Xander sighs next to me and says into my head.“Don’t try to justify Ghoul’s actions. I don’t even care what memories he’s showing you. He wants you to feel sorry for him. He will betray you.”I don’t reply to my dragon, whose eyes flash when heglances at me. He watches me closely for the rest of our classes, but of course I quit the day early and head back to our dorm to take a nap.
That evening, I duck out earlier than usual. At this stage, I don’t even care if anyone sees where I’m going. I don’t need permission from them to see one of my mates. The sunset washes the world in red, and as I ricochet across the sky, it makes it look like the world is spilling blood. Stacey was able to tell me which universities were on the meeting list, and one of them is south of the city: a gigantic campus with sprawling buildings and concrete pathways. I shift into my eagle form as I come upon it, finding the gathering crowd immediately.
This time, I’m prepared enough to bring a set of clothes, and it takes me a minute to change inside the ladies’ toilets and come out like I’m any other student, shouldering Savage’s small backpack. It had been my dream once to leave my bungalow and hide away in a blended university where my mates would never find me. The fact that I’m now in the centre of one, looking for a mate, feels cathartic. I had planned to take my blue beetle Maisy, all my belongings, and flee here, pretending to be an eagle and learning to be a healer-nurse or doctor. I was good at healing. Now it seems like most of the time I’m doing the exact opposite.
How times change. HowI’vechanged. The person I am now looks around at the tall, clean buildings of this college with a soft smile, knowing we’ve outgrown this dream. It makes me equal parts happy and sad. How little I thought of my life. My skills. How muchmoreI am now. I hope my mother is proud of me.
Feeling a little mellow, I hang around the back of the crowd gathering at a quadrangle area with a concrete platform made for such events. There’s a lectern standing ready and a couple of serpents with professional video equipment and someone with a livestream set up. They’re people I don’t recognise, and it makes my heart beat a little slower for the sake of my spying. Morepeople join us, and I smell barbecue somewhere nearby. Pretty soon, I’m locked in with people excitedly pressing in behind me, and the loud buzz of their combined voices winds through the air. I adjust the strap of my backpack, but when I sensehispresence approaching, a sudden, deathly focus overcomes me.
And I don’t mean Ghoul.
Time seems to slow as my father strides up to the lectern on the back of a loud cheer from the crowd. I don’t clap with them as he raises his hands in welcome, nor as loud screams vibrate through my body when three of his generals appear behind him, face masks in place, black camo gear pristine. Fixed to the spot, I stare, the predator in me clocking the other high-order predators who’ve made themselves known. Ghoul’s shadows are thick around him, lazily making swirls as if he wants to show off. My father launches into a round of thanks to the people who invited him here and lists the things he wants to do to help the college.
“My efforts will not go in vain, I assure you of that,” he says, voice deep and provocative. “Our voices will finally be heard. We are not creatures who skulk in the dark. We move proudly in the day, without fear. My first move will be to abolish the barcoding system.” The crowd roars its approval. “If you would like to join the campaign, the sign-up sheet is going around. I am here to make a change for the better.”
My heart sinks in my stomach because I know what this sounds like. It’s then that a faint red gleam catches my eye. Ghoul’s darkness is on show like a creature of nightmares, but no one seems to care. It excites the crowd as he stands there, so tall and so proud. And yet I know his attention is on me. I know where those deadly red eyes point. Like a waking dream, an image flashes before my eyes, and my jaw goes slack with shock. I see my old bungalow, but I am young—only slightly older than the year of my exile.
Red fixes on me. I blink.
Surely not.
But my bungalow is lit up at night, the familiar buttery lights of my living room lighting up the panes of glass beyond my TV. Fourteen-year-old me sits cross-legged, tears in her eyes. This is impossible. Ghoul tilts his head ever so slightly.
“Yes, snakelet,”he says to an unanswered question.
A high-pitched buzzing pierces my ears. I can barely breathe as I ask him,“All this time?”
The floor seems to slant underneath me. My body leans forward, trying to counterbalance, but it utterly fails.
“All this time,”he confirms, just as I black out.
Chapter 58
Ghoul
Aurelia’s Bungalow
Seven years ago
Ifelt you before I saw you.
In my early days of serving as a trainee in Mace Naga’s court, my favourite thing to do was to head out into the shadows of the night. There were many secrets to see when the world fell under darkness, and I travelled above it all, watching for my own amusement. It soothed my violent animus after a day’s harsh classes with the young generals in training. Now I have to live with them in a secret boarding school and learn their ways. Now the classes are fourteen hours long, five days a week, and we’re forced to learn everything from proper hygiene to literature to combat.
But one night, somewhere in the quiet under the stars, I feel a presence that’s somehow both old and new. It draws me in, and I point my shadows toward a familiar neighbourhood. I know Charlotte Naga’s house like the back of my hand, because I lived there when the slab went down. But where I expected to land in the shadows of the tiny house, I find the warm lights on within.
Falling to the ground like I’ve practised many times in class, I creep forward, the grass silent under my boots. Hunched low, I’m surprised to find a dome of power around the house, humming with awareness. I regard this new, strange shield with raised brows, cloak myself in my own dark protections, and breeze right through. Undetected, I crouch against the bushes beside the front door to find out what manner of order could have produced such a thing.
I saw you sitting on the threadbare couch, a thin blanket around your shoulders as you watched TV. Your cheeks were wet as you dug into the cup of two-minute noodles, and you sniffed as the lights flickered across your teenage face. Never before have I felt the urge to blast into the room and scoop a person up, take you into my shadows and keep you safe from the harm that made you cry. My frown deepens as I watch you wipe your nose on the back of your hand, then wipe your hand on your track pants.
Mace Naga has put another creature in this house, and instead of feeling possessive over my old house, I want to help you.Are you like me? Is Mace Naga training you to join his army like he trained me? Torturing you like he’d done to me?But my nose is telling me the cupboards in the house are bare. That the fridge is on its last legs and the leak in the roof has returned.Are you a prisoner? Is this…some punishment?This house was worn down after I’d corrupted the place and left it for boarding school. So there could be no other reason for you to be living here unless you’ve displeased the serpent king.
And I’m very interested in people who displease the serpent king.
But as I observe you over the next few nights, I see that you’re just a child. A child who misses her family like I once did. A child who’s alone, like I once was. There are bags under your sad eyes, your smiles were scarce, and sometimes you forgot to brush yourteeth before you go to bed. And no one ever comes to visit you like they did with me. So on the third night, when I return just after sunset, I steal into Charlotte Naga’s house and put some of her spaghetti and meatballs onto a paper plate, cover it in foil, and leave it on your doorstep, making sure I trigger your shield on the way out.
I watch as you suspiciously open the door, wrapped in a blanket, peering out with your eyes like brilliant jewels in the night. I can’t help my grin as you smile and pick up the plate. You giggle like it’s a good day.
From then on, as often as I can make it, I steal food from Charlotte’s house and put it on your doorstep. You think it’s your Uncle Ben, never realising that he’s too cowardly to take food from his regina and give it to you, the exiled girl of serpent court.Bensees the food on your doorstep and thinks his regina is feeding you. Imbecile serpent.
