Dangerous enough to have caused the bad blood between him and Alcántara. I wondered if my mission off-island really had been to save Carden, or if it’d just been to ensure his silence.

But all that mattered was that he was free, and it was back to normal on the island. Except for Mei-Ling. Her absence left a hole that I felt already.

“What came of Mei-Ling?” Ronan had asked me gently.

I’d had to look away. I couldn’t let him see the lie in my eyes.

Carden spoke for me then. “There was nothing left of her.”

They believed us, or at least I thought they did.

All except for Alcántara.

I was out of it at dinner that night. Shaky and empty, still trying to wrap my head around what’d just happened. Namely, Mei-Ling was gone.

It was possible to escape from here.

Worse, I hadn’t had a moment to be alone with Carden. All the refrigerated shooters of blood in the world weren’t enough to stand in for this need I felt for him. I wanted to see his easy smile and to feel that heavy arm around my shoulders. It would’ve been enough.

I was numb as I scooped a pile of gelatinous spaghetti on my plate. Grabbed a small, tart-looking apple. Walked to my usual spot with Emma and the gang.

My tray clattered as I put it down. The chair scraped hard against the floor. I sat.

Only then did I realize everybody was staring at me. “What?” I met everyone’s eyes in turn. “What’s going on?”

Yasuo’s eyes didn’t budge, pinned hard on me. “Alcántara posted a new fight bracket.”

I dropped my forehead into my hand. “What now?”

“You’re fighting me,” Emma said quietly.

The blood drained from my head. I’d dreaded this day. “We have to fight each other?”

At her nod, I looked to Yasuo. “Rules?” I asked, though I was terrified of the answer.

“Two girls in. One girl out.” His eyes were razors, slicing into me. “To the death.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

“Two go in, only one comes out.” I stared at the notice, posted outside the gymnasium. “Sounds like a nineteenth-century circus playbill.” I felt a slender hand on my shoulder. Emma’s. I turned to her. “This is my fault.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“No. It is.” It was never a good idea to cross a vampire. First I was a less-than-enthusiastic recipient of Alcántara’s kiss. Then Masha had gone off after me and never come back. “It is my fault. This is Alcántara’s way of punishing me. I’ll make it right.”

“You bet you will,” Yasuo said.

I glanced over Em’s shoulder to find his eyes glittering cold on me. Everyone knew she and I were besties, just as they knew I’d beat her in a fight. But never in a thousand years could I hurt her. Though, just in case I did, there was Yasuo, ready to thrash me quicker than you could say catfight if anything happened to her.

Disturbed, I tore my eyes from him to look back at my friend. “We’ll find a way so you don’t get hurt. I’ll throw the fight.”

“Or else,” Yasuo said.

“Please,” Emma told him in that quiet way of hers. “Trust Drew. I do. We’ll figure this out. We have before.”

“Yeah, Yasuo.” I tried my best playful scowl. “We have before.”

It didn’t bring a smile to his face. “You have to let her beat you.”

“I will.”

“How?”

“I don’t know, Yas. I’ll figure it out.”

“Well, you better figure it out now,” he snarled, “because the fight is tomorrow.”

“It’s okay,” Emma said soothingly, taking his arm in hers.

He glared down at her. “It is not okay. You read the freaking poster. Two in, one out. Are you really going to kill her? Is she going to kill you?” He turned his glare on me. “I know how this’ll play out. Miss Selfish here will win the day, like she always does.”

The comment felt like a Mack truck rear-ending me. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Emma looked distraught now. “Please stop, Yasuo. You’re not helping.”

“Well, somebody needs to do something.”

I put my hands on my hips. “I will so totally do something.” My mind raced, and a plan began to form. “Emma will take me down. We’ve been studying the vascular system in Combat Med. She can get me in a hold, pin me down, and make like she’s choking me.” I spoke faster, the idea taking hold. “Listen, this could work. If she cuts off the blood flow to my carotid artery, I’ll pass out. I’ll look dead, but the moment she lets go, it’ll be all good. I’ll look pretty blacked out for a while, and by the time I come to, she’ll be out of that ring. Okay?”

“Wow, that is good,” Emma said. “So simple.”

I hoped it was simple in an elegant way, and not simple in a stupid way. She’d need to time it just right—if she waited too long to let go, I’d be dead, and if she let go too soon, then we’d both be dead.

“What happens when Alcántara realizes you’re not dead?”

“I’ll take the heat for that,” I assured him, though I left the rest of my thoughts unspoken. Namely, if I got in trouble, Carden could always swoop in before my punishment and we could make a break for it, maybe find those mysterious friends of Tom’s. “Don’t worry.”

Emma smiled up at Yas. “See? All good.”

“It’s me Alcántara wants to punish,” I assured him. “Not Em.”

He didn’t speak, though. His eyes were narrowed on me, and for an instant I saw something flicker there. Red. Like the rogue.

Goose bumps crept along my skin, and I fisted my hands to get the blood flowing again. This was Yasuo. My pal. He was just playing the part of protective boyfriend. Still, it took a mental effort not to take a step back from him.

I was still chilled from that exchange and headed back to my dorm when I ran into Alcántara.

“Greetings, Acari Drew.” He bowed his head, looking the part of chivalric fourteenth-century courtier. “I see you are recovered from your ordeal.”

“Recovered, yes,” I said, mustering a weak smile, then added with a little chuff of a laugh, “Though I’d feel a lot more recovered if I didn’t have to fight my friend.” It was a stupid thing to say, but I felt like I was at the end of my rope. I was done lying down and taking it from these guys.

I’d watched Mei escape—I’d learned there were options. I’d learned hope.

“You do not wish to fight your friend?”

Was he being serious? Would he give me an option? “Not particularly, no.”

“You have no friends.” He gave me a chilling smile. “This is merely my way to prove it to you, once and for all.”

He’d liked me once. With that in mind, I tried a different angle. “And what if I die instead?”

His lip curled. “You’re a trying girl. There was a time I enjoyed the challenge you pose. Now I tire of it.” He began to walk off. “What will be shall be.”

Carden. I needed Carden. He’d be my comfort.

Somehow he knew. “You’re sad,” he whispered to me later that night. Lights-out had come and gone hours ago, and it was dark, with just a blade of moonlight cutting in to light my room. His being able to sneak in after hours was the one consolation for losing Mei-Ling.

“We have to enjoy this while we can,” I said, avoiding the topic. “I’ll graduate to Initiate at the end of this term.” Soon I would get a new room. A new roommate. New fights and new enemies.

“Initiate.” He sighed. “Such tomfoolery. The Directorate would have you think this is boot camp. While most of those creatures have never seen a day of battle. But, Annelise?”

“Yes?” I asked, staring at the ceiling. I felt full of emotion and, even in the dark, I couldn’t bear facing him for fear of letting it show.

“Annelise.” He cupped my shoulder. “Face me.”

I couldn’t resist that husky voice in the darkness. I rolled to face him, and it took a moment to get adjusted. He was ever the gentleman, and refused to lie under the covers with me. The old-fashioned gesture touched me.

“You’re avoiding what’s really troubling you,” he said.

“What’s the real trouble?”

He raised his brows, waiting for me to come around.

I sighed. “Okay, yeah, I am sad. And more than sad.” The rogue vampire was dead, and the Directorate ruled a return to normal. They’d proclaimed Carden innocent. This was an aberrant event, they’d said. Carden and I were left only with our suspicions and no proof that Alcántara had anything to do with the killings. Now all I needed to do was fight Emma; then it’d be back to our regularly scheduled program. If we both survived. “I’m worried about who planted the rogue. I’m worried Al has you in his sights. I’m worried I’ll accidentally kill my best friend.”

“First,” he said, “you shouldn’t worry for me. You’re a braw spitfire of a woman, but I’ve survived for hundreds of years without you. I imagine I’ll get through the coming weeks as well.”

I felt a tiny smile begin to play at the corner of my mouth. “I’m a woman?”

He chucked my chin. “You know you are. And you’re strong. Do you know there was once a time when we Scotsmen went to battle, leaving our women to protect the home? It was women who ran the homesteads, raised our children, fought for our land. And from what I’ve seen, you are stronger even than that. Braver than that.”

I bit my lip, feeling that emotion trying to bust through. “I just…I worry, is all. I worry I won’t be able to find a way to survive this. For Emma to survive it. I’m sick of losing people—even the girls who’d see me dead. I’m sick of all of it.”