Page 4 of House of Lilith

Nikolay barks out a laugh, mockingly echoing her with his own, “Well, no—”

I kick him in the shin under the table. “Hey,” he yells out, throwing me a frown.

Innocently, I mouth ‘What?’

“What Imeantto say,” Hilde cuts in, demanding attention. When I turn to her, she seems to have collected herself. “Insomeways, our shifters and their shifters are probably the same. We’ll just have to see what the differences are.”

And with that, she gives a content nod.

Now, that’s what Ireallyhate about my cousin. How quickly she’ll change the tune at the first sign of someone disagreeing with her.

Max rolls his eyes and leans back in his chair, but despite a brave face, I catch a hurt look in Hilde’s eyes.

It makes a pang of regret shoot through me. She always has a kind word for every single one of us, and all we ever do is give her trouble. I let out a sigh and I look around the table until I spot Jacquard’s blood gin among all the bottles. I grab it and I lean across to shove it into my cousin’s hands.

“Here, Hilde,” I say, fighting not to sound cold as I ease back into my chair. “Didn’t you say that’s your favorite?”

She throws me an appreciative smile, but it’s at that exact moment that the gong sounds and all eyes dart to the front of the Hall.

There, a procession of professors starts coming out of a hidden door to the left of their table. I see Uncle Ludwig among them, but it’s only when I spot our Pied Piper walking with a woman I’ve never seen before that I feel another pang of excitement.

It’s clear that all eyes in the room are onher. And she can be no other than the Fiain Academy Archon, the famed Cerys Brogan. As the Pied Piper leads her to the center of the professors’ table, I watch her strong yet soft gaze sweep over the room, her wavy gray hair falling to a simple yet festive robe.

The Pied Piper stops in front of her own wood-and-bone high chair and motions for the guest to take a seat to her right. Brogan gives her a smile and lowers herself into the chair. It’s only when she does, that the Pied Piper turns to the crowd.

Johanna de Groot. I’ve never once managed to even look at her without this thrill spreading through me. And it’s not because she’s a ridiculously tall woman in a black robe, with a raven braid, piercing black eyes and a jawline that looks as if it could cut through anything. No. It’s her position, a truly high one, coupled with the way she holds herself, as uncompromisingly and authoritatively as any man I’ve seen. A rare jewel in the vampire community.

“Greetings, everyone,” she starts in her bored drawl. “Now, as you all know, I’m all for the briefest of toasts…”

I hear chuckles all around me. The Pied Piper smiles, but she just keeps going. “But tonight… Tonight we have our brothers and sisters to greet, the ones our Academy shares the Heart Bond with. And they’ve agreed to revive a tradition of old. The joining of our two academic families for an entire year, a year of strengthening our magic through cooperation and a bit of healthy competition.”

Someone lets out a wolf whistle and everyone laughs. Even my lips tug into a smile.

“Of course,” the Pied Piper continues, making everyone fall silent again, “we all know what history our two Academies share.” There’s nervous shifting before she says, “But let’s not allow what happened a hundred and fifty six years ago to taint the future.” She motions at the tables opposite the one we’re sitting in, the only ones that are left empty. “This year, we’ll be hosting a hundred students from the Fiáin Academy and we need to make them feel as welcome here as if none of that ever happened.”

To my surprise, she looks to our table. “I’m counting on you, the royal Aalders and Romanov families, the ones that were here the last time we did this, to help ease the transition.”

I see Max puff his chest out and nod.

“Now,” the Pied Piper says with a sharp nod and raises her voice so it echoes through the enormous Hall, “let’s give the honor to Professor Schwarz of Grimm Academy, our Guardian of the Obscura.”

The room breaks out into clapping and cheering as Uncle Ludwig gets out of his seat and comes to stand in front of the professors’ table, clad in a gold-stitched green robe with the Guardian’s pendant around his neck. There’s excited murmuring as he takes the Box out of some hidden pocket.

I zoom in to see better. I’ve never laid eyes on it before, the weird little contraption that the Brothers Grimm had Dame Gothel make to bring our two Academies closer together. The box that started it all. The Obscura. It actually looks quite plain, just a rectangular wooden item with some carvings on it.

“To think Nyx and I used to spend hours trying to talk Uncle into showing usthat,” I hear my brother say to Hilde.

He lets out a chuckle, but I don’t even look at him. I keep my eyes fixed on the box. I’m eager to see, for the first time ever, the first of the three figurines hiding inside — Door, Hourglass and Judge, each serving its own purpose. Door for getting the students of the other Academy to the one where the Games are held. Hourglass for using magic to devise and execute each of the five Games.

And then there’s Judge, but that one’s a bit more complicated. It’s never been used before and no one really knows what it does, the Guardian of the Obscura keeping the purpose secret.

I see both Brogan and our Pied Piper getting up and coming to stand closer to the Box, shaking their hands and making it start glowing. It’s something everyone knows, that the Box requires at least one member from both Academies to be activated.

The two principals go back to their seats, Uncle Ludwig takes a step back, opens the Box and puts his hand inside.

Then he pauses, the silence in the room palpable, before he pulls out a small stone door and throws it in the air.

I hold my breath.

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