I examine the professor, unsure what he can mean.
“Just a thought,” he says, “but one you might want to consider.”
It’s dark by the time we’re making our way back along the academy pathways, and it’s much easier to conceal the two of us within my shadows, especially taking the less-frequented paths.
“I don’t get it,” Briony mumbles beside me. “That soldier was right outside the wardrobe. Why didn’t he check it?” She shakes her head in disbelief.
“I…” I scrub my fingers through my beard, not quite able to meet her suddenly inquisitive glance.
“Why do I have a funny feeling you’re about to confess something, Professor?”
“Because you know me very well by now, Miss Storm.”
She smiles and squeezes my hand.
“Come on then,” she says. “Hit me with it.”
“I have the ability,” I tell her, “the vampiric ability, to influence and affect others.”
She stops in her tracks and turns to face me head-on.
“That sounds suspiciously vague, Professor Tudor. What exactly do you mean?”
“You must know, Briony, that vampires have the power to control and command their victims. To enthrall them.”
Briony tilts her head to one side and narrows her eyes.
“Have you ever used this ability on me?”
I can’t help laughing at that.
“Briony, you’re the most stubborn woman I’ve ever met in the whole entire realm. Even if I’d wanted to control your mind, even if I’d attempted to, I wouldn’t have been able to. It’s a skill I haven’t used for a long, long time. Not since?—”
“Not since you’ve fed on people.”
I nod.
“And I was never that great at it in the first place. Never practiced it enough, I suppose. I’ve only ever been able to do it on weaker-minded people, like that soldier.”
“Can the Madame do it?” she asks next.
“Of course. I suspect that’s what she was trying to do the day she tortured you in the maze. She was trying to infiltrate your mind – by torture, by force, by control. But you were too strong for her.”
“I was,” she says in amazement. “I never really considered myself strong-minded.”
I laugh again. “Are you serious?”
She shrugs and begins to walk. She’s only gone a few paces further before she stops a second time.
“Have you ever used it on the others? The Princes, I mean. Beaufort, Dray, Thorne?”
I shake my head. “That’s the first time I’ve used that gift in a long time. I haven’t needed to use it before, Briony.”
“Promise,” she says.
“I promise.”
“Hmm.”
