I gawk at her, not quite believing what I just heard. I missed my chance last year and have been stuck in Callisto’s lowest rank, Cross, for four years. “To Hymn?”
“To Stake,” she says. That’s Penny’s rank. While I try to process this, she adds: “And I’ll tell you everything.”
My breath catches. “You’ll tell me who killed my parents?”
“Everything,” she promises.
I take a shallow breath. For a moment the room disappears, and I’m back to the eighteen-year-old who’d just lost her parents to vampires. Back to the girl I was before Penny took my grief and twisted it into a stake.
“I’ll find your book,” I say.
Chapter
One
The girl in Penny’s photograph comes to life in the mirror. I run my fingers through the red extensions that fall to my waist. My mother was a hairdresser, so I wonder what she’d say if she saw me like this. She would have been excited to see me finally skirting away from black—and no bangs, too. I hate it already.
The metal door rattles as the train takes a bend, and I steady myself on the sink.
My new glasses dig into my nose. Cassie Smith. Rich girl, spoiled rotten. I’ve practised saying her name a hundred times already until I nearly believe it’s my own, because if there’s one strength a vampire has that I’m not immune to, it’s the ability to tell when someone is lying.
At least I’m not goinghome.The train is going nowhere near Wishaw, where my remaining family live. They believe I’m now living in the States. Occasionally, I get messages from them, asking when I’m coming over to visit. Sometimes they’ll even remember my birthday.
But there is nohomewhen vampires tear through your world.
I walk back through the first-class cabin. The seats have plenty of legroom, and my table is set with coffee in a porcelain cup and a buttered scone. I settle in my seat and wipe my glasses with the sleeve of my cashmere jumper. The landscape takes on a once-familiar shape, dark hills with low clouds, bog fields, and sheep. My heart pounds as fast as it did during my earliest missions. I never thought I’d come back.
The dreary streetsof Inverness are damp. Seagulls perch on every roof. When I step outside the small station, a black car waits in the drop-off car park. A golden statuette of a crow with wings outstretched ornaments the hood. The tinted windows are framed in the same gold. Penny promised someone was going to pick me up, but she warned me in advance that it wouldn’t be a fellow vampire hunter.
I catch my breath. As soon as I set foot in that car, I will be someone else: Cassie Smith, who does not mind the company of vampires.
“Miss Smith?” The driver gets out, offering me a curt wave. He’s in a simple cream suit, with a white turtleneck beneath a linen blazer. A human, with mortality colouring his features, and a body that won’t turn to dust when its heart stops beating. He’s young, probably just a few years older than Iam.
“Cassie’s fine,” I reply, hoisting my suitcase into the open boot, not waiting for him to help. “Does Tynahine pick up all of its students?”
He chuckles, though the sound isn’t entirely natural. He disappears into the front of the car, and I join him, fastening my seatbelt. “Most of our students fly here. We do have a small landing strip, should you wish to bring your private jet next time.”
I study his neck for bite marks. “I’ll keep that in mind,” I say.
“You will have to adjust your sleeping schedule starting tomorrow,” he says, eyes on the road. We leave the Highland capital behind, picking up speed on the motorway, heading south.
“Do you know what kind of place Tynahine is?” I ask. The murky waters of the loch appear to our right, and vanish just as tall trees envelop the road, moss-ridden trunks heavy with brown leaves.
“My master is a professor there,” he says. “So, yes, I know quite a lot about Tynahine.”
My skin crawls at the admission.
“You’re a Familiar?” I try to sound curious and not disturbed. “What made you choose that line of work?”
“I want to control my own destiny,” says the servant. My lips twitch, and I focus my attention outside. “I take it that you don’t wish to become immortal?”
I’d rather die,I think.
“Immortality is not my cup of tea,” I say, trying to keep my voice light. “Plus, I’m not sure if I’d be able to live without seeing the sun.” It’s the most inoffensive answer I can muster, and given the Familiar’s short sigh, he seems to have boughtit.
The woods become dense, and the tar road turns into a dirt track.
“You’ll have a fairly quiet day today,” he says, breaking the silence. “Just a welcome lecture with the Deans of Day and Night. After that, your time is yours.”
