Page 55 of Blood Oath
“Hardly. But as I understand it, legacies rarely get more than a letter sent home to their families if they die here. What would warrant an investigation?”
Mr. Gibbons seems reluctant to say anything. “We faculty are supposed to keep this under wraps, but several students stumbled across the scene and took pictures, which are now going about the school, so I suppose there’s no point hiding it. I might as well inform you that a rather gruesome group of pyres was put on display in one of the castle courtyards, set aflame and advertising anti-legacy ideology. We haven’t identified the burned remains yet, so we’re doing a sweep to see which students might be missing.”
Burning pyres? How deliciously morbid.
I barely keep from smiling, but it must slip through a little because the interim headmaster looks disturbed as he regards me. “Miss Oakley, do you know anything about who did this?”
“What makes you think I would?”
He scratches his neck again, harder now, like a nervous twitch. “Well, after all, you’re a…never mind. If you learn of any missing students, report it to one of the faculty offices or an instructor immediately.”
It doesn’t take a genius to deduce that he suspects me of having a hand in this purely because of my atypical background. Curious.
Mr. Gibbons turns to leave, but I stop him by asking, “Will this little incident bring Headmaster Hearst back to Everbound?”
“Well…that’s hard to guess at. We’ll finish the investigation and report to the Legacy Council. They’ll decide what to do, but if we don’t find the culprit, the Immortal Quintet certainly will.”
He retreats, disappearing down the hall while I snort at his faith in the Immortal Quintet. But my amusement quickly vanishes as Kenzie crosses my mind. I haven’t heard from her all day. What if she was one of the corpses on fire in the courtyard?
Alarm courses through me, and I step outside my dorm, ready to look for her.
“Your friend’s all right, darling,” Crypt murmurs, appearing before me in the hall like a mirage has melted away.
He surprises me so much that my hand immediately goes into one of my hidden pockets where a knife is hidden, but to my credit, I don’t squeal, scowl, or make any expression. “Exactly how long have you been standing out here?”
His purple eyes grow devious. “Long enough. I almost made a mess in my pants hearing your delicious little sounds through that door. But you sounded unsatisfied. Care to remove those damned dreamcatchers and invite me in so I can give you what you need?”
The asshole must have either incredible hearing or he had his ear pressed literally right up against the door like a stalker. Mortification threatens to rise into my cheeks, but I choose to ignore it. After all, legacies are incredibly uninhibited when it comes to sex. As if he hasn’t heard shit like that before.
“Kenzie is all right?” I demand, bringing us back to the topic at hand.
“Fit as a fiddle and trading sappy nonsense with her quintet in one of their classes.”
The Nightmare Prince is known to care about nothing and no one. What could have motivated him to check on Kenzie’s safety?
Crypt sees my skepticism and smirks. “I agree with what you told the balding interim headmaster. Death is hardly tragic, and one less shifter wouldn’t bother me in the least. But if someone hurt you by hurting your friend, I would bring you their head on a platter within the hour.”
I relax slightly, turning to lock my door and realizing this new one doesn’t have one.
“No lock needed. Silas had this installed first thing this morning and it will only open to you, from what I understand. I’ve never seen so many magic wards placed on the same door,” Crypt muses. “He boosted the dreamcatchers in there with more of his blood as well. Paranoid bastard.”
That is just…annoyingly thoughtful.
I’m not used to people doing things for me. I don’t even know how to react to it.
Deciding to move on quickly, I side-eye Crypt. If Kenzie is all right, then it’s time to make a call that would land me firmly in the hot seat with the Legacy Council if anyone else here finds out about it.
“Do you have a phone?”
He tips his head thoughtfully and disappears, air warping and leaving nothing behind. I hesitate only a second before shrugging it off and heading toward the eastern exit, planning on getting a new phone from Halfton during lunchtime to make this call. But before I can reach the steps, he reappears with someone else’s cell phone that he clearly just stole, holding it out to me with a grin.
I glance at it. “It’s locked. Needs a code.”
He huffs and disappears again. Several more moments later, I hear a shrill scream from somewhere nearby, and then Crypt appears in front of me with a now-unlocked iPhone and…blood splattered on his hand.
“They resisted,” he explains casually, placing the phone in my gloved hand. “So I popped one of their eyeballs.”
That triggers a grin to spread before I can help it. “Very efficient.”
