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Damien clears his throat. “There’s no evidence his ghost haunts the castle, but his remains are safely guarded in the castle vaults, protected by a magical ward.”
Tentatively, I raise my hand. “What about his family?”
“When Vladimir fell, Lavinia Dracul poisoned her two children before poisoning herself. They are each in a resting place that’s, again, protected by magic.” Damien nods.
“What sort of magic?”
“Oh, extremely powerful magic,” he says. “We’re talking about wards that cannot be penetrated. That have been in place for a hundred years.” He smiles. “Don’t worry, Vladimir Dracul will not be coming to life any time soon.”
No, I think,but his son is alive again as we speak.
Twenty-One
After a torturous hourof learning all about the Dracul family—and knowing I have agiganticsecret about said family—it’s over to the courtyard for self-defence.
This is going to be an important part of my life as an aura, but I’m absolutely dreading it. Learning how to defend myself in a fight isn’t something I thought would be part of my education, let alone part of my life. The whole thing sounds insane. Especially considering I’m going to be using some sort of magic at the same time.
Laila shows me where the changing rooms are, and I pull on sweats before we head out into the courtyard and line up. Apollo Finn strides into the space, stands in the centre, and folds his arms.
“Kira Belvedere,” he says, nodding to me. “Step forward.”
Blushing, I do as I’m told. Every pair of eyes swings in my direction. Cooper gives me a wink.
“I hear you don’t know any magic yet.” Apollo has a voice that booms and bounces off the buildings around us.
“No.” In contrast, my voice is weak and tinny.
“Today will mostly concentrate on hand-to-hand combat,” he says. “But you’re going to need to catch up. There are students here who can throw fire and direct wind. I can’t have my other students held back because of one weak link.”
I can feel my face turning scarlet. I drop my eyes to my shoes, avoiding his gaze.He’s right. I am a weak link.I can see it now—my legacy at Aura Academy will be failing to graduate and reigniting a centuries-old war by reanimating a long-dead vampire.Fuck.
“You can get back in line,” he tells me.
I do, watching as the others turn away from me.
Apollo managed to embarrass me in the space of thirty seconds, and now, everyone is going to see me as the girl holding them back. If they fail at something, they’ll blame me and my newb status, not themselves. I want to shoot him a glare, the stankiest of stank-eyes, but he’s already moved on to discussing different stances.
What is a stank-eye?
That thought wasn’t mine.
I gasp.
Apollo notices. “Miss Belvedere? Is something the matter?”
I shake my head. “No, carry on.” Awkwardly, I flutter a hand, motioning for him to continue.
He levels his gaze at me for a moment. “Well, if Miss Belvedere wants me to continue, I will.”
There’s a low, rasping growl in my head that makes my body grow hot. Of course, the voice in my head belongs to Cyrus. No one else could scorch my toes with a single growllike him. But I don’t know how to communicate back and answer him.
Trying to concentrate as Apollo demonstrates a fighting stance, I stand with my legs shoulder-width apart and my arms bent at the elbow. Then I move one foot back slightly.
Put your weight on your back foot.
“What are you doing in my head?” I mutter.
Laila turns to me. “Shut up, Kira, you fucking weirdo.”
