I reached behind me, grip closing on a book spine. “No, sir, the question is where didyouhear them? Have you been following me?”
His smirk went nowhere as he said the same two words that stopped my heart. “Of course.”
“Ssssee?” Sabrina spoke up, making me jump. “I did inform you of this inevitably. The vampire has you in his sights now. He will discover your secret and kill you,” she dropped like she was talking about the weather. “This is how your foolish quest ends.”
“Is your slithery companion talking to you now? Is it telling you the right response to stutter out?”
My head snapped up. “What? What are you—?”
Radu blurred. In the space of a breath, he grabbed hold of my Christmas nightmare of a shirt and ripped it off my body. He couldn’t see my breasts, but he could see the snake coiled around my body clear as day.
“What the hell!” I clapped my hands over my chest. “What do you think you’re doing, perv! You can’t just shove a student in your bedroom and rip their clothes off!”
Radu was draped over his armchair, looking like he was about to drift off to sleep before the full shout left my lips. “Can’t I? Well, if we’re to talk of things we can’t do,youcan’t carry around the means to cheat on your chest. And letting that little creature whisper all manner of answers and directions in your ear is cheating by definition.
“By rights, I should rip your pet off you and kill it.”
My breaths came in shorter gasps. “N-no, please,” I cried. “She’s not helping me cheat, I promise. She’s not even talking to me! I’m the one who talks to her.” I forced a laugh. “I just like having someone to ramble on to throughout the day. She’s like my—my—my emotional support snake.”
I wanted to cry. Even to my ears, my rambling reply sounded like complete nonsense.But Sabrina swore Lucifer juiced up my gaslighting abilities to maximum. She said people will want to believe my lies—no matter how ridiculous.
But if Radu was swallowing any of my crap, I couldn’t tell.
Radu gazed at me through heavy lids, his bored, lazy expression giving nothing away except for boredom and laziness—but I knew a predator’s tricks when I saw one. What better way to lure in your prey... than to look harmless?
“I swear,” I insisted, urgency leaking into my voice. I couldn’t find Dora without Sabrina. I couldn’t even search half the manor without Sabrina! Losing her would be the end of both of us. “She’s exactly what she looks like. A snake. She’s not helping me or talking to me. How could she be?”
“How could a hellhound help you? How could an imp favor you?” He reached into his pocket and tossed something at me. “You are an object of curiosity, student of mine. There very well may be a witch loose in the halls of Abaddon, slaughtering students, but all anyone can talk about... is you.”
Slowly, I bent and picked up his phone. It was open to an app I’d have no reason to know about calledDead Drop. Honestly, itlooked like one of those old-school chat rooms that went out of style when I was in elementary school, but who cared about that when it was doing its job just fine—spreading gossip and rumors about me.
SckMyBlls35: Something’s up with that hairy mole freak. He didn’t use a drop of magic, but somehow he got that imp wet for him. It trashed everyone else and let him walk right to the finish line.
MILFBngr: Who the fuck cares about him cheating at a race? Did you see what he had the imp do to that pigeon-fucker? Watching that full-of-himself shithead covered in the stuff that lives between his ears has to be the funniest thing I’ve seen in eighty years.
CommanderNightwing: You want those eighty years to end today, demon scum? You watch your fucking self and how you speak of Lord Ravenscar.
My brows blew up my head. Tristan said there was nowhere or time where all the students of Abaddon mingled freely, but I should’ve known that didn’t include online.
Haters always found their people online.
Howlr56: There’s something not right with that guy. Does no one else think it’s fucking weird that some mole-faced weirdo with impossible powers shows up at the same time a witch invades the academy?
I stopped breathing, and everyone in the chat stopped texting.
I refreshed the screen, jabbed themore messagesbutton, and even exited out and checked the other open chats in the app, but there was nothing more said after that accusation was left hanging in cyberspace.
Why?My lungs filled with short bursts.Why did they stop? Did they realize I could be reading and suddenly switch to aprivate group? Was there any chance they thought the idea was so silly, they all collectively decided to drop it?
“For what it’s worth...” Radu’s voice snapped my head up. “I know the rumors aren’t true. You were sitting directly in front of me the entire time when those demons were murdered and splattered all over the courtyard, and I saw for myself how you dealt with that imp.
“While all those fools went straight to brute force, you took the time to understand the imp’s true nature. You’re clever,” he stated with no trace of mocking. “And cleverness always looks like witchcraft to the ignorant.”
I didn’t want it to, but his words eased my panic the slightest bit. “Thank you, Professor. I—”
“But that won’t save you.” Radu rose up—the boredom and sleepiness falling from his face. “You’ve set yourself apart, young Charlie, at a time when standing out is the worst thing you could possibly do. These lies, rumors, jealousies, and grudges will continue to nip at your heels until they rip out your ankles and bring you down. When that happens, you’ll want someone who believes you on your side.
“You’ll want a friend.”
