Chapter 4 The first death after her arrival
Theron's pov
The alarm was still screaming when I found the body.
I had been in the shadow library when the sound tore through the walls; that wretched, skull-splitting wail that meant only one thing. Death by violence. Inside the walls. No accident. No natural cause.
Someone had been murdered.
I ran.
The corridors of Crestville were chaos. Students pressed against walls, their faces white, their hands over their ears. A group of wolf cubs huddled together, whimpering. A fae noble had collapsed, her glamour flickering like a dying candle. I pushed through them all, my shadows clearing a path.
That's the power of the silencing alarm.
The body was in the Crimson Tower.
I should have known. The vampire quarters. The blood-red windows.
The scene was a nightmare.
A vampire boy...no more than seventeen, his face frozen in permanent terror, lay sprawled across the marble floor. His chest had been ripped open. Not cut. Ripped. Like something had reached inside him and pulled until he came apart. His heart was missing. His blood...what little remained...had turned to silver ash.
The Stillness.
I knelt beside him. The silver ash coated my fingers. It was cold. Colder than death should be.
"The same pattern," a voice said behind me.
I looked up. Lord Caldor stood in the doorway, his old face unreadable. Behind him, the other heirs were arriving...Kaelen, his golden eyes blazing with fury; Serena, her crimson gaze cold and calculating; and Drystan.
Drystan Vane stopped at the threshold.
His face went white. Then red. Then something else entirely...something I had never seen on a vampire before.
Grief.
"No," he whispered. "No, no, no."
He crossed the room in three strides and fell to his knees beside the body. His pale hands hovered over the boy's face, trembling. When he looked up, his eyes were wet.
"This is Elian," Drystan said. His voice cracked. "My cousin. My family."
The room fell silent instantly.
Kaelen crossed his arms. "The letter said someone would die before the next full moon. Looks like they kept their promise."
Drystan's head snapped toward him. "Do not speak of promises, wolf. Not while his blood is still warm."
"I'm just saying..."
"You're saying nothing." Drystan stood. His fangs had extended. His silver eye glowed like a star about to explode. "Someone did this. Someone in this academy. And I will find them if I have to tear through every stone with my bare hands."
The council convened in the bone chamber within the hour.
I took my seat in the shadows. Across the circle, Drystan sat rigid, his hands gripping the arms of his throne so hard the wood had begun to splinter. Kaelen sprawled in his wolf throne, arms crossed, jaw tight. Serena occupied her crypt-throne, her shadowborn guards flanking the door.
Lord Caldor stood at the center. The letter...the warning...lay on the table before him, its dried blood message still visible.
"The victim is Elian Vane," Caldor said. "Seventeen. Turned three years ago. No known enemies. No witnesses."
Drystan's voice was ice. "There is one witness. The elf."
Every head turned to me.
"The elf?" Kaelen frowned. "What does she have to do with this?"
"She arrived the day the letter came," Drystan said. "She's the weeping star. The letter mentioned the weeping star. Coincidence?" His silver eye blazed. "I think not."
I stood. "You think Iris killed your cousin?"
"I think she brought something with her. A curse. A target." Drystan rose to face me. "I think she should be brought in for questioning. Now."
The chamber murmured. Kaelen looked thoughtful. Serena smiled.
"No."
My voice was quiet. But everyone heard it.
Drystan's eyes narrowed. "No?"
"No." I stepped out of the shadows. "You're wrong. And you're playing right into the killer's hands."
"Explain," Caldor said.
I turned to face the council. "The letter warned us to prepare. It said the bloodbath was only the beginning. And now, less than a day after Iris arrives, one of us is dead." I held Drystan's gaze. "What does the killer want?"
"Fear," Serena said quietly.
"Yes. Fear. And division." I gestured to the room...to the wolf throne, the vampire seat, the fae and shadowborn watching. "If we blame the elf, we turn on each other. We waste time interrogating an innocent girl while the real killer walks free. That's what they want. To distract us. To make us look the wrong way."
Kaelen leaned forward. "So you're saying the killer wants us to go after her?"
"I'm saying we should be smarter than that."
Drystan's jaw tightened. "You expect me to let my cousin's murder go uninvestigated?"
"I expect you to investigate properly." I did not look away. "Question Iris if you must. But do it in front of the council. With witnesses. With respect." I paused. "Because if you touch her without cause, Drystan, I will remind you what a shadow fae outcast is capable of."
The chamber went cold.
And for a long moment, no one spoke.
Then Caldor raised his hand. "The elf will not be questioned tonight. Not until we have evidence linking her to the crime." He turned to Drystan. "You will grieve. You will wait. And you will not act alone."
Drystan said nothing. But his hands had stopped shaking.
"The academy is now under full red lockdown," Caldor continued. "No one enters. No one leaves. Classes are suspended until further notice. Students will remain in their dormitories with guards posted at every door."
Kaelen cursed and Serena nodded.
I sat back down.
The meeting adjourned.
Minutes later, on my usual parole, I found Sasha in the library.
She was curled in a corner, her arms wrapped around her knees, her face buried in her hands. The seer. Iris's new friend. I had seen them together at lunch.
"You saw it coming," I said. Not a question.
She looked up. Her eyes were red. "I saw something. But not clearly. Never clearly." She hugged herself tighter. "I told Iris. About the dream. About the weeping star. She didn't believe me."
"She will."
"Will she?" Sasha laughed...a hollow, broken sound. "She doesn't even believe she can be loved. How is she supposed to believe in prophecies?"
And I had no answer for that.
