I shook my head emphatically. “No. I’m not going back there.” I hesitated. “To be honest, I wouldn’t suggest you go either, Vaughn. It’s all highbloods. The only mortals are...” I paused, trying to remember the word Florence had used. “Sellbloods?”

For a moment, his grin faltered slightly. Then he shrugged. “Sounds about right. I’m still going. Theo...” His voice trailed off. The moonlight wasn’t bright enough for me to actually see him blushing but somehow I knew he was.

“Oh,” I said at last. “So it’s like that.”

He shrugged sheepishly. “I mean, he’s Theo Drakharrow. He’s charming.”

“He is,” I agreed. I thought of how Theo had at least made Kiernan stop the thrallweave he was using on Florence. “Well, I suppose if you were going to fall for a highblood, you could do worse.”

“Thanks,” Vaughn replied, with a laugh. “I’m not sure I’ve fallen for him yet. But we’ll see how things go. Are you all right to walk back alone?”

I thought of the knife between my breasts. I tilted my head. “After I beat you in class, you still actually have the nerve to ask that?”

Vaughn laughed. “See you there tomorrow, Medra.”

I watched him disappear into the night. Should I have told him about what Blake had done to Kiernan? Would he still have gone?

Maybe Theo would tell him. I hoped Theo knew what he was doing...and that he’d keep Vaughn safe.

I strolled along the beach, walking closer to where the waves were crashing onto the shore.

I wanted to get back to Florence. But even after all that had transpired, I was still restless. I could practically feel the blood pounding in my veins. Longing for... what? Release?

For something. Something I couldn’t pinpoint.

I trailed my feet in the water. The chill feel of it against my skin was cold and bracing. I kicked at a crashing wave and the spray splashed back onto my bare arms and calves.

A sound from up ahead made me freeze. I looked along the beach.

There was another figure coming towards me.

At first I thought it was just another student on their way to the party.

Then I realized this was a much smaller form.

A child.

My brow furrowed. Even shrouded in darkness I could tell this was a young girl. Small and slender. She couldn’t have been more than nine or ten. Clearly she didn’t belong to the chaotic party I’d just left behind.

“Are you all right?” I called out, my voice carrying over the waves. I quickened my pace a little.

A child shouldn’t have been out here in the dead of night.

The girl didn’t answer.

The moon came out from behind the cloud that had been partially hiding it and answered for her.

The girl was a vampire. Her telltale hair was braided into a white crown around her head.

As we neared one another, her pale face came into view. A thin trail of blood trickled down her chin, dark in the moonlight.

“Are you...hurt?” I asked, my voice laced with unease. But I already knew the answer.

She didn’t reply. Instead, she raised a small hand to her face, wiping at the blood. Then she brought it to her mouth, licking her fingers with a practiced motion. Just like Kiernan had nearly done with my blood.

The girl’s eyes locked onto mine with an eerie, unsettling calm. She smiled. What should have been the innocent smile of a child seemed far more sinister.

I knew this girl, I realized. I’d seen her that first day, sitting on the edge of the dais in the Black Keep, kicking her feet in boredom. Her presence on the dais meant she belonged to one of the four great houses.

My skin prickled, but I forced myself to remain composed. She was still just a child, I reminded myself. “You should get back home. Do you need me to go with you?”

The girl said nothing, just kept smiling that haunting smile as she drifted past.

I stood there, frozen in indecision for a moment, watching the small figure vanish into the darkness. If it had been a blightborn child, I wouldn’t have let them go. But the girl...

She seemed like she could take care of herself. I turned away.

I’d just taken a few more steps forward when a soft whimper broke through the quiet. It came from the shadows, just beyond the waterline.

Another child.

My heart leaped into my throat, my body moving before my mind could even catch up. I sprinted towards the sound.

I scanned the darkness, looking for a child’s shape. But there was nothing.

Then, in the dark, I found it. No more than the size of both my hands.

A small puppy, its fur matted with blood, lying in the sand. It was barely breathing. Its body trembled weakly as a soft whine escaped its throat.

I dropped to my knees beside it, my hands shaking as I carefully lifted up the limp form. The warmth of its blood stained my hands.

Horror flooded me as I realized who must have done this.

The girl.

“Hang on,” I whispered to the little creature.

I held it close to my chest and it let out another faint whimper, its eyes dull with pain.

My pulse raced as I turned back towards the castle and started to run.

In the light of the First Year common room, I could see that what I had rescued wasn’t a dog like I’d first thought.

This creature looked as if a fox had mated with an owl.

It had a coat of reddish-orange fur, like the last of the autumn leaves, except for its chest which was a soft creamy white. The animal’s eyes were wide and round. They seemed impossibly large for its small face, gleaming like gold in the firelight.

Now that I could see it more closely, the pup wasn’t much bigger than a kitten. It lay where we had placed it on a soft blanket on top of a large footstool near the fire. The pup’s huge bushy, red tail curled around it. As Florence crouched down on the floor next to it, the creature let out a small cry.

“It’s a fluffin,” Florence said softly, as she inspected the wounds. “A male, if I’m not mistaken.”

“What is it exactly?” I leaned down. “Some kind of a dog?”

We were lucky. The common room was empty. Otherwise I wasn’t sure what our fellow students might have thought of my bringing back a bleeding animal.

Florence had already been in her room by the time I’d returned. Part of me felt bad for banging on her door to wake her. But part of me thought letting her go to sleep without talking through what had happened that night would be worse.

“They're related to dogs, yes,” she said, absent-mindedly, as she gently ran her fingers over the animal’s tiny body. “This one is just a baby. Did you see the mother anywhere nearby?”

I shook my head. “It's that young then?”

“Yes. Just a few weeks old. Naveen had one when we were young, but he got it when the pup was older. They aren’t supposed to be taken away from their litter when they’re this young.”

Naveen and Florence had grown up together. I’d forgotten. “So, he lived in Veilmar and had one of these?”

“No, that was before my mother and I came to Veilmar. When we lived closer to Naveen and his family in the country. Their dwarven settlement was underground, of course. Fluffins actually live underground. It’s rare for one to be up on the surface.”

Right. I remembered them talking about some sort of stairwell access to the underground city Naveen came from.

The idea of an entire race of people who dwelled below the surface was fascinating to me. I made a mental note to read up on dwarven culture. Right after I’d read up on fluffins. And dragons. And how to get my mother's soul out of my head.

And here I thought you'd forgotten about me, Orcades chided gently. Not that I'm not content where I am. A pause. That betrothed of yours is certainly a forceful man. Handsome, too.

No. Nope, I muttered internally. We are not discussing that. Not right now. Possibly never.