Page 86 of A University of Betrayal

He hadn’t told him?

“Bastien told me about her,” Adrian said tonelessly.

I caught myself looking for similarities in him too, but we didn’t look a bit alike.

“She’s one of the Quatura” He looked at me again. “The witches.”

No.I would have known that. Had I been so blind all this time, all these years?

“And the Circle insisted that the girl stay there.”

I was absolutely shocked. My best friend of many years? A witch? I should have noticed something like that.

She had been out with Julie and Grace... Of course, she was one of them. I’d seen her eyes earlier.Yellow.Just as abnormal as my red ones. But it hit me that she’d kept me in the dark about it.

“Best stay away from them,allof them,” Adrian murmured tensely.

“You already dictate enough to me,” I hissed back.

“Your former friends are a threat to our clan.”

“You’re joking,” I laughed in response to Adrian’s words. “You are monsters. How can witches be a danger to you?”

And besides, this wasBayla.She wouldn’t hurt a fly.

“I’m not joking,” he replied dryly, silencing me. “First of all, now you’re also a... what did you say? Monster?” He looked at me again with that creepy, threatening look. “Secondly, the Quatura own the entire town center, and they’re part of a treaty we all have to abide by, even the fucking Copelands.”

I looked at him again with wide eyes. “The Copelands?”

“The so-calledwerewolves,”Miles laughed as he painted quotation marks in the air, amused by my choice of words.

And then the last piece of the puzzle fell into place: the Copelands, Emely, this strange tension whenever Emely and the other girls were in the same room... They didn’t just hate each other,no.They were enemies. Wolves and witches. Wolves and vampires.

“Like I said, keep your distance and nothing will happen.”

“And if I don’t?” I challenged Adrian.

He turned his head. His eyes sparkled. “Then you’ll have to deal withthemand withus.”A huge shiver ran down my spine. “And believe me, you don’t want that.”

Fire

Two Feet

The three of them had taken me downtown, to a bar called Black Roses. A rather expensive-looking one, I noticed.

What did they expect me to do? That I would throw myself at someone and literally suck them dry? Preferably in the middle of all the people here? Not in any way conspicuous.No, not at all.

The bad thing was that I felt like it. It smelled delicious. And how ashamed I was of it. I was disgusted with myself and forced myself to hold my breath, but failed immediately.

A girl bumped into me and I practically inhaled the smell. The scent was sweet. My body seemed to literallycraveit.

“Freak!”she barked and pulled her even better smelling friend past us. I flinched, caught off guard.

“Not like that, newbie.”

Annoyed, I looked at Miles, who couldn’t stop teasing me. How couldthisguy be my brother?

“Don’t call me that.”

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