“Come with us,” said a deep voice.
CHAPTER 9
“Reeking ash,” hissed Luther as my own knife tilted up against his throat. “She’s got a knife.”
A low cough. “I told you the dragons picked her for a reason.” It was Shep’s voice. The room was dark, only shadows, but I could smell the steel in Luther’s hand, feel his knuckles against my collarbone. “Let’s get out of here, Luther,” Shep urged.
Vanya was sitting upright in bed, covers clutched to her chest. “Yes, get out! What the blazing sun above are you doing?”
Luther exhaled and shoved me back against the bed as he stood up. I was up, knife pointed at him, in a breath.
“I wouldn’t,” he warned.
I was breathing quickly, still not sure what was happening. “I could say the same to you.”
Shep beckoned Luther toward the door. “It’s a pathetic tradition, Miss Miro. To threaten you all on the first night. I apologize. Luther, let’s go.”
“It’s tradition to murder young women in their sleep?” I nearly choked on the words.
Shep was shoving Luther toward the door now. “Rattle you. That’s all it is.”
That didn’t make it okay. And I noticed they hadn’t touched Vanya at all.
“Most girls just scream,” Luther snarled, rubbing his throat. Then, hand on the doorknob, he added, “Watch your back, Miro. Sleeping with a knife isn’t something noblewomen do. Makes me wonder who you really are.”
He ripped open the door and vanished into the hallway, where other deep voices were speaking in hushed tones amid flickering candlelight.
Before he shut the door, Shep glanced over his shoulder at me. “Sorry, ladies. It’s over now.”
Adrenaline kept me awake the rest of the night. When the sky lightened, my eyes were heavy but my muscles kept jumping every time I got close to drifting off to sleep.
A resonant bell struck the hour, signaling it was almost time for my first day of classes at Cardan Lott. And I was exhausted.
As we descended into the common room minutes later, my muscles tensed for more verbal attacks, or worse, someone hauling me from the school because they’d figured out who I was, but everyone seemed to be in a hurry to get out the door for class. I followed the other students into the wide sunlit hall, Vanya a step ahead of me. “They want to ruffle our feathers a bit,” she’d said this morning as we’d donned our uniforms, “but we can’t let them.”
Yesterday, we’d received our class assignments and books in the Great Hall, but out of an abundance of caution, not knowing how long I’d have between classes or if someone might hold me at knifepoint again simply to delay me, I carried all my books in my arms as best I could, feeling more and more foolish with each student I passed. Their eyes snagged on the books in my arms, their brows rising as their fingers closed around the strapsof their sleek leather bags. My palms were sweating and my arms were burning by the time I reached the bottom of the steps leading to the second floor, where the literature and history classrooms were located.
History was first thing in the morning, followed by literature. Science was after lunch, then we’d have our first official lesson in the lair.
At the bottom of the steps, Vanya glanced back at me awkwardly carrying all my books. She let out an exasperated sigh and took the one off the top, tucking it with her own under her arm as we walked.
“Are you sure a princess is allowed to carry two books? Maybe you should give one back to me. It might look like you’re overexerting yourself.”
She bumped me with her shoulder and kept walking.
“What do you have first?” I asked.
“All the first years in Ruby and Sapphire have history together.”
“Oh.” Even though she hadn’t grown up in this country, she knew more about this school than I did. At the top of the stairs, I was more out of breath than I should have been. It was just the nerves.And the feeling of being watched and found wanting.But I couldn’t focus on those things if I was going to survive here.
“Here, let me help you,” said a voice behind me. Shep jogged up the steps and took the remaining books out of my arms, leaving me with nothing to hold on to. “Sorry about last night,” he muttered. “Luther and I had a rough initiation our first year, and now that we’re the oldest, he wants to make sure…well, he thinks it’s what makes us House Ruby. I disagree.”
I quickly glanced at Vanya, whose eyes widened.
A little ways down the hall, a willowy woman stood outside of her classroom door, long, curly hair sticking out wider than her shoulders. She wore the knee-length black robes of a professorover a charcoal gray pantsuit already dusted with smears of chalk.
Shep fell into step beside me. “That’s Professor Enplencourt. She’s a little eccentric, but she’s an excellent teacher. Listen to everything she says. If you can write fast enough, write it all down. Never sleep in her class, and don’t ever be late.”
