, “And don’t think I don’t know you had something to do with Preston leaving.”
My mouth went dry, and I backed away from her.
Next to me Lily frowned. “She seriously has it out for you,” she whispered.
No kidding.
“Why does she hate you so much?”
I shrugged. Peony had been nasty to me since the day I had walked through the doors of Nocturnal Academy. Me not worshipping her and Thorsten being nice to me had added to her dislike of me.
As we reached our assigned section, I realized I had indeed been correct. Saplings struggled out of a rocky outcrop. There seemed to be two dozen of them, in rows of ten, and as Lily and I stepped through the hole in the fence and out of the protective barrier of the trees, cold wind snapped against my legs and bare arms. Lily wrapped her arms around herself and shrunk down, shivering, though I didn’t think it was that cold. Fae spread out on the big outcrop, which stretched over the lake and spanned maybe seventy feet.
Peony watched me from her position near the fence. She’d taken the first sapling and the one farthest from the drop-off. I walked past the other fae until I found the only available sapling. It was near the edge of the outcrop on the front row. I tried not to look at how the world dropped into darkness just a couple feet from me. There was no protection here. Swall
owing my fear, I focused on the struggling, six-inch-high pine. A cold weather species. At least, I was less likely to kill it with frost.
Thorsten walked onto the outcrop, clipboard ready, moving so fast he was almost a blur. My breath caught. Even in the moonlight, his blue eyes were striking and his ashy hair beckoned me to run my fingers through it. I jerked my gaze away from him, reminding myself that underneath that nice exterior he was a monster.
“Students,” Thorsten announced quickly. “Grow your saplings to the best of your ability. Some of you will fail, but others will shine.” As he spoke, his gaze landed on me, and Peony’s inevitably followed. She even leaned over to look around the other students, making a show of it. I rolled my eyes.
I swallowed down anger that everyone was against me. I focused on the pine, trying to keep my gaze off the darkness and the lake’s jagged rocks far below.
Don’t die and don’t do anything stupid.
Thorsten paced in front of us, watching. Whispers of growing plants filled the air, merging with the wind. He eyed the garden behind him as if waiting for Sullivan. Beside me, Lily waved her hands over her sapling, a tiny birch, and scrunched up her face in frustration. Farther down the row, Kristen did the same, her forehead wrinkling. Peony had no trouble. Her oak tree grew tall.
Thorsten approached, and I quickly waved my hands around, pretending to try to access my plant magic.
“Just as I expected,” he said with an air of satisfaction, then dropping his voice, added, “Your talents lie elsewhere.”
What the hell? I took a sharp breath as Thorsten turned away. Peony leaned forward again, trying to see the happenings, and the rocks I stood on seemed to shift. No. They were slippery. I stumbled forward, dizziness stealing over me, and glimpsed a fresh layer of moss under my feet, which expanded across the rock as I struggled to gain my footing.
This wasn’t natural. This was magic. Peony was doing this.
“Onyx!” Lily shouted.
I shifted my foot, trying to throw my weight to the side, but my boots weren’t designed for outdoor use.
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