Page 127 of On Wings of Blood

“It’s a balance,” Viktor said testily. “We must continue to preach restraint. We have your father to thank for that. A new way, he said. Well, your generation has grown up with this ‘new way.’ They are the weaker for it.”

None of this was what my father had had in mind. But I said nothing.

“But the reality is,” Viktor continued. “That vampires will be vampires. We can only show restraint for so long before suppressed desire boils over.”

I nodded and started moving towards the door, hoping the interview was at an end.

“Blake.”

I stopped in my tracks.

“As for Aenia...”

I took a deep breath, preparing for the worst. The moment dragged on.

“I’ve paid a visit to the Sanctum. Tell her your mother sends her love.”

I nodded and pulled the door open.

BOOK 3

CHAPTER 26 - MEDRA

A few days after the House Leader ceremony, I strolled towards my thrallguard lesson. I was hoping for another shot at the spellbook.

I hadn’t seen Blake since that day in the arena. He’d been missing our Advanced Weaponry classes. Not that he really seemed to need them.

He’d killed Coregon in front of the entire school. It was the second time I’d seen him kill.

He was...very good at it.

Part of me still couldn’t wrap my head around it. Coregon Phiri was dead. And he’d been the one to hurt Vaughn. Not Blake. I’d run hastily towards what I thought was the most obvious answer. Like a stupid, reckless fool.

Sometimes I tried to justify what I’d done. Just because Coregon had delivered the blows didn’t mean Blake wasn’t the one who was ultimately responsible. He’d probably told Coregon to go after Vaughn. There was no way it had happened without his full knowledge. I’d learned enough about the way the highblood chain of command worked, even here in the school, to get that.

After the House Leader ceremony that day in the arena, Rodriguez had told me to expect to be summoned to Headmaster Kim’s office to talk about what had happened in Professor Sankara’s class.

Apparently Sankara had already told him all about it. Rodriguez had looked almost frightened when he told me.

But the summons never came.

I was still here. Still going to my classes, eating in the refectory, sleeping in my room in the First Year dorm. Nothing had changed.

I’d supposedly broken some law by attacking Blake–and yet they hadn’t punished me for it. I hadn’t even been given detention.

Maybe the headmaster was just biding his time.

I made my way down the now-familiar corridor towards Professor Rodriguez’s office. Oddly enough, thrallguard lessons had become the part of the day I most looked forward to. Rodriguez was tough but fair, never pushing me beyond what I could handle. I’d been learning, slowly but surely–how to compartmentalize, how to build mental walls that could withstand coercive power.

And Rodriguez... Well, he was just plain impressive. He knew so much. More than he ever let on. He had secrets to keep and the more I hung around him, the more curious I was to know just what they were.

I knocked once as I reached the door, then pushed it open and stepped inside.

My breath hitched.

Blake was sitting behind Rodriguez’s desk, his long legs propped up on the wooden surface as if he owned the place. He was tossing Rodriguez’s letter-opener up in the air, a small dagger with a dragon head pommel.

His white-blond hair fell lazily over his forehead. His white button-up shirt was unbuttoned just enough to reveal the top of the black tattoos that curled over his chest.

---