Page 148

“We?” Theo raised his eyebrows. “You including highbloods in that statement?”

“Well, you’re here, aren’t you? Standing beside me, holding a blightborn’s hand.” I looked around the group.“And Visha, Lysander, Sankara, Evie.” I met the Avari girl’s eyes, and she nodded tightly. “You’re all here because you’ve had enough. We’ve all fucking had enough.”

Something inside of me had snapped the moment Blake had flown out the window. He was out there, somewhere beyond these walls, flying with wings that weren’t his own. Carried forth by Viktor’s lust for control, tormented by his uncle’s desire for power. I didn’t know if I’d ever see the man who formed the other half of my heart again. If I’d ever hear his laugh. See him smirk lazily in that way that turned my blood to fire. Hear him call me Pendragon, as if it were both a challenge and a promise. Hear him snarl mine.

But this was our fucking school—Blake’s and mine. Our strange, brutal, beautiful Bloodwing. It had shaped us, brought us together, made us into who we were, for better or for worse. And while it was still standing and while the blood ran in my veins, there was plenty I could do to keep it truly ours.

Outside those doors were hundreds of innocent blightborn. Maybe I couldn’t save Blake tonight. But I could save them.

Silvio’s voice rang across the foyer. “Archers, prepare to fire on my mark!”

“Put your weapons down,” I roared, stepping up to the balcony rail. “Belay that order. Open the doors, Silvio.”

The Mortis leader laughed. “Not a fucking chance. So you crawled out of the refectory alive, did you?”

“We noticed you ran and left the rest of your Bloodguards to die,” Visha spat.

Silvio waved a hand. “I went back to my tower to rally my house to serve Lord Drakharrow. There are many Bloodguards here with me now.”

I took in the scattered badges. Too many for my liking.

“Rally them to do what? To attack more blightborn?” Theo demanded.

“Blightborn students are right here with us,” Silvio said dismissively. “Look around. They support our cause.”

“Oh really? And what cause is that? Because it looks to me like you’re preparing to slaughter hundreds of innocent people who just fled a dragon,” I said flatly. “And if you think we’re going to just stand here and watch you do that, you’ve got another thing coming.”

Silvio sneered. “Go back to your kennel, Pendragon. House Mortis stands proud. We answer to no one, certainly not some blightborn bitch.”

Visha hissed. Lysander bristled. I lifted a hand—Wait. The door behind Silvio shuddered as blows rang down upon it from the outside. A baby’s wail carried through the broken windows. One of the archers, a blightborn First Year, flinched, his bow drooping.

“What would you have us do?” a Mortis highblood girl shouted up at us, her face angry. “If we let them in, they could be infected.”

“It isn’t the blightborn who are infected,” I called back. “It’s the highbloods. They turn when bitten by another infected highblood.

Blightborn are immune.”

Murmurs rang out around the hall. They weren’t all House Mortis, I realized. There were Drakharrow students mixed in with Silvio’s supporters, too. I recognized Quinn, Larissa, Gretchen, and Edward. Lucian Aleron was missing, though. He hadn’t made it out of the refectory—Visha had seen to that. A few students’ clothes flashed purple and gold. Others black and silver.

“Lies!” Silvio declared. “She lies to save her skin. If we let this horde of rabble into the school, we’ll be slaughtered.”

“Look at the people by my side,” I said, loud enough to be heard over the banging at the door. “They’re highbloods and blightborn. They come from all houses.”

“I don’t see Kage Tanaka with you,” Silvio sneered. “Clearly he doesn’t support whatever the hell this is.”

“It’s an insurrection,” I said coolly. “Believe me, Kage would love to be here. But I’m afraid he’s gone into the city to try to stop a fucking dragon.” I could only hope he found the right one.

More murmurs broke out at that. I knew Kage would be here backing me up if he could.

“So has my friend, Florence Shen, the rider of the Duskdrake. She’s flown into Veilmar with Nyxaris and right now is fighting to stop the massacre that’s taking place—a massacre that was ordered by Lord Viktor Drakharrow.” I let that bombshell explode as the room burst into noise.

“Viktor Drakharrow believed it was better to burn Veilmar to the ground than try to save it,” I shouted. “He’d rather kill blight-born and highbloods so that he can consolidate power over us all.”

The room slowly fell silent.

“Viktor wants to divide us. To divide this school. Just look at the rules he had our new headmistress put in place. He’d have us at one another’s throats,” I went on.

“That’s the highblood way,” Quinn shouted. “Our fangs at your throats.” Around her, a small group of highblood students cheered.