Page 186 of A University of Betrayal

“He is dead.”

Gloria’s words from the last temple lesson echoed through my head.

“He is dead.”

That was all I knew about him. But now there were these diary entries from a girl I didn’t know.No oneseemed to know her.

There seemed to be a hidden darkness between the lines of the diary, and I wanted to knowifandhowit continued, if there was more about Alaister, what had happened to him...

Not like in Moenia...That’s what Alice had written.

Not much seemed to have changed. The scriptures there were still not for the hands of those not in the top two ranks, which included me. I had never dared to even touch them. There was too much chance that they were covered in a spell of Earth magic, too little chance that they were filled with relevant information.

I had never understood how all these books were just sitting there, full of stories about the town, filled with magical knowledge about everything and everyone. But only those who belonged to the Councils could afford to look inside and learn something.

As Domini, Amara was an exception, and soon Grace would be too.

Another reason why I felt like a stranger there. Everything there screamed that I was unwanted, even my ancestry.

Pretty.That’s how the girl from the diary had described him. Platinum blond hair, ice-blue eyes with a slight tint of green.

It was only a few minutes ago, when I’d idiotically looked in the bathroom mirror to see if I could see anything yet – of course I couldn’t – that I’d noticed the resemblance to his description.

I looked like a ghost. But now, this ghost had an origin.

He had beencheeky,she had written. Had I ever been cheeky?No.Nowhere did I find memories of my identity that pointed to a wild, impetuous and mischievous child. I had forgotten a lot, thanks to the Salma, thanks to Gloria.

A shiver ran through me.

Thanks to Gloria.

Never.

I managed to push the thought aside, away from this woman and back tohim.

He seemed to have been clever, passionate about science, and he had a controversial opinion about the species.

We were strictly forbidden to even think about such things. We had to remain among ourselves. Mixing was not possible, a hybrid was unknown to me and if it had ever come to that, the Councils would have intervened.

The idea of a war over such an unpleasant matter was absurd. Nothing like that would ever happen. Everyone would kill each other first.

He had been right.The rules of inheritance separated us.

How couldhehave talked about it with her? He was Gloria’s son. This woman was the devil himself.

More questions arose in me. Again. But what surprised me most was that someone had liked him,him, Gloria Westcode’s son,Amanda’s brother,the man no one dared talk about.Alice Blair, of all people, had worried about him. And he had consumed Salma...

I had felt sick when I realized what Gloria had done. She had dosed her son with the serum, just as she had done to me all those years. And an evil premonition had spread through me.

Everything about my thoughts seemed forbidden, because still no one talked about him.

But now, there was this diary…

Suddenly I felt the shadow again. This time it wasn’t just hanging over me, it surrounded my fragile appearance.

Would I become like him? And if so? What had he even been like?

My thoughts spun like a whirlpool, and with every“What if?”the shadow wrapped itself further around me.

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