Page 20 of A University of Betrayal

She looked at me with expectation, which put me under slight pressure.

“Little hair... or none... and a skull tattoo? I think?”

“Slight memory problems due to near-death experience and trauma,” the woman noted, talking to herself.

“Near-death experience?”

She looked up. Then she smiled. When I took a closer look, I realized that she was laughing at me, which I took personally.“Dearest,you should bedeadby now. You’re the first Quatura who has managed to survive a Ruisangor bite once the Ruisangor venom was already in your system.”

A little confused, I looked at her and only now realized what she had said, that all this from my memory had really happened. I grabbed my neck again.

“I’ve looked at it at least ten times today. Your neck is intact. You are healed. We assume that your magic is very strong, unlike what we first expected. But you’ll have to take part in the rite of passage again.”

I looked at her as if she had made a bad joke, then I slid back even further until my back hit the white headboard of the bed, and it cracked slightly. The woman didn’t seem to care much.

“I heard that something went wrong the first time. That won’t happen this time, we’ve made sure of that.”

“We?”I asked, confused now because I couldn’t quite follow her despite my realization of recent events.

“I’m here on behalf of the Councils. It’s about time someone takes care of this mess here.”

The Councils...Hadn’t Grace told me that this group of Quatura was the opposition to Amara and the Circle? There had been something else...

If anything was indeed somehow demolished, it was my memory.

“But don’t worry about it.” She smiled at me again as if I were the mailman who had rung her out of her sleep. “I’ll make sure that order is restored here soon. The Copelands have let this institution and its students wither away for far too long with their mismanagement.”

Something about her words made my alarm bells ring, but I didn’t dare to ask. I had only just woken up, and it had probably been days as I knew myself by now. I would have to see what awaited me next. Hopefully, everyone was still alive. Eventhatwasn’t a guarantee by now, in a town where bloodsucking criminals waited for you at your doorstep, monstrous dogs lived on campus and dagger-wielding witches walked around unhindered without anyone caring.

I wonder if there were people who cared about such things? People, like me, who weren’t supernatural, and who cared that no one got hurt? Surely there must have been something in the media a long time ago? How could such creatures survive for so long without being discovered by the public?

I remembered that there was aforgetting potionthat I still longed for.

I looked at the woman who had just strutted into my room and asked me endless questions.

“How long have I been out?” I asked, genuinely interested, and the woman answered without looking up from her clipboard.

“Three days.”

Okay, at least it wasn’t a whole week. I remembered how Larissa had called me some time ago...Larissa...

“Where’s my friend? I’d like to see her.”

My request caused the woman to look up. “I’m sorry, but your companion has disappeared without a trace. The only thing that could be identified from her was her blood.”

“Her blood...” I said, distraught, which made my stomach growl. I was so hungry, but I had no appetite at all.

“You must be hungry after going seventy-one hours and thirty-seven minutes without any food.”

She smiled as if we hadn’t just been talking about Larissa’s blood.

My best friend was gone, probably hurt and taken by this guy, and all that mattered right now wasme?What was going on with the people in this town?

“Where is she? Someone must be looking for her,” I said, unable to hide my despair and worry.

“She is no longer part of our affairs, except for the fact that, with her,anotherperson was most likely killed on our land. However, her blood alone is not enough to convince the Domini that it would be best to take action against this vile race.”

I looked at her, stunned, but she ignored me completely. All she cared about was filling out that stupid paper.Anythingcould have happened to Larissa, and the Councils or whoever was behind thisusat the end of the day didn’t give a damn. All that mattered was that their laundry was clean.Their stupid grounds!

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