Page 4

K IDAN REACHED FOR THE KNIFE SHE CARRIED INSIDE HER JACKET. I T had ridges that pressed into her palm uncomfortably and was curved toward the end. The feel of it triggered a shiver down her spine.

The night appeared stripped of all noise as Kidan approached the woman. Kidan wished she would move. Stillness was found in animals, and animalistic features were found in dranaics.

“Who are you?” Kidan’s voice sounded unusually loud in the quiet.

The woman was heavyset, with thickly shaped brows and dark, reflective eyes. A golden pin featuring a black bird with a silver eye was fixed to her chest.

“I’m Dean Faris of Uxlay University. I understand you’ve been looking for me.”

The sidewalk jerked, jostling Kidan’s grip on the knife. She was struck speechless by the idea that something she had searched for in blind hope and crushing disappointment could reveal itself by simply dropping from the sky.

“Ux… Uxlay?” she finally said, afraid the place would disappear again.

“Yes.”

The answer cleared the fog in Kidan’s mind. What was she doing? Her hand left her pocketed knife.

“So, you’ve come to take me,” she rushed. “To exchange me for June?”

Her chest swelled with hope. How many nights did she lie awake in bed imagining every possible variation of this scene? It was a mad manifestation, a goal that kept her heart beating after it should’ve died the night of the fire.

The dean folded her hands before herself. “Uxlay does not deal with kidnapped humans. Our very laws are against it.”

“Laws?” Kidan hurled the word back at her as she stepped closer. “Where were your laws when a dranaic assigned to our family took my sister?”

Her fingers strained with the effort not to strangle the woman. The dean’s dark eyes flickered with caution. Good.

“That is a heavy accusation. Do you have any proof?”

Kidan’s proof waited in her small apartment, taped under her bed. Her victim’s confession named the vampire responsible. But it also proved that Kidan had tortured and killed.

Kidan’s voice dipped so low it could wake the dead. “A vampire took my sister.”

Dean Faris tilted her head to one side. “I speak to you as a representative of Uxlay, Kidan. Perhaps because you didn’t grow up with our education, you don’t know what that means. But I am responsible for enforcing peace between humans and dranaics. It’s what I hold most important, and I do that through laws and punishment. You believe you have been wronged, yet there is no proof. I ask you to see reason despite your grief. I cannot accuse one of my dranaics without evidence.”

Dean Faris spoke like a dignified politician, as if her campus was the setting of all law and order. This clashed against every story Kidan had concocted for the vile place.

She was preparing to argue when a sudden thought struck her. “It was you, wasn’t it? You posted my bail.”

After Kidan had been detained, a miracle had happened. Her impossible bail was paid in full by a woman with high enough standing that she requested anonymity, and the court granted it.

“You deserve a chance to prove your innocence,” the dean said pointedly. “As do all others. You are innocent, yes?”

Kidan stepped back. This woman didn’t come here to talk about June. Kindness, especially such as this, always had a price. “Why are you here?”

Dean Faris assessed her for another second. “I’m afraid your aunt Silia has passed. She fell ill, and the disease took her quickly. I’m sorry.”

Kidan shot a surprised look at the parcel locker. Dead. Her eyes remained dry, yet the shock knocked her off-balance. Another member of their family gone. Was the same vampire behind this?

Aunt Silia existed mostly in her imagination, in stories, in the world of before, to make sense of the after. To prove that they hadn’t appeared out of nowhere on Mama Anoet’s doorstep. With this news, Kidan became weightless, another thread snapped from her. Then she thought of June’s honeyed eyes and kind smile and felt the ground beneath her feet again.

The dean pulled out a teeth-white envelope with a bloodred crest. “As of now, you are next in line to inherit Adane House. This is your admission letter.”

Kidan recoiled from the letter. “I have no interest in being a slave to vampires.”

The dean’s calm features slipped. “Do not use terms without knowing their consequence. It will be the last time you use that word before me.”

Kidan wanted to laugh but only managed a strained scoff. “I’m not interested. I just want June.”

“Very well. Believe it or not, convincing students who don’t wish to attend my university is not part of my job requirement. Most usually try incredibly hard to land a position at Uxlay.” She brought out another letter from her pocket. “Sign this, and I will take my leave.”

Kidan eyed it suspiciously. “What is it?”

“A will, signed first by your parents and then your aunt, leaving everything to your last remaining house dranaic.”

Her mouth gaped. She snatched the letter. Most of it was blackened over, some sections obviously highlighted. Kidan read, growing more horrified, and crumpled the edges of it.

“Curious, isn’t it?” Dean Faris’s eyes gleamed. “It’s a first in the history of Uxlay, a family choosing to leave their house to their dranaic. The very vampire you accuse of taking your sister is the person your family trusts enough to bestow its legacy upon.”

Bile lurched up to her throat. Were they all blind? This was even more proof. Motive. He’d tricked her family out of their inheritance or coerced them. Taken June in secrecy to keep himself hydrated—

“No,” the dean said.

“What?”

“You believe he forced them into signing this. That’s incorrect. They chose this of their own free will. There are many things you’re not aware of in our world. The power of our houses, the power of our laws. It is extraordinary. Knowledge that’ll only become available to you if you choose to join us. No soul can enter Uxlay without an invitation.”

Kidan eyed the blocked-out sections of the paper. What was the dean hiding?

Dean Faris checked her thin golden watch. From her seemingly endless pocket, she brought out a pen.

“I’m afraid I need to leave. Please sign, indicating you have no interest in contesting the will as potential heiress, and I’ll be on my way.”

Kidan stared at the pen like it was poison. After some time, Dean Faris withdrew it.

“Perhaps you need time to think. If you are interested, houses at Uxlay are inherited through education. You must attend the university and graduate from a course that studies human and vampire coexistence. I will wait three days for your response.”

The woman’s countenance disarmed Kidan. When the dean offered her the admission letter again, she took it slowly. The paper was hard and compact, with a seal of two lions with blades in their mouths, positioned at each other’s throats.

Why? Kidan stared at the seal, wanting to dissolve. Why had her family done this? When she lifted her head, the woman had vanished.