Page 25 of Prayer of the Damned

“I’m Valentina, and this is Belle,” Valentina introduces us both, and I smile shyly at the three of them.

“Tyra, Evan and Liam Pace,” Tyra indicates each of them. So the slim guy is Liam…

“So what’s your story? Why did Liam say we were idiots for approaching you?” Valentina pries shamelessly.

“We’re Beatrice and Greta’s kids,” Liam answers.

“Shit,” I blurt out, and immediately regret it.

“Shit indeed,” Tyra giggles. “Too late to run now.”

“You’re the one who met the Council members, Belle, are they really that terrible?” Valentina asks, and I give her a petrifying glare.

“You met our moms?” the three siblings seem stunned.

“Y-yes… yesterday, with my father.”

“She’s a Fermi,” Valentina clarifies, and I frown at her. Seriously, what’s going on with her? We barely know them. If she knew what happened with the Council members, she’d shut her mouth.

“Ah, right, your father’s up for a Council seat. Maybe you’ll become one of us,” Evan bumps me with his shoulder, and a tense laugh slips through my lips. I don’t think I’d want that.

Valentina passes me the bottle of whiskey, and I take a long sip. Maybe it’ll dull my nerves a bit. The stinging is awful, but not as horrible as the night I drank my father’s fancy bourbon.

I gather my courage and ask: “Did they tell you anything?”

“Nope, Council business is confidential, but by the look on your face I take it things didn’t go the way you thought,” Evan says, and I’m unable to answer.

“I don’t get it, your mothers are sisters?” Valentina changes the subject, for which I’m grateful.

“Not just sisters, twins. It’s joint parenting,” Tyra answers as I pass her the bottle.

“Nice, I guess we all have big shoes to fill, we should stick together – the kids with the parental complexes.” Valentina laughs, and we all join her. She’s right.

It ultimately turns out to be a pleasant evening, and we have a secret competition for who has the most embarrassing story about their adoptive parents. I learn that Beatrice and Greta are the youngest members of the Council, younger than my father, but they’re no less strict. They watched over the trio like hawks their whole lives. Unlike me, they were taken into the custody of Beatrice and Greta at a relatively late age, and always knew they were adopted. I wonder why the Devil marked them when they were older.

I choose my words carefully despite the stories we share; I know I can’t let my guard down around them. After all, their mothers are part of the Council, and I don’t know what parts of the information I reveal to the siblings will reach their ears, and then Libretto’s.

As the sun begins to rise, Valentina gets up and shakes her leather pants of the dust from the floor. “We should get back,” she says. “The faculty’s prepared a whole schedule for us today. We wouldn’t want to be late.”

I get up after her and discover that my dress isn’t white anymore. I let out a disappointed groan at the thought that I’ll never get the dirt stains off it.

“You coming?” she asks the trio.

“No,” Tyra answers, looking towards the sunrise like she’s waiting just for it.

“Have it your way,” I answer, and follow Valentina back to the dorms.

I can’t shake the feeling that despite Valentina’s “cool person” radar, I’m not supposed to befriend them.

Chapter Nine

Bellcolor

We may not need sleep like humans do, but as Valentina and I enter our dorm rooms and I smell myself, I realize we both need a decent shower before we can report to the auditorium for the lecture on this place’s rules.

Valentina goes in first, and I use the time to call my father. I have to ask him about the trio and update him about my overblown reaction to blood.

“Bellcolor, how was your first day?” my father asks after one ring, like he was waiting for my call.

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