Page 26

A hidden silver needle slid into my hand from my wrist, and I hurled it into the raven, piercing both eyes from the left angle before anyone could stop me.

I’d stolen the needle from a boutique bookstore at the edge of the campus commercial district. The bookstore sold weapons in the back of the shop, borrowing the idea of “knowledge is a weapon.”

Two vampire guards, one of them the captain, lunged at me and threw me to the ground even after I’d raised my hands in surrender to show them that I’d meant their prince no harm. My jaw hit a rock on the hard dirt, which made me bite my tongue. Blood seeped into my mouth, and I pressed my lips together hard so no vampires would smell a drop of my blood.

With the guards on either side of me pinning me down, I still managed to tilt and lift my head to check out the raven. A breath of relief left my nostrils as I saw its limp body in the vampire prince’s strong hand. Black blood streamed from its eyes, tainting its shiny black feathers and pooling in the space between the prince’s thumb and forefinger.

“What the fuck, little Bob?” Louis snarled.

I swallowed my own blood before answering from the ground. “It was a spy!”

“How do you know?” he demanded.

“It was trying to attack you, sir,” I said. There, I’d tried to shift his attention.

“Is that why you used His Highness as a shield?” snarled the captain, whose name was Gunnar—a bad name. “Where’s your loyalty, you little shit?”

“The prince can handle himself well,” I said. “He did, didn’t he? And what use would I be to the high sir if the raven raked me blind? Did you see the size of its claws?”

“It might be a spy from the House of Mages or even the House of Chaos,” Louis grated, a dark, pissed-off look on his face. “The Shifter House hates us more, but they’re more straightforward than Cade and Killian.”

“Sir! Gunnar still has his big foot pressed on my back, and the dirt is getting into my mouth!” I called. I could throw off the guards, but it was best that they let me go by their good will.

Louis waved a hand impatiently. “Release little Bob. I don’t want to hear his constant bitching. That boy is a nuisance.”

He tossed the raven at a guard. “Take it to the witches on our payroll and find out if this creature was a familiar from any house. We’ll get to the bottom of this!”

“Yes, Your Highness,” the guard said, bowed, and took off.

Gunnar lifted his foot reluctantly, and his pal released my wrists that were pinned behind my back as well.

A rush of wind went under me, trying to pull me up.

Air magic.

In Mist of Cinder, powerful vampires were graced with the air element, unlike their weaker counterparts in the human realm, where centuries of technology had suppressed magic. When magic felt unwelcome, it slipped away.

Louis was one of the most powerful immortals, but even he didn’t flaunt his magic often, since it would drain his reservoir.

After all, magic was no longer in endless supply as in the good old days.

That was one of the reasons that the heirs were all in a race to find their true mate and hopefully conceive the One, who was prophesized to bring back the wild magic of old, so the realm could have endless magic again.

The prince had forgotten that no magic worked on me, or more likely he thought he was special. I didn’t want him to lose face in front of his minions, especially since he would for sure take it out on me, so I acted like I was yanked up by his air magic and was at his mercy.

“I’m going to prove you wrong, little Bob.” The prince sneered at me.

“But sir, I didn’t do anything wrong,” I objected, picking a couple of sticks and dried weeds from my tunic.

“I’m an excellent senior student,” he declared. “I’ll go to all the classes today after meeting with those jerkass heirs from the other houses for breakfast.”

I blinked in confusion. What did it have to do with me?

“Run along, little Bob,” he ordered. “You already made me late, and my rivals will be whining like juveniles.”

8

Jubilee Haven hall could hold over two thousand students. The ceiling was arched and high, the floor was white marble, and the dining tables were made of hard maple wood.