“So all the times we went into the Palau Collection, you never thought to mention,Hey, this is my library?”
“You never asked,” Elia says. Her eyes meet mine, and there’s an accusation hidden behind her gaze—and a camaraderie between liars. I swallow hard. I have to tell Aliz the truth about who I am. Tell her now. Because I’m not just concealing the truth, the way Elia did—Cassie Smith is a whole identity. And I know that if I was in her shoes, I wouldn’t be able to forgiveme.
“Can you take us to the library now?” Aliz asks, and my heart quickens.
“Ada’s library is only open when the moon is in its first quarter,” Elia says. I think of the maze, with the four statues. The crescent moon gilded gold.Of course.“Which is a week from now. But you’ll need my help getting in,” she says and fixes me with her gaze. A shiver runs throughme.
“A week,” Aliz whispers, before sighing.
I check my phone. Penny still hasn’t replied. I send her another text.Are you all right?I need her to reply, but I’m also scared of what to say if she asks me any questions. I start typingI’m sorry.If she’s still alive, if she got out of there, which knowing her, she probably did, I don’t know how I’m going to repair this.
Stephan, Ife, and Julia walk into the dining hall, immediately spotting us over in the corner. They look for another table, but I wave them over. I know they’re not particularly fond of Aliz and Elia, but there’s not much I can do about that. Julia takes the spot on the sofa next to me, squeezing me against Aliz.
“You didn’t come to lunch,” Julia says. She’s wearing mascara, staining her platinum lashes black.
Aliz lets go of my hand, and I’m about to grab hold of it again,when I feel it on the small of my back. I’m wearing a jumper, so it’s not as though the contact is that direct, but I shiver when she runs it up my back. “Yeah,” I say. “I slept in.”
I look across the coffee table at Ife, sitting on Stephan’s lap with a mug of blood at her lips. She sips it slowly, eyes gleaming. She’s noticed our proximity. “It’s not what you think,” I say, and Aliz’s hand draws away.
It’s not just Ife who looks at me like that. Everyone seems to wait for me to say something, to admit that my relationship with Aliz is more than what it seems. But whatever it is they’re imagining, it’s certainly not that, as much as I wish it was.
I think of last night and Aliz saying,I’ll tell you tomorrow.
Tell me what?
I leaf throughnewspapers for any signs of the general public finding out about the blood party, but as always, the things that happen in the vampire world remain hidden, even when they’re in plain sight. I risk calling Penny and hearing the call tone stretch out. She doesn’t answer, and I realise I may have to start preparing for the very real possibility that she’s going to try to killme.
I’m not scared of vampires. But Penny? I’ve been fortunate enough until now to have never crossed her.Just answer me,I text, forming a column of ignored messages.
Shortly after onea.m., Aliz textsme.
Meet me up on Tynarrich’s roof?
I’ve never been to the roof before. My neck itches again, telling me that we’ve spent too long apart. I head up all nine floors and search for an extra door, leading to a stone staircase. Tynarrich’s roof is flat, with two stone benches on either side, and a railing along the edge.
I wonder if Aliz has brought girls here before. And just as I think this, I hear her behind me. She steps out, coat buttoned up to herneck, a grey scarf hiding half her face. All my anxieties slip away when I see her, my chest warming. “Fancy seeing you here,” she says. I want to step closer to her, be greedy. I turn away and look up at the night instead.
It’s been years since I last saw a sky with stars as vivid as this one, the Milky Way hanging above us like a belt of silver paint. She comes to stand next to me, leaning on the bronze railing which has oxidised through the centuries to a pale turquoise. She tugs on her scarf, pulling it down so I can see her cautious smile. Her hair is the same colour as the stars, and I find myself reaching to brush a strand from her eyes.
“So, what is it?” I ask, not beating around the bush.
“What is what?”
“Why’d you ask me to come up here?” I wish I’d said it in a kinder way. Aliz shifts uncomfortably beside me, sticks one of her brogues through the bronze railing and then pulls it back out.
“I wanted to see you. Is there anything wrong with that?”
“No,” I say.I wanted to see you, too,I almost add, but I manage to bite back the words. “I was just wondering why here.”
“Oh!” Aliz pulls away from the railing and jumps onto a stone bench. “I suppose there are some things I’d rather not say in our room.” She notices my confusion, and I notice the slight shade of red in her cheeks. “I’m a firm believer in the wind being able to wipe away words we shouldn’t have said.”
“It’s not particularly windy.” Which is odd, considering how high up we are. It’s just damp and freezing. Aliz sits down, crossing her legs.
“Come here,” she says, and I hesitate, just to make sure her words don’t have the power to compel me yet. I take a short breath and walk over to the stone bench. There are names scratched onto it, dates, too, all the way back to the 1300s. And while I study the unfamiliar names, Aliz takes my hand, slowly slipping my glove off and pulling one finger free at a time.
When her skin touches mine, I lose track of my thoughts. Of what I’m doing here, and of what I asked her.
“Have you ever been in love?” she asks, and somehow the cold doesn’t bother my bare hand as she keeps it linked with her own. I don’t look at her. I can’t.
