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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"Ready to go?" Kaz asked, checking the time on his watch. "It's about time for you to meet with your father and Evander."
"Yes," I said.
A moment passed. Kaz raised an eyebrow. "When, exactly? You've been in the same spot for the past two minutes staring blankly into space."
"Have I?"
"Your jacket is inside out, too."
I looked down at it. "Is it?"
Kaz pursed his lips and walked over to me, pulling the jacket off my shoulders. I let him, holding my arms out robotically. "Are you that nervous?"
"No."
"Cleo, are your shoes on the wrong feet?"
My gaze dropped to my shoes. "Oh, that may explain why they feel weird."
Kaz's fingers curled around my jacket, his face going slack. "Maybe it's not a good idea to send you off by yourself."
I absentmindedly slid my feet out of my shoes, making sure to put them on properly this time around. Then I took my now correct side out jacket from Kaz, shrugging into it. "No, I'm okay, just lost in thought."
Lost in thought was an understatement. I'd reached a new level of stress. My body had been moving on autopilot all morning, my mind swarming with all the questions I wanted to ask my father, of all the ways he could criticize me for what I failed to do over these past few weeks, what his reaction would be when I told him I didn't want to keep sneaking around to sniff out information about the secret heir, how we could move forward with a plan to ensure peace if he was partial to it...
And the necklace. Maybe he wouldn't notice. Maybe he wouldn't care. Maybe that was wishful thinking.
I'd worn the only mock neck I brought, unable to ask Adora for a turtleneck as I had planned. She would be returning to campus today, but she hadn't yet. Hopefully, this covered enough of my neck that my father could think it was just hidden under the fabric.
"Make sure Claude steers clear of my father," I told Kaz. "I will make sure we don't go near the auditorium, either."
"That was my plan, anyway. Although if Evander requests for the two of them to meet with each other, I can't go against it."
I frowned. "Would he do that?"
The idea of it made Kaz's shoulders slump. "It's possible. Your father has a great deal of authority. And when Claude becomes king, he will too. If a peaceful coexistence between vampires and humans does end up coming about, they will no doubt have to keep in contact to continue it."
I knew it was dumb, but it had never occurred to me that Claude would become king. He was a prince. I wanted to slap myself. Of course he would. One day he would rule over the vampires. He would be included in the politics of our two territories. He would be the one who decided whether or not to accept a peace treaty. And that was why he was willing to work for me.
