Page 74 of Bone Year

“Why should I trust you?”

He pulls back enough to look at me, and the mask slips. Underneath is something tired and angry and desperately lonely.

“You shouldn’t, but I’m the only one warning you. So maybe that counts for something.”

He steps back, and the wolf melts into the shadows like it was never there. Draven turns and walks away, disappearing down the stairwell.

I stay pressed against the cold stone, heart pounding, trying to make sense of what happened. “That wasn’t part of the deal.”

I don’t know what it means. I don’t know what deal he made or why, but I know one thing for certain. Draven Alucard is afraid of something in this school.

And whatever scares a vampire from one of the oldest bloodlines in the Shadowlands should probably terrify me.

Chapter Eighteen

“Be careful what you search for in the dark. Some things search back.”

— Librarian’s Note, Unsigned

The dining hall is loud and warm, and I can barely focus on any of it.

I push a piece of roasted meat around my plate, watching the gravy pool in the dip I’ve made in my mashed potatoes. My herbal tea has gone lukewarm, but I drink it anyway. I’m going to need it if I plan to stay awake in the library tonight.

“And then she had the audacity to tell me I wrapped the bandage wrong!” Lux throws her hands up, nearly knocking over Jace’s drink. “I’ve been wrapping bandages since I was twelve. My father is literally known as the combat professor. I think I know how to wrap a godsdamn bandage.”

“Maybe you were wrapping it wrong,” Ellavee says, smirking while staring down at her plate.

“I wasn’t.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I wasn’t.” Lux stabs a roasted carrot with her fork. “And then Senna made me rewrap the same patient six times while she stood there watching with her arms crossed like I was some first year who’d never seen a wound before.”

“You are a first year,” Jace points out.

“That’s not the point.” Lux waves her fork at him. “The point is she singled me out. The whole time, Killian was over there wrapping bandages like a drunk toddler, and she didn’t say a word to him. But me? Daughter of Professor Bale? Suddenly I need to prove myself twice as much.”

There it is. The thing Lux doesn’t talk about directly but always circles back to. Her father’s name opens doors, but it also puts a target on her back. Everyone expects her to be perfect because of his name, and she’s exhausted from trying to live up to it while pretending she doesn’t care. I know the feeling. I remember the way I used to feel treating patients in the clinic back home before…

“Senna’s tough on everyone,” Jace says gently. “It’s not personal.”

“It felt personal.” Lux slumps back in her chair. “Whatever, I’ll show her. By the end of the year, she’ll be begging me to wrap her bandages.”

“That’s the spirit,” Ellavee says dryly. “Petty revenge through superior wound care.”

“Damn right.”

I take another sip of tea. Across the hall, I can see Draven sitting with Malric and a few other vampires. He hasn’t looked my way once, but his giant black wolf lies at his feet and hasn’t taken his eyes off me. Those greenish-yellow wolf eyes track my every movement, unblinking. That wasn’t part of the deal.

What deal?

“Mae.” Jace’s hand finds my knee under the table. “You okay?”

“Hmm?” I blink, pulling myself back. “Yeah, just tired.”

“You’ve barely touched your food.”

“Not that hungry.”