“I haven’t,” I say, and I barely sound like myself when I add, “But my mission was to put an end to the party. The Council are on their way, so unless we leave—”
“Good. Then you’ll stay here and fight them with me.”
“We don’t fight the Council,” I say. We don’t get on with the Council, but we’re not supposed to attack them, either. “We don’t kill treaties-abiding vampires, you told me that yourself.” What if she kills me? What if I survived that fucking chase just to be killed by Penny, of all people? “But if you want to stay, I won’t stop you.”
“That was anorder,” she says. My fear morphs into something else. “I thought you were stronger than this.” Her disappointment crawls beneath my skin. “I thought I could trust you to be amongst them, and not—”
“Why should I trustyou?” I ask. It’s only now that I’ve seen her again that her betrayal—her omission about her days in Tynahine—spreads through my chest. “How many of my missions came from Nocth’s intel?”
When I say his name, Penny—who’s spent the last four years training me and showing me the ropes of this twisted world, who after my parents’ deaths, became the only person I could consider family—raises her gun and fires.
I duck, and I am pretty certain she missed on purpose, because I’m still alive. “How dare you,” she starts, voice cool. “After everything—”
I hear the sound of steps above, announcing the Council’s fast approach, and Penny turns, reloading her weapon. There’s no way we can fight the Council. Not just the two of us. “Penny!” I shout. “Let’s go!”
“I’m disappointed in you.” Her words sting more than a slap in the face.
I almost stay. The last four years of my life have prepped me to stay. But the mark on my neck stings, twisting into me, telling me I must go back to Tynahine—and back to Aliz.
And for some stupid fucking reason, I listen to it. I leave Penny behind.
I sprint into the freezing air, and my dress feels like cardboard, dried blood flaking off it. Penny will never forgive me for this. She’ll kick me out of Callisto. She’ll hunt me down to make an example of me. Panic rises in my chest as I slide down a grassy hill, onto the road, each new breath more painful than the last.
I’ve spent four years fighting to learn the truth about my family, and I’ve just thrown it all away. My throat catches, eyes stinging as I think of my parents, of their mangled bodies which I’d promised to avenge. Penny is not the only person I’ve disappointed tonight.
What have I done?
I try to swallow my pain, stop my hands from trembling. There’s still time to run back. To be the hunter I promised Penny I couldbe.
A car honks, and a flash of pink comes to a sudden stop right next to me. The car is not just pink, it’s hot pink, and it draws me out of my grief for a moment. “Little hunter.” Elia leans out her window. Her hair is back up in a bun, and her black gown is hidden beneath a fluffy pink jumper. “Need a ride?”
I stare at her, then back at the castle. “I do, actually,” I say, voice trembling. When I climb inside her car, I see her steering wheel is a gaudy amalgamation of pink fur and glitter. “This can’t really be your car,” I say, rubbing the tears from my eyes.
“If you don’t like it, you can walk back to Tynahine,” she says. I lean back as she pushes down on the pedal.
“I left a bag in the train station,” I say. My throat feels like sandpaper. I can still see Penny aiming her gun atme.
Elia stops at the station, parking just beneath the statue of a Highlander with a seagull resting on his feather bonnet. I was planning on washing some of the blood off there, but she tells me I can take a shower back at her place. I try to stop my hands from shaking, but all I can see is Penny’s back as she turned away from me when I was leaving her. What if the Council kills her?
What have I done?
I sit back down next to Elia, trying to keep it together. “So, you’re a blonde,” she says, as she speeds out on the main road of the city. “Iknewit.”
“My hair’s black, actually,” I say, removing my wig. For a moment I expect my old hair, my short black bob, to reappear. But instead, I reveal Cassie’s auburn tresses, matted with sweat, still half pinned to my wig-cap. I shake my head, slowly letting my hair breathe, and Elia pulls a face. “What?” I say.
“You look better blond. You should dye it. I might even date you.”
“Yeah, no thanks,” I say. She sounds different. Less guarded. “Why didn’t you tell me you knew what I was?”
“Because you would have tried to kill me,” she says plainly. “I mean, you would have failed miserably. But I think Aliz wouldn’t have been too happy if something happened to you.”
“Sure,” I say. I look at her again. I used to hate her guts. And yet I just ruined my relationship with Penny—with Callisto as a whole—for her.What the fuck is wrong with me?“How do you know my name?”
“Faust told me,” she says. I clench my fists. “He also asked me to keep quiet, so don’t make that face.”
She pulls over on a quiet street. For a second, I wonder if she has a house out here, as well as her apartment on campus. But when she brakes, she doesn’t move from her pink seat. “That thing on your neck. What is it?”
“A tattoo,” I say, and she notices the lie, furrowing her perfectly sculpted brows.
