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I pull in a deep breath. There’s only one way to do this, and that’s ripping away the plaster. So I just say it as quickly as possible. “Okay, here goes. Laila, I’ve been disappearing over the last few days because I accidentally resurrected a vampire.”
Wow.My shoulders relax, and I let out a long, deep breath, satisfied that I’ve finally told someone else and shifted this burden, even slightly.
But Laila hasn’t moved. It’s like she hasn’t heard a single word I’ve said. She also hasn’t blinked. It’s like a robot just powered down.
“Laila?” I pat her shoulder. “Are you okay?”
Slowly, her mouth opens then shuts. Eventually, she looks up at me. “You didwhat?”
I start pacing the room between our beds. “It was all an accident. I stumbled into this tunnel and kept walking even though I probably should have gone back. The candle went out, and I dropped my phone. The stones were uneven because there was this great big seal on the ground. I fell and cut my hand on the seal. You remember the blood on my clothes, right?”
She nods, still apparently dumbfounded by what I’m saying.
“Well, it turns out that my ancestor, Alaric Belvedere, put a teeny-tiny loophole in the spell he used to seal the crypt of one of the Dracul vampires and my blood sort of… opened the seal and resurrected Cyrus Dracul.” I press my hands together, waiting for her to react.
“Jenny Valetta!” Laila points a finger accusingly at me as though blaming me for Jenny’s murder.
“It wasn’t him. There’s a ward placed around the crypt. Cyrus can’t leave.”
“But how do you… How… The blood loss!” Laila is in so much shock she can’t form sentences.
“I swear, it wasn’t him. I’ve seen him try to exit the room. Besides, Cyrus hasn’t had any… shortage of blood.” I bite my lip.
“You… He feeds off you?” Laila stands now and starts pacing. Her dark hair swings back and forth with each step. “Let me get this straight. You, Kira Belvedere, a necromancer of the Belvedere line, accidentally resurrected Cyrus Dracul, who died over a hundred years ago, making him the first vampire in existence since the War of Six Circles?”
“Yep, that’s pretty much it.”
Laila sits back down on her bed. “I have a collection of teddy bears under my bed. I don’t sleep with them anymore, but I like to know they’re there. One of them is a Care Bear my mum gave me. I called him Rainbow.”
“Oh.” I blink. “I think my secret is worse.”
“Yes.” She nods, her eyes still wide with shock. “I think it is.”
Forty-One
“Areyou going to eat that flapjack, Laila?” Imran waits a second, then clicks his fingers in front of his sister’s face. “Yo. I said are you going to—?”
Laila pushes the plate across the table. “Take it and be quiet.”
Imran rolls his brown eyes. “I apologise for my sister. She’s a dick.”
Mum laughs nervously. She’s sitting on my right at a table in the cafeteria. The visitors get to have lunch with us, then they have to take the ferry back to the mainland. It’s a special ferry, of course. One that moors at a secret island. At least they don’t have to drive across the invisible bridge.
“It’s been lovely to meet Kira’s roommate,” Mum says. “And take a tour of the school. I’m just sorry to hear about the problems going on with the missing students. It’s not what a parent wants to hear when they’re so far away from their children.”
My stomach sinks. Nathan has been gone all night nowwithout any updates from Octavia. I check the room to see if Cooper is around, but I don’t see him.
Imran nods. “Yeah, these disappearances and murders suck. Our parents are concerned too.” He sighs. “The academy always seemed pretty safe to me when I was here, but it looks like all that has changed now.”
“If Mummy and Papa are so concerned, why aren’t they here?” Laila snaps.
“They’re busy, Lails.”
“We’re being careful,” I say, hoping to reassure my mum. The truth is much different, especially considering how I keep sneaking around the castle on my own.
“I know,” she says. “You’re both sensible girls.”
Her eyes fill with tears, and I find myself blinking back my own. It’s been a weird day. I’ve never confronted so many of my insecurities and issues at once. First, meeting my estranged mother, then, confessing to my roommate about a huge-ass secret, and now dealing with the knowledge that my mum will be leaving soon and I’ll be stuck here, where vampires arise from their tombs and students go missing almost daily.
