Page 57 of Collared by the Vampire Prince

Clara’s ears tilt back. “Oh no. No, that’s very bad. You’ll have so much to catch up on.”

“I’m sure I’ll manage.” To escape this place.

“This is Clara,” Susie says, looping her other arm through Clara’s and steering us both towards the stairs. “Third year. Final year, actually. And don’t worry about schoolwork, Kira—your teachers are aware of your special circumstances, and we can help you with any homework you have if you need it.”

Homework. Ha.

I nearly laugh aloud but disguise it as a cough.

“Thanks,” I say. “I appreciate that.”

Clara leans forward to peer past Susie at me as we walk, slouching so much now that I’m convinced she’s compensating for her own height around shorter company. “Sorry, Kira. It’s nice to meet you. I should have said that. And I don’t mean to sound like I’m scolding you. It’s just—Professor Marmala takes attendance very seriously, and if you fall too far behind on schoolwork, it can be quite stressful to catch up—”

“She’s fine,” Susie says. “Come on. Breakfast.”

Chapter 10

Kira

The dining hall is a vast hexagonal chamber carved into three blocky tiers of dark stone, beneath a ceiling of stained red glass that spills bloody light across the room.

We enter onto the middle level, where vampire students sit at long rows of tables stretching between black iron candelabras whose flames burn gold. A flight of steps leads to the tier above, where professors dine at a high table hung with crimson banners bearing the Academy crest. Below, sunk several feet beneath the level of the entrance, stone steps lead down to the lowest tier—where the wolf students eat.

“Welcome to the pit,” Susie says as we head down.

“Excuse me? The what?” I say.

“The wolf pit. That’s just what we call it.”

Charming.

There are no tables down there. No chairs. Only clusters of wolf students sitting on the stone floor with trays balanced in their laps, eating in loose circles as they chat and laugh, their eyes catching what little light reaches them.

The divide is impossible to ignore.

Down here, wolves help themselves from mismatched serving tables piled with food. On the tiers above, footmen move quietly among the vampire tables—older wolves dressed in black with starched collars and such snooty demeanours I suspect they consider themselves halfway to vampirehood. They refill goblets, clear plates and gather used silverware. None of them appear to be students.

I glance up at the red panes. “They sure do like red, don’t they?”

At first, Susie gives no sign that the sight bothers her, but then her gaze lifts to the ceiling too, her voice soft. “The glass used to be green and gold to honour…” She trails off. “King Henrikk had it replaced.”

I try to imagine vampires smashing away the glassy ceiling that had been there before.

“Are you two coming?” Clara asks anxiously, tugging us towards the steps.

“In a moment,” I say, drifting across the middle tier with my head tipped back as though I am fascinated by the ceiling, while really trying to edge closer to the vampire tables. At least one of them has a steak knife.

It doesn’t work.

Every vampire student suddenly seems to be looking at us. A sea of beautiful pale faces at the tables, most with sharp features and cold blue eyes. Not all blond, but many. Fine-boned, elegant, and clever-looking. They do not regard us with hostility, but with quiet disdain, the perplexed politeness of the upper class wondering why we are lingering on their tier.

They wear the same navy-and-red uniform as we do, yet even that marks the divide. Their shoes gleam with polished leather and silver buckles, many of the vampiresses wearing formidable heels, while every wolf seems to wear the same dull black or brown pair.

I want to bare my teeth at them. To snarl something vicious enough to make those pale faces flinch.

The Kira of yesterday might have.

Instead, I glance towards the highest tier. Headmaster Arken sits at the centre of the long table, silver-haired and severe behind his spectacles. Other professors sit along either side in dark greens, blacks and purples. And though I am not looking for him, I notice Nathaniel is not there.