Page 58 of Collared by the Vampire Prince

Good.

Only then do I reluctantly follow Susie and Clara down the steps into the sunken hall. The descent feels like an insult, each step taking us lower. From the bottom, the middle tier rises around us like a viewing gallery, the nearest vampire tables looking directly down into the pit. Apparently even eating on the floor is something we are expected to do on display.

At least the food is a pleasant surprise. None of the frou-frou caviar, sugared grapes and tiny green sprigs I spotted arranged on the vampire tables above, though I wouldn’t have said no to steak. Down here, trays are stacked along a stone serving ledge with bowls of hot porridge, fried eggs, crisp bacon, and thick slices of buttered toast.

Simple, honest food.

I sit with Susie and meet her friends, which seems like such a bizarre thing to be doing in a place I am planning to escape. Every new person I meet here feels like a mistake, a connection that ties me to this place. A name I will remember once I leave.

“Welcome, Kira, I’m Harvey,” says a wiry third-year with badly cut charcoal hair, a long freckled nose, and clever hazel eyes. Along with white-framed spectacles, he is not unhandsome in a dishevelled, bookish sort of way. His left arm rests limply against his side, noticeably slimmer than the right, which fills out the sleeve more heavily and is currently busy trying to cut bacon with a knife. “Partial paralysis on this side—born with it,” he explains, waving with his right hand. “Or was it this side?” He glances down at his left hand, stiff fingers curled against his thigh.

“That’s not funny,” Clara hisses as she sits opposite him.

“Course it is,” he says, flashing a white smile that makes her turn red before he looks at me. “So. New girl. What’s with this mystery enrolment? On the run from the enforcers, were you? Trying to avoid your destiny?”

He grins wider, and it takes me a moment to realise he is joking.

“Nonsense,” Susie says, sitting primly beside me and crossing her legs. “It was simply an administrative error. Took a few weeks to fix.”

She seems to deliberately avoid mentioning that I’m nineteen—technically more than a year overdue.

“Administrative, eh?” Harvey’s expression grows mischievous as he looks at Susie. “And I suppose you spent many long nights helping Arken fix it. Is that how you wrangled that collar for Kira?”

Clara throws him a scandalised look. “Harvey!”

“What?”

“You shouldn’t imply such things!”

He lifts his thin black brows innocently. “What things?”

“You know—things,” she splutters, before adding in a voice barely a squeak, “Sex.”

Harvey gasps in mock horror. “You thought I was implying…? Clara! How rude.”

Susie sighs, though she is smiling as she says to me, “It’s always like this, I’m afraid. Harvey has the fastest mouth in Volmasque.” She tucks into her breakfast, clearly unperturbed.

Clara has turned a deep shade of beetroot and looks as if she might collapse from second-hand embarrassment.

Susie proceeds to introduce me to the rest of her pack—the five who have made it to breakfast, at least. Apparently, wolves are not as punctual as vampires, and students continue to filter in and join the circles around us as we talk.

“And this is Rebecca—she goes by Becky,” Susie says, as a young woman with olive skin and dark brown hair close to my shade joins us. “She’s a first-year too, so you’ll probably share classes.”

Becky gives me an enthusiastic wave. “Hi.”

“Hi.” I return her wave with some hard-mustered enthusiasm of my own.

Becky’s eyes widen as she looks at my collar before flicking away again, but not fast enough. A few minutes later, I catch her staring at it again. I notice she isn’t wearing one. None of them are, apart from Susie and me.

As if summoned by the thought, Susie mutters something under her breath and unfastens her gold collar, freeing a strand of hair tangled around the clasp before buckling it back into place.

So hers comes off?

Mine does not.

Nathaniel already told me mine is an enforcer’s restraint, enchanted so only he can remove it, but watching Susie casually take hers off makes the leather around my throat seem bulkier and heavier.

I turn away slightly, discomfited by the hungry way Becky continues to glance at my collar throughout breakfast. I try to focus on the other conversations instead, gleaning what I can from Susie’s helpful comments about the Academy, the hierarchies, the pack dynamics, and Harvey and Clara chiming in whenever they are not bickering.