Evernight

“You heard me.” Stepping closer, Mrs. Bethany fixed her black eyes on me, the way a hawk does before swooping down upon its prey. “Do you question my authority? I am the headmistress of Evernight!”

It was Balthazar who answered her by casually slinging his crossbow back upon his shoulder so that it just happened to be aimed straight at Mrs. Bethany. He wasn’t threatening her, exactly, but it was very clear that he wasn’t going to back down. As she jerked upright in shock, Balthazar drawled, “School’s out.”

Mrs. Bethany scowled, but she said nothing and didn’t make another move, not even as we heard the ruckus in the back driveway that could only have been the members of Black Cross making their escape. I closed my eyes tightly and wished for the sirens of the fire trucks, so that I wouldn’t have to hear Lucas’s footsteps as he ran away from me forever.

“Your parents say you were abducted.”

Mrs. Bethany stood behind the desk in her office, the one in the carriage house at Evernight. I sat in front of her in an uncomfortable wooden chair. My clothes were filthy with soot and rumpled. I was chilled to the bone, exhausted, and hungry for both food and blood. The day’s last rays of sunlight filtered orange through the windowpane. It hadn’t even been twenty-four hours since my world fell apart and the truth about Lucas came out. It felt like a thousand years.

“That’s right,” I said hollowly. “Lucas demanded that I come with him.”

She pulled the gold locket around her neck back and forth, back and forth on its chain, so that I could hear the faint metallic clicking. Unlike me, Mrs. Bethany was completely poised and collected, and the frilly lace at her throat remained crisp with starch. But she smelled like smoke, not lavender. “Curious, that you couldn’t defend yourself. You are, after all, a vampire.”

Am I? I wasn’t even sure of that anymore. I said only, “He’s in Black Cross. He has some of our powers. He outfought my father and Balthazar at once. What chance did I have?”

“Now you know how to answer difficult questions with more questions.” Mrs. Bethany sighed heavily, and for the first time, I saw a glint of dark humor in her gaze. “No longer the shrinking violet, I see. At least you’ve learned something this year.”

I remembered what Lucas had told me the night before: Mrs. Bethany had changed centuries-old rules in order to invite human students to Evernight. He hadn’t been able to learn why, and I couldn’t guess. As I looked at her, I knew only that she was older, stronger, and more devious than I’d ever imagined. Yet I wasn’t afraid of her anymore, because I knew even Mrs. Bethany was vulnerable.

If she had allowed human students at Evernight, there was something she needed, badly. That meant she had a weakness, and that made her no different from the rest of us. I could face her now, knowing that.

Without asking permission to leave, I rose from my chair. “Good night, Mrs. Bethany.”

Her dark eyes glittered dangerously, but she simply waved me off with a flick of her fingers. “Good night.”

That night, my parents fussed over me like they hadn’t since I was a little girl—finding me snuggly socks and soft pillows and microwaving a glass of blood to body temperature for me. I didn’t have to ask if they really thought I’d been abducted by Lucas; they were smarter than that. I knew they didn’t really understand, because any sympathy they might have had for Lucas was clearly obliterated by their hatred of Black Cross. But even if they didn’t agree with my choices, they could forgive me for them. That was more than enough to remind me how much I was loved. They even piled up in bed on either side of me, with Rosemary Clooney on the record player in the other room, and told me old stories about the way the wheat fields in England used to look—sweet, pretty stories that held no danger or change, only beauty. They talked for a long time before exhaustion won out over misery and I finally, finally fell asleep.

That night I dreamed once more of the storm, the creeping hedge that grew up like a wildfire of brambles around Evernight, and the mysterious flowers that bloomed black beneath my hands. Even in my dream, I knew I’d seen it all before. I had been warned even before I met Lucas that the flowers weren’t for me, but I reached for them anyway, despite the thorns and the storm.

“You’re daydreaming again.”

Raquel’s words brought me back to reality. We were out in the fringe of woods closest to the grounds, beneath new, pale-green leaves so soft they curled at the edges. I’d been standing still, my hand on one branch for no telling how many minutes. She was a good enough friend to allow me space when I needed it and smart enough to know when it was time to bring me down to earth once more.

“Sorry.” We started walking again, lazy steps that didn’t really take us in any particular direction. “I wasn’t thinking.”

“You were thinking about Lucas.” Obviously Raquel wasn’t easily fooled. “It’s been almost six weeks, Bianca. You have to forget him. You know that.”

Raquel knew only what the other students like her knew: that Lucas had broken a slew of rules and run away, assaulting my father on his way out. That probably fit perfectly into her sad view of the world, in which every secret was only a cloak for violence. She’d warned me about Lucas a dozen times. Why shouldn’t she believe he’d snapped? Never did she say anything remotely resembling “I told you so”—Raquel was too good for that.

Vic took it hard. Lucas had really been his best friend at Evernight, and there was a gap in Vic’s life now that was beyond my power to fill. I’d assured him, as best I could without revealing secrets that would only endanger him, that Lucas was a good guy and that he’d had his reasons for running. I thought Vic believed me, but he didn’t smile as often anymore. I could’ve used some of his smiles.

The other vampires, both students and teachers, knew more of the truth. They knew that Lucas was a member of Black Cross—one who now had some of the strength and power of a vampire, thanks to me. Before, Courtney and her friends had merely held me in contempt; now they hated me, pure and simple.

To my surprise, however, Courtney’s group was in the minority. My parents forgave me, of course, and Balthazar blamed Lucas for everything, treating me more gently to make up for Lucas’s supposed cruelty. But comfort and support came from others, as well—Professor Iwerebon, who had offered several off-topic lectures about the treachery of Black Cross while gesturing with bandaged hands, or Patrice, who insisted that no girl could be held responsible for her first love. For them, I suspected, a battle with Black Cross meant that I was more surely on their side. More purely a vampire than I had been before.

I was the only one who knew the whole truth about Lucas—who he really was, and what we felt for each other. That truth was all I had left of him, and I would have to carry it alone.

“We should go inside.” Raquel nudged me with her elbow, which was as close as she ever came to showing affection. The tawny leather bracelet dangled upon her wrist once more; I’d told her it turned up in the lost and found. “Mail call soon.”

“Expecting a care package?” Raquel’s parents had let her down a lot, but at least they knew how to bake. “If there are going to be more oatmeal cookies—”