After failing as a vampire hunter, 17-year-old Cleo is sent to an academy full of vampires as a false peace treaty. Her true objective is supposed to be finding the hidden heir to the dark world while befriending the current one, but the current hei...
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Sleep barely came that night. Soaked in sweat, I tossed and turned. Nightmares of black jaguars hunting and bringing antelope to their bloody deaths filled my head. Sometimes I was the prey. Sometimes I was the predator. Sometimes I was left in a dark wood all alone, trying to find my way out, but not getting anywhere no matter how far I ran. And every time, I'd eventually shock myself awake, my heart racing and my stomach rolling.
After the tenth time, I decided to force myself out of bed. I flipped on my light and rubbed my eyes, yawning. Needing some air, I went over to the balcony and stepped outside, the cold for once welcoming on my clammy skin, instead of making me flinch against it.
I didn't know why this was catching up with me now— the horror of the idea that my father wanted me to kill Claude. But it was, creeping into my veins, and making me unsettled. It started after returning back to my dorm after the library, after Claude...
There is no hidden heir.
He hadn't said it defensively. He hadn't said it accusingly. He'd said it matter-of-factly. And the mirth in his voice had been from knowing that my father's plans for sending me here were futile and mistaken.
And if there was no hidden heir, there was no information to offer my father. Which meant my father would expect me to kill Claude. But I wouldn't. I couldn't. I wasn't a murderer. And now the remaining outcome was my father kicking me out of the family.
Part of me wondered if maybe Claude was lying to me. But it hadn't felt like he was. At this point, why would he lie to me? We both wanted the same goals. Lying to be would be counterproductive to that. The other part of me thought that maybe Claude didn't even know about the hidden heir himself. But was that even possible? To have a sibling you didn't know about? For all this time? Not only that but for the hidden heir to hide. To never use the Sway, to never show those golden eyes. The more I thought about it, the more ridiculous it was.
It just had to be that there was no hidden heir.
Which left my options as killing Claude or losing my family.
And I knew which one I wouldn't choose.
My hands curled around the cool railing and I gazed across the courtyard, the ice on the grass glinting under the moonlight, a lump rising in my throat. What was I supposed to do? Where was I supposed to go? What would my mother do without me?
I took a deep breath, trying to keep myself calm. I couldn't let this overwhelm me. I had time to figure things out. And I didn't need to handle this alone. I had friends now. They would be able to help me think about this rationally.
And maybe my father was bluffing. He wouldn't actually kick me out, would he?
A few quiet taps on my door barely met my ears and I had to listen hard to decide if I'd imagined them or not. Another, harder this time, came and I went back in my room, going over to the door. I cracked it open to see Kaz on the other side, his hair mussy from sleep. "Kaz?"
