“The university calls it a lodge,” Julia says. “I suppose ‘hunting palace’ doesn’t have the same ring to it.”
“Haven’t you heard of it?” Ife asks me, mistaking my silence for confusion. “The Halloween Ball is a Tynahine staple.”
I shake my head. The last thing I can think of right now are silly parties. Orballs.
“I was allowed to attend last year,” Stephan says. “Even though I wasn’t a student yet.”
“This year is going to be perfect,” Ife says. “Did you know we’re going to have a blood moon on the thirty-first?”
“Blood moon?” I ask.
“It’s a lunar eclipse. The full moon will look red. Like blood.”
The full moon. Ever so slowly, the deadline creeps up on me. We’ve got less than three weeks to find the library. But hopefully, come this Halloween Ball, I will be free of the mark already.
My last Integrationclass finishes at seven, and I head back to my room. When I open the door, someone is sitting on the coffin.
Someone that is not Aliz.
My muscles tense as I recognise her.
Elia.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, leaving the door open, giving myself a way to escape.
She tilts her head, that same cool and unnerving smile I saw from her last night appearing on her lips. “Just waiting on Aliz,” she says. “She was supposed to have been here already.”
“You have a key to our room?” I ask, putting my bag down on my bed. Aliz never mentioned this. No one is supposed to be allowed in here. Then I see what’s in her hands. A small glass jar, metal cap unscrewed. The label says they’re vitamin supplements, but thecontents are a vampire’s cyanide. I stop breathing as she shakes a pill into her hands.
“What are you doing?” I ask.
“Oh, are these yours?” she asks, lifting the jar, scrutinizing it. Does she know what they are? How did she even find them? “Vampires can take supplements. And I happen to be running low on B12.”
If she had rummaged through my case, if she had found my weapons, there is no way that she would be this calm. Her legs are crossed, a flowy white dress hitting the top of her tan boots. Her pink coat lies beside her, and she lifts the pill to her lips.
“Don’t!” I shout, and she stops, blinking before the pill touches her tongue.
“Why?” she asks, tilting her head back, pinning me with her hooded eyes.
“That pill is—”
Before I can say it, she slips it into her mouth.
I rush to her, knocking the glass jar out of her hands, red pills scattering everywhere. But I’m too late. Her throat bobs as she swallows her death.
Elia leans down, face level with mine. She looks like she’s about to say something, but then I hear Aliz outside, carefully pushing the still-open door.
“You’re here!” Elia sings, looking at Aliz. I wait for Elia’s body to react. For her to choke, the way Aliz did in my dream. Cough, collapse, die. But instead, Elia jumps down from the coffin, crushing my garlic supplements beneath the stiletto heels of her boots. She reaches for Aliz and kisses her as though I’m not in the room.
“Uh…” Aliz pulls back, looks at me, and then at the mess on the floor. “What’s going on?”
“Your roommate got angry. Just because I wanted one of her vitamins!” The cool voice she was using with me moments ago has climbed up an octave, making her sound younger, childish, even.How is she still alive?
“What did I tell you about coming into my room?” Aliz says, irritated. I know I should be brushing the pills up now, but I can’twrap my head around Elia not dying. “Look what you’ve done,” Aliz adds, crouching down. Just before she can start scooping the stray pills up, I shout:
“It’s garlic!”
Aliz freezes. Her hands draw back instinctively, and she gawks at me, confused.
