Page 156 of A University of Betrayal

“A Quatura... Alarik allowed this bullshit?”

He didn’t sound shocked because he knew Alarik. But this time it hadn’t even been Alarik’s fault.

“She just walked in and made herself comfortable in his office.” I snorted with a laugh. “But trust me, Alarik hates Harlow. Maybe he’ll kick that woman before you get back.”

“Harlow?” Kieran asked tonelessly.

“That’s her name.Rebecca Harlow.”I didn’t want to think about this woman any longer. “Anyway... I’m glad you’ll be back soon. The others are acting like rowdies.”

Kieran was quiet on the other end.

“Kieran?”

I heard a brief noise on the other end, then his voice again.

“Yeah, sorry about that. I was just distracted.”

I kicked a stone into the stream in front of me and accidentally hit a bird, which fell into the water and was swept away by the stream. I gritted my teeth with an apologetic look.

“Is the Winter Ball happening this year?”

“I guess...” I replied, surprised that Kieran was interested in this unnecessary celebration. “Why?”

“I think I’ll be back a bit sooner.”

Chapter 31

Bayla

A few hours earlier

Black Shadow

Jay Varton

I hadn’t actually been dreaming, because when the alarm clock woke me up at four in the morning, I spotted the bag of blood on my bedside table. I stared at it for a solid thirty minutes before I realized that Alarik would be at the door in another thirty minutes.

What was I supposed to tell him? That I wasn’t a Senseque after all? I didn’t even know if that was supposed to comfort me. After all, I wasn’t afurry flesh-eating creature,but now I was apparently ablood-sucking monsterthat couldn’t keep blood inside. Nothing made sense anymore.Nothing.

Somewhere in the last few weeks, I’d stopped questioning where all this magic had come from, so I was at a point where Mum could come in here and tell me Barack Obama was a unicorn, and I’d believe her.

My jaw tightened a little as my thoughts started to revolve around Mum.

First of all, I couldn’t actually believe anything she said, and I certainly couldn’t trust her. She was the one who had lied to me about my identity and brought me to this satanic town. And secondly, I had to be as quiet as I could to avoid waking her up.

I decided to just pack my things, which I needed for my seminars and had brought here on Friday and should not forget under any circumstances...

I would have lunch somewhere on campus today, with Larissa, who had somehow stopped liking to eat with me recently, or sometimes nothing at all for three days, like last week. She was still angry with me, but she wanted to be close to me.

How could Bastien be so sure that I was one of them?

I stared at the blood one last time until I let it disappear into my backpack.Damn.I’d drank that crap. Maybe because wolves liked bloody meat too?

I had so many questions. And it was disappointing that there were only two people who could answer them for me. One was my mother and the other was the professor who would be picking me up outside in a few minutes.

My stomach was tingling with excitement... maybe hunger, too.God,what if Alarik kidnapped me to take me to the Copelands? Maybe he knew I had found a love letter from him addressed to my mother, and now I was a sitting duck for him.

Bayla, calm down. Everything will be fine.A lie, but I ate it up.

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