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Andrew stared at the House Leader.

“Are you injured?” Kage demanded.

Andrew shook his head, but his hand, I’d noticed, had crept up his sleeve. Neville’s growl deepened to a snarl. Kage seized the boy’s wrist, yanking the fabric back. A piece of gauze, hastily knotted, was wrapped around Andrew’s wrist, dark with blood.

“I was with Jacklyn,” he stammered. “Jacklyn wanted to see the healer, but I told her I was fine. It’s just a scratch.”

Kage’s eyes were hard. “A scratch? Or a bite?”

Andrew said nothing.

“When did this happen?” Kage asked.

“A few hours ago. I’m fine, really.” He glanced at me, as if seeing me standing there for the first time. “Is Jacklyn all right?”

“Jacklyn’s dead,” Kage said shortly. His dagger flashed—clean, merciless. A single thrust beneath Andrew’s jaw and he toppled, like a puppet with cut strings. Screams tore through the room. Someone began to sob. Kage wiped his blade, then turned around and raised his voice. “If anyone else here is hiding a bite, step forward now. To hide a bite is to endanger this house. Come to me now, or I’ll let the fluffin find you, and I promise you, things will not go so quickly as they did for Andrew.”

Kage’s Second, Evie, stepped forward. “Jacklyn and Andrew were the last ones back. After that, there was just you and the professor and—” she gestured at the First Years “—the rest of them.”

Kage nodded grimly. “Good. Inspect them for bites.” He looked around the room. “Listen to me carefully. House Avari is now in lockdown. There’s a plague.”

Immediately highblood eyes swept towards the blightborn students who’d entered with us accusingly.

“It is not a blightborn plague,” Kage said immediately. “High-bloods are the ones in danger of infection.” He looked at me. “Shen, tell them what we know.”

I stared at him. “Me?” When he nodded impatiently, I quickly cleared my throat. “Bites seem to be the catalyst. Based on what we just learned from Andrew and Jacklyn, it can take hours before the infection sets in. A person’s eyes go milky white. Then they … well, attack. Go berserk.”

“Is there a cure?” someone yelled.

I glanced at Kage. He nodded very slightly. “There may be,” I said, trying to make my voice carry. “If you’re bitten, you need to come to the infirmary at once.” I was sealing their fate either way. Either we would find a cure or some kind of a treatment or … or Kage or someone else would finish them.

Still, I knew the House Leader was right. The infection was spreading too rapidly. We had to contain it, even though the means of doing so might have to be terribly ruthless. Otherwise there’d be nothing left of Bloodwing to save.

Kage spoke briefly to his Second and the wardens, then I followed him back to the infirmary. When we got there, Rodriguez was tying a bandage around Regan’s head. She was sitting up in bed. Her long blond hair had fallen out of its pins and hung around her shoulders. She looked very young and frightened, far too young to be a headmistress of a school like Bloodwing.

Kage moved so quickly. One moment he was by my side, the next he was crouched down beside her bed. “How are you feeling?” he asked her, his voice surprisingly gentle.

“Like a brick fell on me,” Regan complained, frowning and touching a hand tentatively to her bandage.

I gave a little laugh, not quite hysterical. “That’s because one did. Maybe more than one.” I walked over, and she looked up at me. “You saved me. You saved Neville. Thank you.”

She glanced away, looking uncomfortable. “Brocklin was being a complete idiot. What on earth could have come over him?”

“A plague,” I said. “He didn’t know what he was doing.”

As Kage began to tell her what was going on, I moved to where Rodriguez and Elycia were standing together at a table, talking in low voices. “Do you think there’s a cure?” I said directly as I approached them.

Rodriguez looked up. “Well, certainly not yet. And who knows how long it could take to find one. In the past, blightborn plagues haven’t been solved overnight. It can take weeks, months. Years.”

That didn’t bode well. “We need something quickly. People are panicking. Kage has sealed the tower. But the rest of the school …” Medra. I still had no idea where she was. “I’m going back to my room,” I announced. “I have to check for something.”

Kage looked up as I moved towards the door.

“I’ll be right back,” I promised. “But Medra …”

He stood up. “She’s not here, Florence.”

“What?”