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I shrug. “They might be part of the Belvedere line, I guess.”
“Look, don’t repeat what I’m about to say, but those three kids are a joke. Necromancy is their affinity, but they don’t have your skills,” she says. “Word gets around about who is and isn’t powerful here. And that little trick you pulled with the flower is the best bit of necromancy we’ve seen at the academy for a long time.”
“It was?”
She nods. “That’s right.”
I scootch up my bed and lean against the wall. “Could a non-necromancer have the power to resurrect vampires like that? Someone really good at spellcasting or rituals?”
Laila rests her chin on her hand, hunching over so her dark hair swings into her eyes. “I don’t know. If the spell is more about breaking seals left by our ancestors, then I guess they don’t need to do that. But you’d also think that Alaric Belvedere would have considered the fact that over generations, there would be more of you. Like, he would have added that into his spell.”
“You can be that specific?”
She nods. “When you’re a powerful warlock, yes, you can.You can close the loophole so that it’s barely a loophole anymore. He could have specified that only someone as powerful as him could resurrect the Dracul family. Or only direct descendants. Or sons and daughters from a specific family member. So it’s pretty weird he didn’t do that.”
“And there’s no way someone without his blood could break it?”
“I don’t know,” Laila says. “I don’t think so, but I can’t be sure without knowing what the spell was.” She sighs. “We’re just students, Kira. We don’t know this stuff. Only the teachers and professional witches really know what’s going on.”
She’s right. We’re in over our heads. Especially if Morrigan is the one who resurrected Anastasia and Lavinia. She’s not just the most powerful necromancer at the academy, but she also has some of my blood.
After all, I used her fingernail to pierce my skin.
Forty-Five
Sleep doesn’t come easilythat night. Thoughts keep racing through my mind in a jumble. I swing back and forth over who I think could release the vampires, from Morrigan to Cyrus to Octavia to the cleaners. Then I wonder about Cyrus’s mother and sister, whether they’re like Vladimir or like Cyrus. They might be filled with bloodlust and rage. When Alaric killed Vladimir, Lavinia poisoned her two children to stop him from killing them too. Then she poisoned herself. I can’t decide if that makes her a steely, practical mother who loves her children and does not shy away from difficult choices… or a monster.
I spend a lot of time testing my psychic connection to Cyrus. Tendrils reach out from my mind, spreading and probing. They search for him, desperate to latch onto him, to grab something. Anything. A foot. A thumb.
There’s nothing but a blank space. He could be blocking me. After all, he’s much better at this than I am.
Laila snores softly on her side of the room while I sweat, trying to force myself into Cyrus’s mind without reallyknowing what I’m doing. At least once or twice when Cyrus was in my mind, I’m sure I blocked him myself. But I don’t knowhowI did it. Instinct took over, and it just happened. Attempting to reverse that is much harder.
The hours tick by, and when I check my phone, it’s four a.m. Eventually, I slip into unconsciousness and dream of sand falling through fingers. Cyrus’s fingers. They’re long and pale.
He’s next to me on the ground. We’re outside in the sun. There’s the sound of children laughing and screaming in the distance. My body is cushioned by the soft sand. The lapping sea stretches for miles. To my right, a rollercoaster loops up and down.
“Holy frigging hell, we’re at Blackpool Pleasure Beach,” I blurt.
“Is that where we are?” Cyrus is shirtless. He picks up another handful of sand to release through his long fingers. “What is that monster over there, and why is it torturing people?”
“It’s a rollercoaster. They aren’t being tortured. They’re having a good time.”
“Upside down? I don’t understand this world at all. I wonder if I should have even been brought back.” The last of the sand trickles away, and he stares at it sadly.
“You don’t mean that, do you?”
He shrugs, still staring at the beach.
“Why did you trick me?” I ask, pulling him from his thoughts.
He looks up. “Trick you?”
“Yes. You escaped your prison and resurrected your family. You tricked me! You used me!”
He shakes his head. “I swear… Kira, it wasn’t like that.”
“Then why are you keeping me out of your mind?” I ask. “I need to know where you are.”
