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“I said I suspected. I didn’t say that I knew. ”
“What made you suspect?” I demanded.
“I can’t say. ” He shrugged, looking uncomfortable. “It’s merely that the…nature of things strikes me as suspect. I told you before, I don’t know anything. ”
“Can’t say, or won’t?” I was too frustrated to give him a chance to answer and waved it away. “Whatever with your nature of things. ”
“The keep is the realm of vampires and Trainees only,” he protested. “The knowledge, theirs only. ”
Carden could’ve found out. There’d been a day when Carden would’ve found out for me. Now more than ever I needed my vampire here. The thought made me cold. I realized the freezing ground was leaching my heat, sending aching tendrils up my spine. I tried not to care—I could no longer afford it.
I scowled, plucking at the grass around me. “I bet the vamps don’t even tell the Trainees everything. I mean, I sure wouldn’t. So many of those guys are such knuckleheads. ” I couldn’t imagine kids like Danny or Rob being entrusted with all the Ancient Secrets of Vampire. The Robbies of the world would never flourish into Alcántaras, no matter how much blood they consumed.
If his response to my Sonja translation surprised me, then this next bit floored me. Because instead of scolding me as usual and treating me like a child, he said, “If I tell you something, the one thing that is known outside the castle, do you promise to give up this quest of yours?”
My heart skipped a beat. “I promise to consider it. Now, what thing?” I edged closer, lowering my voice. “You have to tell me. What goes on in there?”
He angled his head to meet my eyes, and crap, I’d scooted a little too close. But he didn’t seem to notice. He simply continued quietly. “I don’t know much, but I’ve heard the villagers speak of a ritual. ” He hesitated, and for once I didn’t press him. It took everything I had to keep quiet and let him come to the conclusion that I was mature enough, trustworthy enough, to share things with. He seemed to make some decision and finally—finally—he spoke again, and when he did, it was as though something shifted between us. Maybe it was because of Carden’s departure, or my ascension to Initiate, or maybe it was simply the waves of raw misery wafting off me—but all of a sudden he was treating me more like a peer than a student. “There’s a holiday. In the old religion, it marked midwinter, a celebration of the end of the yule season. On the Anglo-Saxon calendar, it was called Antonsmas. ”
“You’re trying to tell me the vampires still celebrate it?”
“Those who hail from these parts would’ve celebrated it as men. Whether as Antonsmas, or the more modern festival we call Up Helly Aa. ”
I’d heard of such things before, how Pagan holidays became modernized into Christian ones, but I’d never heard of this one. “What the heck is heely-yah?”
“Up Helly Aa,” he corrected. “The folk of the Northern Isles see it as an ode to their Viking ancestors. Traditionally, it’s a night of fire and boisterousness. ”
“You mean they like to get drunk and burn things,” I clarified.
He gave me one of those Ronan smiles, one of the rare ones where the corners of his eyes crinkled in a way that said he’d thought he might never smile again yet here he was, surprised by one. “Something like that. ”
I glanced out to sea, marveling. “And you think the vampires like to party, too?”
“I think they like to party, too, yes. ”
I dusted off my hands, suddenly feeling very chipper. “Well, I can’t miss that. ”
The magic broke the moment I said it. “You most certainly can miss that,” he snapped. “You promised you’d give up this silliness if I told you. ”
So much for the shift between us—we were back to grumpy Ronan scolding the misbehaving Annelise. “I promised to consider it. ” Before he could dive into the rant I read on his face, I quickly added, “There must be some way to spy on them. Think about it. You said you’d heard about this in the village, but how do they know about it? I’ll tell you how. The vampires can’t hold a whole celebration by themselves. They need cooks and cleaners and launderers and…I don’t know…. What else do you need for a party? Whatever it is, they need them. I mean, they won’t even stoop to driving their own cars—you can’t tell me they’ll be the ones tapping the kegs. ”
He’d gone ice cold. “You will not be finding out who is tapping their kegs,” he said, enunciating each word.
I watched his face for a moment, trying to figure out my strategy. I couldn’t do this alone—or at least I didn’t want to. But how to get Ronan on my team? He’d already said enough to prove to me he was more on my side than on theirs. He might not be willing to help me—yet—but I sensed somewhere deep down, he probably wanted to take the vampires down as much as I did.
“Listen,” I said. “I think there’s a way. ”
“There’s no way. ”
“Would you please listen?” I leaned over, shoving him with my shoulder, and just that brief brush of my arm against his made my skin buzz. I edged away the tiniest bit in an effort to focus. “I’ve gotten one step closer to the inner circle,” I said, using my best serious professional voice.
“Inner circle? What are you talking about?” His expression went slack. “You best not be telling me you’re getting involved with the Directorate. ”
I waved that thought away. “Oh God, nothing like that. I met with Alcántara, and he’s thinking about taking me on as his TA. ”
Ronan’s features contracted to life, and he looked angry. “His TA?”
“You know, like a teacher’s assistant. ”
