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I scowled.“I’m speaking to those of you who haven’t decided to support Silvio or Quinn or any of the highbloods intent on keeping the status quo,” I said, once they’d quieted down.“I’m speaking to all those of you who know this is wrong. Who have always known.” I pointed down into the crowd at a blightborn girl who sat weeping on the stairs.“How old were you when you knew? How old were you when you felt it in your bones?”

The girl slowly pushed herself to her feet.“I was seven. Seven when a highblood woman fed from my father. She enthralled him, and he followed her back to her home.That was the last time we saw him.”

I pointed at a House Mortis student who leaned against a colonnade. He was a highblood but something in his face told me he didn’t want to be there. “And you? How old were you?”

“I was twenty,” he said quietly but loud enough that we could hear. “I knew tonight. When I watched Silvio kill a blightborn girl who tried to stop him from barricading these doors.”

“This struggle feels impossible, doesn’t it?” I said.

He nodded. “Hopeless.”

“Yet all over Sangratha, I guarantee you it’s happening. Thousands upon thousands of people are fighting their own small rebellions.” I thought of Regan, trapped beneath Viktor’s thumb and, worse, sharing his bed. And yet clearly something in her was rising up, slowly but surely. I thought of the way she’d gone with Kage into the city, the way she’d rescued Florence and Neville, and stopped her own Bloodguards from feeding on Dani.

“Some of them are blightborn, some are highbloods. We may not know them. But we are them. We are united.” I took a deep breath. “This plague, this illness, is terrifying. It creeps across Sangratha. It threatens us all. But it’s brought one truth out into the light, something each of us has always known. Sangratha is wounded. Sangratha is broken. And if it takes a disease to show us we all stand in darkness, so be it. Let that disease unite us as one.”

“What the fuck is that even supposed to mean?” Silvio scoffed.

I leaned closer to the rail. “It means Bloodwing is a battleground. This is our school. This is where we make our stand. Orphos or Avari, Drakharrow or Mortis. Anyone ready to stand up against tyranny is welcome to join us.”

And then, while Silvio stood there gaping at my words, I moved. Faster than I had ever moved in my life. Faster than wildfire. Faster than lightning. As fast as a highblood. I moved with the power of Blake’s blood. One moment, I was by the rail. The next I was beside Silvio with a knife to his throat. “You will open the doors,” I said in his ear, my dagger brushing his skin.

Up on the mezzanine, every weapon in my motley company rose as one.

Lysander stepped forward. “The rest of you will drop your weapons.” He glanced at Visha and Evie, and I saw them nod. “As of this night, all highblood house boundaries are dissolved. Any student from House Mortis wishing to join any of our three houses may do so and be welcomed.”

Visha stepped up beside him. “Similarly, any student in any house who believes in highblood supremacy, who believes that students should be drained in our halls, who believes blightborn lives are not just as sacred as our own, you are no longer welcome in House Drakharrow.”

“Or House Avari,” Evie said loudly.

“Or House Orphos,” Lysander echoed.

“You hear that, you fucking bitch?” Visha called down to Quinn. She gestured to the group around Quinn. “All of you? You’re out. Get your shit, and go to House Mortis. You’re no longer in Drakharrow.”

“You can’t do this,” Quinn seethed. “Our parents—”

“Will be dealt with next,” Lysander said quietly.

“This is how a revolution begins,” Rodriguez said, coming to stand beside the three. “If you wish to continue attending school here during these unique revolutionary times, Miss Riley, I suggest you fall in line.” He pointed to the doors. “Otherwise, the door leading out will soon be open. Feel free to make your way into the city. I understand it’s a little hot there this evening. You may wish to dress for the weather.”

“We don’t want to spill any more blood in these halls,” I declared. I withdrew my dagger, giving Silvio a savage shove. He staggered away from me, rubbing his neck and gnashing his teeth. “We don’t want to fight you,” I went on. “We’re asking you to make a choice. If you want to follow Silvio and his like, then leave now. We’ll let you go in peace. But these doors behind me are opening. For those of you who stay, you’ll help us tend to the refugees. Bloodwing will give them a place until they can return to their homes.”

“Just don’t forget, we have a fucking dragon on our side,” Visha called as students began to scatter. “Yeah, Quinn, you little bitch. You’d better run.” She snarled gleefully as Quinn began to trot up the stairs, heading towards one of the side passages, Edward and the others clambering after her. Then she hopped the railing, jumping down effortlessly into the middle of the foyer, and punched me lightly in the shoulder. “Let’s get these tables cleared away. We have work to do.”

I nodded, and together we turned to the doors of our school.

CHAPTER 39

REGAN

The impact of the dragon’s fall shook the hill like a hammer smashing glass when Viktor’s burning body slammed into the meadow.

As the blast of heat and wind tore over us, I was hurled off Kage’s back. For a single moment, I was weightless—flying like a dragon. Then I crashed down onto the grass, skidding to a stop. Pain flared along my arm. Blood welled up where a shard of red scale had slit my wrist open to the bone. Kage growled, bounding to my side. He nudged the gash with his nose. I gasped as he dragged his rough tongue over the wound.

A roar shattered the moment. I stared past Kage in horror to where Viktor was hauling himself up. He’d shed most of his dragon form, but crimson scales armored his torso. Black-veined red wings furled from his back, one horribly crushed and ragged.

He hadn’t seen us yet.

Kage’s lips peeled back to bare his fangs, his chest rumbling in a snarl. He sprang, a silver blur spinning towards the red. The wolf was massive, but the dragon was larger. Viktor turned as the wolf came towards him, his eyes widening. I saw him lift his arms, draconic talons snapping outwards.