Page 18 of Blood Legacy (Eternal Descent (MistHallow Academy) #1)

18

FELIX

She’s a rare creature, this pureblood vampire who stands in front of me with defiance flashing in her blue eyes. Most creatures are afraid of me by my proximity, my power, my intensity. But not Gaida. She pushes back, challenges me, and meets my gaze without flinching.

I find it refreshing.

“So pact?” I ask.

“I don’t want to keep things from Dante. He knows me too well,” she says.

“And Blackthorn?” I ask slyly. “Does he know you better than he should?”

“Fuck you.”

I chuckle darkly. She is such fun. “Blackthorn has his own agenda.” I move to her window, glancing out at the academy grounds below. Students mill about, blissfully unaware of the danger brewing. “He’s distracted.”

“By?”

I turn, giving her a knowing look. “By you, by his past, by whatever demons he’s running from. The man’s carrying enough baggage to sink a cruise ship.”

“That’s not fair. You don’t know what he’s been through.”

“Do you?” I counter. “I’ve studied his history extensively. Fifteen hundred years leaves quite a paper trail, even for someone as careful as Luke Blackthorn, and there are… discrepancies.”

“Such as?”

“Nothing concrete. Simply my own observations.”

“Again, I ask, such as?”

I shrug. “I can’t quite put my finger on it. He has a vibe.”

“Vibe?” She bursts out laughing. “He is an ancient vampire mage with more power in his little finger than most of this academy has put together. Of course he has a vibe.”

“Not that kind of vibe,” I say, rolling my eyes. “There’s something off about his aura. His magick doesn’t feel right. The signature is…”

“Off?” she asks, raising her eyebrow with an amused expression.

“Precisely.”

“He is a vampire mage,” she says again. “I don’t expect you to understand how rare that is. Not many mages carry on their magickal lineage after they are turned.”

I study her. She is right, but it’s not that. But no matter what I say, she will have a defensive answer for him because she is so blinded by love that she can’t see clearly. So, I change tactics.

“I think everything at this academy is connected.” I move closer to her again, drawn by something I can’t quite name. “Power recognises power, Gaida, and there’s something happening here that’s shifting the balance.”

She considers me for a long moment, her expression unreadable. “So we find out what it is.”

I nod, eyes narrowed. “Secret meetings in the forest after sunset?”

“Ugh,” she spits out. “Typical guy, thinking only with his cock.”

Her disdain takes me aback slightly. “Err, no. I was thinking of you being a vampire, so darkness is better and the forest so no one can interrupt us. You really do think everyone fancies you, don’t you?”

“Are you saying you don’t?”

I smirk, enjoying the game now. “I’m saying my attraction to you is irrelevant to our alliance. Though I’d be lying if I said you weren’t intriguing.”

Her eyes flash with something. Amusement, interest, I can’t quite tell. “Fine. The forest, after sunset. But just to talk.”

“Just to talk,” I agree, though we both know there’s a current running between us that has nothing to do with severed sire bonds or academy politics. “Tomorrow night?”

She nods. “The eastern clearing, where the megalith stones are.”

“Deal. We both need to find out tomorrow what little information is leaking out of the staff whispers. We can get together and… discuss.”

“Okay,” she says. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to get some sleep. Breaking into the Headmaster’s bedroom and being rejected is exhausting work.”

I laugh, moving toward the door. “I can imagine. For what it’s worth, he’s fighting a losing battle with himself over you.”

“How would you know?”

I turn back, my hand on the doorknob. “Because I recognise the look of a man denying himself what he wants most. I’ve worn it myself.”

Before she can respond, I slip out, closing the door behind me. The corridor is empty, but I can sense the unease permeating the academy walls. Something is coming, something dark and ancient that’s making the stones of this place tremble. Something terrible and unstoppable.

The alleged severed sire bonds are just the beginning. My scrying earlier tonight showed shadows gathering, converging on MistHallow like vultures circling a dying animal.

I intend to be ready when it arrives.

As I make my way back to my room, I pause by an open window, letting the cool night air clear my head. The academy grounds stretch out before me, peaceful under the moonlight. But beneath that tranquillity, I can feel it. It’s a wrongness seeping through the wards like poison through veins.

I’ve been at enough academies to recognise when something fundamental is shifting. The severed sire bonds are just symptoms of a deeper disease. Gaida, with her pure blood, might be the key to understanding what’s happening.

Or she might be the target.

The thought makes me frown. I hadn’t considered that possibility until now. What if all of this—the severed bonds, the dimensional disturbances, even Blackthorn’s strange behaviour—revolves around her? The daughter of Aurelius Aragon. A pureblood vampire of unimaginable heritage.

I continue walking, and my mind works overtime. At my door, I pause, casting a subtle detection spell to ensure no one has entered during my absence. It’s a habit born from years of suspicion and unwanted intrusions at previous institutions. The spell reveals nothing amiss, and I enter, locking the door both physically and magickally behind me.

My room is sparse compared to most. There are no personal photographs, no mementoes, nothing that could reveal too much about me to prying eyes. There are just books—hundreds of them—stacked on every surface, their spines cracked, and pages marked with notes. Knowledge is the only thing I’ve ever been able to rely on.

I move to my desk and unroll a parchment covered in complex diagrams—my mapping of the magickal disturbance earlier. Placing my palm flat against it, I channel a small amount of power, updating it with tonight’s observations. New lines appear, connecting points I hadn’t previously considered related.

“Interesting,” I murmur, noticing a pattern emerging. The disturbances form a pentagram across the academy grounds, with the eastern tower at its centre. Coincidence? I think not.

I add Gaida’s room to the map, watching as the parchment glows briefly where my finger touches. Her location sits at a crucial intersection point, a nexus of power that can’t be accidental. Someone has been planning this for quite some time, arranging pieces on the board with precision and patience.

Drawing a different parchment from beneath a stack of books, I study the genealogy I’ve been assembling. Aragon’s bloodline stretches back further than all vampire history records, disappearing into myth and legend. There are gaps in the record and inconsistencies that no amount of research has been able to fill.

And then there’s the strange connection I witnessed between her and Blackthorn—a bond, unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. It is not romantic or sexual, though those elements exist. Something older. Something predestined.

All this plotting and thinking is taking its toll on me. I haven’t slept for two days, and that’s just the way I work, but I need rest tonight if I’m going to function tomorrow.

Turning to the bed, a slight tremor runs through the floor. It is so subtle that most would dismiss it as imagination. But I know better. The academy responds to the growing imbalance, the very stones sensing the approaching storm.

“Soon,” I whisper to the empty room, running my fingers along the wall, feeling the ancient magick embedded in its structure vibrate in response. “Whatever’s coming, it’s almost here.”

A vision hits me, ripping through my perfectly constructed outer walls, causing an agony that transcends what a human could take and survive. It is filled with blood and legacies. Gaida stands at the centre of a vortex, her hands outstretched, seeking something… or someone with eyes that burn like dying stars.

And somewhere in the darkness, a clock ticks down to zero.