I crook my eyebrow at her. “Do you usually expect your prisoners to be civil?”
“I don’t usually take prisoners.”
The manacles clink against the stone floor as I gesture vaguely. “Then allow me to educate you: until you are inclined to release me, I am disinclined to remain cordial with my captor.”
“You’re mistaken, Ambrose, I’m not your captor. I’m your owner.”
“If I recall correctly, slavery in this country was outlawed over one hundred and fifty years ago. I remember reading about it in the papers.”
“You may be older, but clearly none the wiser if you think rules ever applied to us. Don’t be so naïve. I do make them, after all.” She smiles.
“Yes, well done on out-maneuvering the rest of the Council. Though, having met their ilk over the years, I’d hardly say that’s an accomplishment.”
“Are you quite finished?”
“Am I inconveniencing you? How rude of me, let me just?—”
“Would you like to know why I’m here?”
“Since you’re not removing these illegal restraints, I’m assuming you’d like an audience to stroke your ego.”
“God, you are insufferable. It’s a marvel Armand tolerated you for this long.”
I nod my head from side to side. “‘Tolerated’ is a generous way of putting it.”
“No matter, you’ll be darkening someone else’s doorway soon enough.”
“Releasing me already? Armand warned me you were a vicious, vile shrew, but here I am, pleasantly surprised.”
“In a manner of speaking. You’ll be joining the faculty at Dreadhurst.”
“Is that what you’re calling your little school these days? It’s no Sorbonne, from what I hear, but give it another six hundred years or so and I’m sure you’ll get there. Not that you’ll live to see it.”
“Aren’t you the slightest bit interested in what you’ll be teaching?”
“‘Prison Escape 101?’”
“Blood magic.” She grins with an eerie, eager smile.
For the first time, I pause. “You found another vampire?”
Her eyes gleam in the scant light from the open door. “I found a Bloodwitch.”
I burst out laughing. “Do you truly expect me to believe you’ve managed to find the first Bloodwitch in over two thousand years?”
“She shattered the school wards during her epiphaneia. No spell, no runes, nothing but rawpower, pulled from the blood-soaked earth. Even today, she managed to evade the trap I set for her Crypteia.”
I shake my head, still chuckling. “Even if it’s true, what makes you think I would ever teach your little minion?”
“You want your father’s ring back, don’t you?” She grins in triumph when I still at her words, and she reaches into her pocket, pulling out the last piece of my family’s legacy. The one Armand has worn ever since he pulled it off my father’s bloodycorpse. “I have little use for it, and would be willing to part with it.Ifyou agree to instruct the Bloodwitch.”
The golden, shining metal hypnotizes me as she twists it between her fingers. “Will classes be held in the dungeon, then?”
“You will be given room and board on the campus, as well as a salary befitting your position.”
“For how long?”
“As long as it takes for her to master her power.”
