Page 59 of Blood Currents
I couldn’t even speak.
“I just found out, Mari,” he said.“I was trying to keep this from happening.You have to believe me.”
Who was this person I’d thought I loved?
“Is that all?”Cyrus asked.
“Yes,” Elio said.
The silence that followed was heavy with everything we couldn’t take back.The trust we’d built, the connection we’d shared—all of it felt tainted now by the knowledge that Elio had been keeping secrets even while we’d bared our souls to him.
“We need to get back,” Keane said finally.“Aurora will be waiting, and we need to plan our next move.”
But as he opened the portal, I couldn’t bring myself to look at Elio.The guy who’d shown me his violin, who’d played music that revealed his true self, who’d made me believe in the possibility of something real between us—that boy felt like a stranger now.
Maybe he always had been.
27
Marigold
The wind bit through mycoat as I crossed the gardens, my head down against the winter chill.Most students had already left for break, the campus eerily quiet with only a few scattered figures hurrying between buildings.The weight of what we’d learned from Levon—the council’s conspiracy, the corrupted wellsprings, the looming threat of the master vampire—pressed down on me with each step.
I should have been focused on our plans to rescue Parker.On the evidence we needed to gather.On the impossible task of exposing a conspiracy that reached to the highest levels of magical government.
Instead, I couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched.
Scout clicked softly against my collarbone, his tiny skeletal claws tightening in warning.I glanced over my shoulder for the third time in as many minutes, seeing nothing but empty pathways and snow-dusted trees.
“I’m getting paranoid,” I muttered, quickening my pace toward the royal dorm.
But when I rounded the corner of the history building, two familiar figures stepped directly into my path.
Raven and Lucas.
My heart lurched painfully.They should have been home for winter break, not standing here with matching expressions of hurt and determination.Raven’s dark eyes burned with questions, Boris perched on her shoulder like a tiny sentinel.Lucas stood slightly behind her, his wire-rimmed glasses fogged from the cold and his bird, Knell, nearly transparent with agitation.
“Going somewhere interesting?”Raven asked, her voice carrying a brittle edge I’d never heard before.
“What are you doing here?”I countered, automatically stepping back.“You’re supposed to be home for break.”
“Funny story,” Lucas said, his usual calm replaced by something harder.“We were planning to leave.Then we saw you sneaking around with Cyrus and Elio.”
“And we thought, ‘That’s weird, our friend who’s been avoiding us for weeks is suddenly having adventures with the heirs she supposedly barely knows,’” Raven added.
I swallowed hard.“It’s complicated.”
“Really?”Raven crossed her arms.“Because it seemed pretty straightforward when we followed you to the tunnels beneath the auditorium.Or when we caught Aurora Raynoff leaving the royal dorm this morning looking like she hadn’t slept all night.”
The color drained from my face.“You’ve been following me?”
“You’ve been lying to us,” Lucas countered quietly.The hurt in his voice cut deeper than Raven’s anger.“For weeks.Maybe months.”
“Not lying,” I said automatically.“Just… not telling you everything.”
“Same difference,” Raven snapped.
“It’s not safe,” I said, lowering my voice despite the empty campus.“What I’m involved in—what we’re involved in—it’s dangerous.I was trying to protect you.”
