Page 31 of Blood Legacy (Eternal Descent (MistHallow Academy) #1)

31

DANTE

My blood runs cold as I stare at the medallion in her hand. The symbol, with its three intertwined bands and central droplet, is one that I’ve seen before today, years ago, in my father’s private study. A place I wasn’t supposed to be.

“Dante?” Felix’s voice cuts through my memories. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“I’ve seen that symbol before,” I admit, reaching for the medallion. Gaida hands it over, and I turn it in my fingers, feeling the weight of it. Old silver. Probably hundreds of years old, judging by the patina. “My father has documents with this exact emblem.”

“Well, that’s not suspicious,” Gaida murmurs.

Felix takes the medallion from me, examining it through narrowed eyes. “We need to document everything before Harlow returns. Whatever Luke is discussing with her won’t keep her occupied forever.”

We work quickly. Felix uses a spell to duplicate the medallion while I rifle through the remaining contents of the hidden drawer. I pick up a small journal, different from the one Harlow carried earlier.

I flip it open. The pages are filled with cramped handwriting, lists of names organised in some sort of hierarchy. I scan down the first page, seeing Aragon at the top of a list of names and DuLoc underneath it. Underneath that are the family names of other old pureblood families.

“Shit,” I breathe.

“What is it?” Gaida moves to my side and peers at the journal.

“It’s a bloodline registry,” I explain, flipping through the pages. “All pureblood families, organised by something. It’s headed ‘Sovereign’.”

Felix finishes his duplication spell and joins us. “Sovereign? As in the same that was in the book we found?”

I snap the journal shut, suddenly aware that we’re running out of time. “We need to go. Now. We can examine this somewhere safe.”

Felix nods, carefully replacing the original medallion and helping me restore the false bottom of the drawer. Gaida keeps watch at the door as we erase all evidence of our intrusion.

We slip out of the office just as a clock chimes the hour. Felix locks the door behind us with a clever reverse of his unlocking spell, the hex resealing itself with a faint hiss.

“Let’s go to my room,” I say.

We make our way across the campus, keeping to less-travelled paths. The snow is falling more heavily now, blanketing MistHallow in pristine white that would look serene if not for the knot of dread in my stomach.

Once safely inside my room, I pull out the journal I’d slipped into my coat. Gaida sits beside me on the bed. Whatever this is, her family is at the centre of it.

And apparently, so is mine.

“Start from the beginning,” Felix suggests, perching on the desk. “Where exactly have you seen this symbol before?”

I take a deep breath, sorting through memories I’ve tried to forget. “I was sixteen. My father had a private meeting in his study, which was unusual because he typically conducts business in the main hall. I was curious, so I hid in the passage behind the bookcase.”

“Your house has secret passages?” Gaida raises an eyebrow.

“Every proper ancestral home does,” I reply with a half-smile that fades quickly. “Four men were there, all wearing rings with that symbol. My father wasn’t wearing one, but he had a medallion just like this on his desk. They were discussing something called The Equilibrium. I thought it was just typical pureblood politics, you know, marriages, alliances, the usual power plays.”

“But it wasn’t,” Felix guesses.

“No.” I open the journal again, turning to a page marked with strange astronomical symbols. “They mentioned blood rights, but not in the way we usually talk about vampire hierarchy. It was something specific, something they were breeding for.”

Gaida’s face pales. “Breeding?”

“Selective bloodline mixing,” I clarify, though it doesn’t sound any better. “They had specific marriages they wanted to arrange, families they wanted to connect. Your name came up, Gaida. Your father was insistent that you maintain ‘pure Aragon status’ despite the pressure to... I believe the term used was ‘diversify the sovereign line.’”

“Okay, eww. That sounds…”

“Fucking gross,” Felix finishes for her.

“But that’s why he’s been so obsessed with my choice of partner,” she whispers, the realisation dawning. “It’s not just about family pride. It’s about whatever this Blood Sovereign thing is.”

“And your father has been protecting you from it,” I add, seeing it more clearly now. “That’s why he didn’t give you one of these rings or medallions. He was keeping you away from The Equilibrium. In the same way that mine has.”

Felix takes the book from me and flips through the pages, his brow furrowed. “This is bigger than just a few families. Look at these dates. Some go back centuries. This is a long-term breeding project.”

It turns my stomach. Generations of my family, of Gaida’s family, manipulated like prized livestock to produce... what? A vampire with Blood Rights?

“I need to call my father,” I decide suddenly.

Gaida grabs my arm. “Is that wise? If he’s involved?—”

“He is involved,” I interrupt, “but not in the way you think. He rejected their ring, Gaida. He attended the meeting, but he never joined them. I need to know why.”

She hesitates, then nods, releasing my arm. I step into the small adjoining bathroom and stare into the mirror. Every reflected surface in this place can be used for scrying connections. I drop my fangs and prick my thumb, drawing a droplet of blood before wiping it on the corner.

My dad’s face swims into view moments later. “Dante. This is unexpected.”

“The Equilibrium,” I say without preamble. “What is it?”

A long silence follows, so prolonged that I check to make sure the supernatural call hasn’t dropped. Finally, my father speaks, his voice lower, tighter. “Where did you hear that name?”

“It doesn’t matter. I found a medallion with three intertwined bands and a blood droplet. I know you’ve met with them. I want the truth.”

Another pause, shorter this time. “Not over the supernatural network.”

“Give me the basics,” I insist. “What is The Equilibrium, and what does it have to do with Gaida Aragon?”

“Damn it, Dante.” The rare curse from my ever-composed father tells me how serious this is. “You’ve stumbled into something dangerous. The Equilibrium is an ancient society that believes vampire hierarchy should be determined by blood purity alone. They’ve been working for centuries to produce a Blood Sovereign—a pureblood with the ability to control other vampires through blood dominance.”

My throat tightens. “And Gaida is this Blood Sovereign?”

“Potentially.” He sounds resigned. “The Aragon line has been their prime focus for generations, but there are other candidates. The DuLoc line was considered promising at one point, which is why I was approached.”

“But you refused them.”

“I did.” There’s a strange note in his voice that sounds almost like pride. “I don’t believe our kind should be ruled by blood dominance. It’s a primitive concept that belongs in our past, not our future.”

I lean against the sink, processing this. “And Aurelius Aragon? Is he a member?”

“One of their leaders,” my father confirms. “He’s been working toward this for longer than I’ve been alive. The Voclains are also deeply involved—they’ve been breeding their line specifically to serve as bond-anchors for the Sovereign.”

“Bond-anchors?”

“Secondary blood connections that stabilise the Sovereign’s powers. Like satellites around a planet.” He pauses. “Dante, listen to me carefully. If Gaida Aragon is developing Blood Rights, she’s in danger. Not just from The Equilibrium, who will want to control her, but from those who oppose them. There are factions who would rather see a potential Sovereign dead than risk the return of blood dominance.”

My heart pounds at the thought. “What should I do?”

“Stay close to her,” he advises. “Your pureblood makes you resistant to blood dominance. It’s why…”

“Why what?” I ask, a cold feeling of dread welling up as Gaida hovers in the doorway out of sight of my dad.

“Why there are so few of you now.”

“Few of us?” I ask suspiciously.

“New borns.”

I blink. “You mean the families stopped trying to reproduce purebloods because they are immune to the Blood Rights?”

I glance at Gaida. She is as shocked as I am.

“Be careful, Dante. I never wanted you caught up in this.”

The call ends abruptly, and I stare at my reflection in the bathroom mirror. “So The Equilibrium is an ancient society obsessed with blood purity and vampire hierarchy. They’ve been selectively breeding vampires for centuries, trying to produce a Blood Sovereign—someone with the ability to control other vampires through blood dominance.”

“Me,” Gaida says flatly. Her face hardens, then. “That explains a lot about my upbringing. All those lectures about blood purity, about the ‘natural order’ of vampire society. So what do we do now? Confront my father? Tell Luke what we’ve found?”

I think about what my father said about factions wanting a potential Sovereign dead rather than risk the return of blood dominance. “We need to tell Luke. He bought us the time to investigate. But before we confront anyone, we need to understand exactly what your Blood Rights can do, and how The Equilibrium plans to use you.”

“And how to stop them,” Felix adds firmly.

Gaida looks between us, her expression resolute despite the fear I can sense beneath it. “I need to understand this power more. We are flying blind.”

“What if we are looking at this all wrong?” I ask, after a beat.

“What do you mean?”

“What if this isn’t a case of breeding? What if, despite all the mechanics behind the purebloods, this is just… you?”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning, this Equilibrium thing is neither here nor there. They’ve tried to engineer an outcome, but no pureblood family is pure of blood. That would be…” We all shudder at the thought. “So bloodlines have mixed, diluted. We call ourselves pureblood because we aren’t turned, but that doesn’t mean you are all Aragon or I’m all DuLoc. Maybe this power has nothing to do with your breeding but everything to do with who you are. What you are.”

“What I am,” she mutters. “Shame I don’t even know what that is. I need to go. I need some time to think, to recalibrate, to?—”

“You don’t need to explain it to us, Gaida. We will see you later,” I interrupt her and give her a quick kiss.

She doesn’t return it. She is too distracted to even say goodbye. She leaves without another word, leaving me and Felix to stare at each other, trying to make sense of the un-sensible.