Page 85 of A University of Betrayal

“He means the Quatura. A species gifted with elemental magic that is a territorial as well as financial burden to us.”

I stared at Adrian again. “Witches...”

Hadn’t the uncle bomb from a moment ago been enough?

“The Blairs are the oldest Quatura family in this town. They also call themselves the founding family,” David explained, as if it were an entry from an encyclopedia.

“More like foundingcrisis,”Miles said gloomily.

And then it clicked. Grace possessed so much weird stuff that reminded me of the esoteric aunties from Sacramento’s underground streets, and she and Julie had always acted so strangely secretive. Butwitches?It wasn’t unthinkable. After all, I was now a what? Bloodsucker? Ruisangor? Vampire? It all came down to the same thing.

“I don’t get it... How did I not realize that?”

“When it comes to identity secrecy, we are all, perhaps except for the wolf pack, cautious.”

I looked at Adrian again, confused.“Wolf pack?You mean likewerewolves?”

“More like biting puppies,” Miles laughed, but Adrian remained serious.

“Watch out for them. They hate us and would take any opportunity to kill one of us. One bite and you’re dead.”

So, all this supernatural stuff was real? Vampires, witches, werewolves…

“I’m sure they want to kill you for a reason,” I said, remaining thoughtfully silent and ignoring Adrian’s devastating sideways glance.

“They should kill Tristan,” Miles growled from behind me. “He’s already done far too much damage.”

I snapped my eyes open and glanced at Miles in the rearview mirror, but he only looked out the window with a grim expression.

He wished his own father was dead.I didn’t know how to process that, or if I could even let it get to me without suffering collateral damage inside.

This man was also supposed to bemyfather…

“It’s not certain that it was him,” David remarked. “The girls could also have been killed by the other man.”

I couldn’t keep up.

What were they talking about? Surely not about the missing persons cases?

I remembered that I had wanted to ask Adrian something else, even if it was the most inappropriate time, especially in front of the others.

“Have you ever manipulated my thoughts?” Adrian looked at me, focused. “Bastien said that we can do that, that it’s part of our gifts.”

“Legacies can’t manipulate other species’, each other’s or Transformed’s minds,” David clarified. “We can only use ourspecial giftson each other.”

I looked thoughtfully at the road. Adrian must have tried it then, because he had thought I was human…

I remembered the bite, but immediately tried to suppress it again, because in combination with the fact that he was my uncle, this image in my head was not only inappropriate, but also disturbing.

My mind wandered back to the frustrating events on campus and... to Bayla.

“My friend, she was also attacked and bitten by that man. I’m sure of it.”

The man Tristan had killed... I wonder if he was telling the truth or just trying to scare me.

“Wait, someone else was bitten?”

David looked surprised, and I glanced at Adrian with a searching look.