Page 70 of You’re So Vein

“The truth will help more.”

“Very well.” He clasps his hands over his knees. I notice his fingers tremble a little. “You’re correct. Upyr are forbidden from turning children into vampires. But Hannah is not Upyr. She is Dhampir.”

25Augustin

Gideon: Have you told Komal about your AFFLICTION yet? Is that why you didn’t join us for a nightcap at Black Crag to celebrate the successful first challenge – because you’re shagging her human brains out?

And please, can I tell Dante? He won’t stop asking about you.

KOMAL’S DARK EYEBROWS SHOOT SO high, Harish could document them as migratory birds. “You can’t be serious.”

“According to you, I’m always serious.”

There I go again, snapping at her because I’m afraid. Hannah peeks out from behind a stack of books in the narrow hallway. I knew she wouldn’t stay in her room. She looks completely shellshocked. She’s doing a remarkable job of staying calm.

I am terrified.

I have to tell Komal the truth, because she’ll figure it out anyway, and I have to believe that she might care about me enough to keep our secret. But if I’m wrong, Komal could run straight out of here to the Conclave delegates and tell them about Hannah, and then I’ll be killed, and they’ll either kill Hannah, too, or something much worse.

I try to convey with a subtle flare of my fangs for Hannah to get back to her bedroom, but of course, she ignores me.

“What are you staring at?” Komal whirls around. Hannah jerks her head back, but she upsets the stack of books, sending them and her sprawling across the room.

“Oh yes, she’s absolutely in her room.” Komal rolls her eyes as she pats the sofa beside her. “If you promise not to bite me again, you can sit with us.”

“Can I, Dad?” Hannah’s eyes widen with surprise.

At the word Dad, Komal’s nostrils flare.

I nod, my wretched heart lodged firmly in my throat. Komal’s wound has closed over, and I’m on full alert now. I’m faster than Hannah if she loses control again. I’ll put myself between them if it comes to that.

And I can’t help but hope…

Hannah scoots onto the couch, and Komal takes the corner of the blanket I put over her and drapes it across Hannah’s gangly knees. Seeing the two of them like that, beneath one blanket, makes my ribs separate down the middle and become wings.

“You should have the blanket.” Hannah folds the corner back over Komal. “It’s weighted. It makes me feel safe, and you should feel safe here.”

“I’m not going to argue.” Komal smiles. “This is one of those times when even a cup of chai and a weighted blanket isn’t enough. I need to be pressed in a human toastie machine. Why do you have so many books, anyway?”

She gazes around our living room, eyes wide as she takes in the shelves stuffed with books, my herbs drying on racks over the fire and seeds in their special trays, the plants curling around the windowsill, our shoes paired up for Hannah’s shoe store, boxes of beads and rhinestones and sequins for bedazzling – all the remnants of our small, sad life.

I find myself holding my breath, waiting for Komal’s reaction.

“Books ward off evil,” I answer. “And if we’re trapped here during the zombie apocalypse, we could eat them.”

“Is that true?”

“No.”

Hannah giggles. “Augie’s just being silly. Books aren’t for eating. We both like to read.”

Hannah’s laughter brightens the room – it’s so rare now that she’s getting older and pushing against the rules I have for our lives. Komal smiles at her, and I have this perfect, impossible vision of what our family could look like – Komal taking Hannah to a friend’s house while I sleep, the three of us running around the gardens in the moonlight, reading books by candlelight, the two of them ganging up to bedazzle everything in my wardrobe…

No, don’t be absurd. Just because Komal hasn’t run away doesn’t mean anything. She’s made it clear that she doesn’t love you. She doesn’t want to be part of your family.

But then… why is she here?

Why is she smiling at Hannah, after what I just told her?