Page 5 of Blood Currents
“However, evidence has come to light that forces us to confront a devastating reality.”Alstone’s hands trembled.“Keane was not a victim of the attack.He was its architect.”
The auditorium erupted.Gasps of shock, whispered denials, the scrape of chairs as students turned to each other in disbelief.The sound washed over me like a tide, but I felt like I was drowning in the wrongness of it all.Keane hadn’t planned anything.He’d been controlled.
“The evidence is incontrovertible,” Lord Raynoff continued, his voice cutting through the chaos.“Portal magic was used to disable the town’s protective wards.That magic could only have been wielded by someone with intimate knowledge of our defensive systems.”
Someone whose magic was corrupted and controlled.I wanted to scream.Someone who was fighting against the same wellspring corruption my father died trying to expose.But who would believe me?The half-blood daughter of an executed traitor against a grieving uncle and the united council?
“Furthermore,” Lady Lightford added, her voice smooth as poisoned honey, “magical forensics have revealed traces of Alstone family magic at the breach points.Combined with his disappearance immediately following the attack…”
She didn’t need to finish.The implication hung in the air.
“But why?”called out a voice from the crowd.“Why would he do such a thing?”
Lord Alstone seemed to draw on some inner reserve of strength, the picture of a man forced to reveal painful family secrets.“Keane has struggled with magical instability since his parents’ deaths.We tried to help him—therapy, monitoring, careful guidance.But the corruption appears to have taken hold more deeply than we realized.”
Corruption you caused,I thought, my hands clenched into fists.
“He began to see our traditions and our authority as the enemy.He started viewing vampires not as threats but as potential allies in some twisted rebellion against the natural order.”
The lies came so smoothly, so convincingly wrapped in grief and reluctant duty.
“As of this moment,” Lady Lightford cut in, her voice carrying the weight of final judgment, “Keane Alstone is declared a traitor to the magical community.Anyone with information regarding his whereabouts is required to report it immediately to the Shroud Guard.”
Traitor.The word stole the air from my lungs.
The rest of the announcement passed in a blur of additional security measures and campus restrictions.All I could think about was Keane—alone somewhere, fighting the poison they’d forced into his system, now branded as an enemy by the very people who’d broken him.
Or worse, could they still be holding him?This whole show setting it up for them to parade him out and execute him?No.I had to believe he’d gotten away.That at least he was free from his uncle.
And beneath my grief and fury, the wellspring’s energy pulsed with something that felt like determination.It had called me here for a reason.
The assembly dismissed in a buzz of shocked whispers and fearful speculation.Students clustered together, processing what they’d heard with the kind of morbid fascination that came from feeling both horrified and safe.
As I filed out with the crowd, the wellspring’s call grew stronger—no longer just distressed but urgent.Like it was trying to warn me.
“Mari!”
Raven’s voice cut through the noise.She shoved past the group behind me, her close-cropped black hair sticking out in every direction and charmed jewelry clinking.Boris, her bony little beetle, clung to her shoulder, his legs twitching like he shared her mood.
Lucas was right behind her, tall and composed, his wire-rimmed glasses slightly askew for once.His ghostly bird familiar, Knell, perched on one shoulder, her feathers faintly glowing and head twitching as she scanned the crowd.
I’d been avoiding them.Now wasn’t the time to stop.Not here.Not with everyone watching.Not when I could barely process what had just happened.
“Are you okay?”Raven asked, reaching for my arm.
I stepped back before she could touch me.“I’m fine,” I said, my eyes landing on anything but theirs.
“Fine?”Lucas echoed incredulously.“Mari, they just said Keane—”
“I heard what they said.”My voice came out flatter than I meant.Around us, students streamed past like water around a rock.
Raven and Lucas exchanged one of their looks—the kind that used to include me.
“We should talk,” Raven said quietly.“Somewhere private—”
“There’s nothing to talk about.”
I was already backing away, needing distance like oxygen.
