“One would hope not, seeing as how we will eventually discuss the extinction of an entire species.”
“Are they all dead, though?” asked a witch on the front row.
“Unless you’re hiding a vampire in your closet, then yes, they are all dead.” Half the class burst into laughter, and the witch hung her head in embarrassment.
Not me, though. No, I buried my head in my textbook and decided this class was going to be way more interesting than I thought.
Then Demelza had to open her big mouthyet again.
“But, sir, maybe Raven is hiding a vampire in her closet.”
The color leached from my cheeks. Stars, had she figured out Rasmus was alive?
Professor Dunton rolled his eyes. “I highly doubt it, Miss Thorn. If a vampire had survived the bloodborne virus, we’d have seen them by now.”
“I just think it’s strange that she and her harem of freaks have moved into the vampire dorms.” She smirked at me. Goddess save us all, was Demelza stalking me now?
It sure felt like it.
“Miss Thorn, Miss Blackstone’s living arrangements are none of your concern, so do be quiet.”
Demelza did as she was told but carried on smirking while the professor outlined the topics we’d be covering this semester. Only I didn’t hear a word he said because I was too busy panicking about what Demelza knew, and more importantly, who’d told her.
After all, the only person outside my circle of trust who knew about Rasmus was a certain storm mage.
A storm mage who had every reason to hate me.
26
Maverick
My bear grumbled, unhappy our mate was in class away from our protection. He didn’t understand that we couldn’t be with her 24/7. To him, it was our job to care for our mate, and he knew this campus was a dangerous place for a witch like Raven.
Since we’d been back, things had changed. Additional security measures were in place in the wake of the demon attacks at the solstice ball. Students couldn’t leave their dorms after eight p.m., Montgomery had canceled all planned social events, and mage security teams patrolled the outer perimeter.
The wolves were deeply unhappy about not being able to run under a full moon, but the headmaster refused to budge. He'd told the faculty he was acting on orders from Tiberius Vane.
Orders that curtailed all magicals’ freedom.
Not just here on campus, but in the wider world.
Cities and rural communities alike were under lockdown, which disproportionately affected the poorer magicals who worked in the service industry or did manual jobs.
Like my family back in the Diamond Peaks.
Vane said lockdowns protected the shifter population from demon attacks and helped to prevent the spread of the feral shifter disease, but anyone with half a brain knew otherwise.
Locking us down was Vane’s way of controlling us. Most shifters, like my family who ran a lumberyard in the Peaks, did manual jobs. If we couldn’t trade, we lost money.
Economic control was just another insidious tool in Vane’s arsenal.
I reached a fork in the path across campus and automatically turned toward the forest trail, back to my old cabin, before remembering I no longer lived there.
Raven’s magical outburst against the mage had caused too much damage. I could have paid an earth witch to fix it, but in truth, the cabin wasn’t large enough for us all.
It was why I’d gone to Montgomery and demanded new housing for my pack.
Two wolf shifters passed me as I headed toward the vampire dorms. They sneered, but the minute I stopped and growled a warning, the pair shot off with their tails between their legs.
