In my father’s wake, my hand rose to the bite mark, the metal of my new ring cool against my skin, and I sank into the cot. The bite was low enough on my neck I might be able to hide it with the collar of my school uniform. Otherwise, I’d be forced to wear an old-fashioned cravat from crook of neck to chin every moment of every day for the rest of my life.

The door creaked open. Valere entered, his uniform crisp and bruises gone, as if we hadn’t been attacked by a vampire.

“Valere! Are classes finished?” I searched the room for a clock. If classes were finished, I expected Blaise to drop by any moment.

If Blaise still wanted to associate with a vampire-bitten man.

Valere lifted a shoulder. “Only the thesis matters now.”

I swallowed down a scream, with only a grunt escaping my throat. Oh sure, now Valere understood the importance of the project, yet whenever I’d tried to raise the subject… “If you get detention, you can’t work on it. You’ll lose even more time.”

“Detention takes less time than class.”

“I suppose you’re right.” I glanced at the recently vacated chair. “Would you like to sit?”

Valere took the seat without a word, his shoulders unusually tense as he studied me. Probably as tense as I was, for why was he studying me?

“Did they call you a liar?” he asked at last.

I blinked as the question registered. “No…”

“They must have.” Valere raised his hands a bit, as if to ask where the hunters were, where the warrant for his arrest was.

“I don’t really remember what happened,” I said, half lying. “I mean, I sort of remember going to the book shoppe, but from there, it’s all… gone. Apparently I hit my head.”

Valere leaned back in the chair, watching me intently, searching for the lie.

As far as Valere, or anyone else for that matter, needed to know, my memory was as blank as if I stared at a fifty question history exam, all essay. “Now, about this project…”

“You’re lying.”

I breathed in through my nose. “We really do have a project.”

“You remember,” he said. “I didn’t have a chance with that apprentice hanging over my shoulder.”

Had a chance to do what? “I really don’t. The nurse said it was a normal side effect. Now can we—”

“And yet you’re not the least bit curious?”

Valere was right, that did seem strange, even to me. “Fine. What did you tell them?”

“You should be able to guess.”

Well, obviously, he hadn’t mentioned his vampire twin. “I really don’t remember. So please, if you’re going to tell me, tell me. If not…”

Valere tilted his head, as if this slight change of perspective would reveal all my secrets. Then he relented, and told me, but for some reason, I thought all of it a lie.

We’d taken a wrong turn. The vampire had just been looking for some tasty morsels. If the vampire Fortun had thought us wicked enough to want his advances, that could have hardly been our fault, our absence from school grounds at such an hour our only misdemeanour.

Despite Valere’s usual habit of quiet regard, he actually was a very good storyteller, the lies pouring smoothly off his tongue. Although perhaps it was the tinge of emotion his storytelling mimicked, which compared to his usual demeanour, practically screamed in fright.

But the best part of his recital was his lips, smooth and pink, clearly enunciating each word. He had such nice lips, I just wanted to—

“Oh,” I interrupted my own thoughts. “So that’s what happened.”

Valere jerked his hand, which he’d held outstretched to me. When had he done that? Sometime when I’d been obsessing over his lips. What was he doing? Was he trying to console me? That didn’t seem right, but it was the only explanation I had. It’s not like he could cast a spell against me, his hand empty.

I patted his hand, and he snatched it away, indicating nothing about his reasons. “I’m fine, really. I’m just still a little… clouded.”

Valere still seemed to be searching for any other memory. I wasn’t as smooth a liar, even if I had to keep my proclivities a secret as much as Valere’s associations. But it didn’t matter. I’d stay quiet about his associations, and Valere would help me get into the guild, leaving only the problem of the apprenticeship.

“Anyway,” I said, “speaking of how important the project is—”

Valere raised his eyebrows, as he’d been portraying how I’d been horribly maimed by a vampire, but didn’t interrupt.

“—and Master Roux was by, reminding me we need to get our thesis approved.”

“Roux dropped by?”

Why did Valere look so perturbed at that? Well, as perturbed as Valere could be. “Yes, with the headmaster, asking about… Well, anyway, we really need to have our thesis. As I’ve been trying to tell you, I’ve been looking through past projects—”

“I already have our project.”

Hope fluttered in my chest.

“I’ve been working on it for a very long time.”

Relief cancelled. A project that Valere, who was no slouch in the sorcery department, had been working on for so long and hadn’t finished? That sounded… difficult.

“Oh good.” I tried to smile. A remnant of a memory, swathed in black, floated in my mind, avoiding any attempt to snatch it. Something… Something Valere had said to the vampire — Seraphin. Yes, Seraphin. About a project, a project benefiting a vampire?

No, this couldn’t be that. I probably wasn’t remembering it correctly at all. Besides, Valere couldn’t present a project benefiting vampires to the guild without being consigned to the pyres.

Valere was watching me again, his blue eyes impenetrable.

“Would you care to explain what our thesis is?” I asked him.

“A way to identify a god’s power.”

“Er… What do you mean? A god’s power is a god’s power. It’s not exactly subtle.”

Valere tilted his head away. “Only certain humans can channel the power of a god. Have you ever wondered why?”

Not really. The answer had always been pretty obvious. “Only some are worthy. The gods grant them their potentia, the ability to channel their power.”

“So you believe it’s because you’re better than everyone else.”

No one who’d ever met me would believe that. “No, of course not.”

“Then why?” A trick question? “Why is it that only some humans can channel the power of Le Chasseur, but all of Adrian’s Blessed Children can channel Adrian’s? Why can only a few humans have the potentia to become disciples, while anyone can be turned into a vampire?”

“Only sycophants become vampires out of the evil in their hearts.” All Fallion were taught that since the day they were born.

“So what was your evil deed?” Valere asked.

My hand covered the bite mark, my only reassurance the crisp white chill of the defensive ring. “Adrian’s Children are descended from Adrian.”

“They’re of his blood.” I shivered at the last word. “Just like you share the blood of a long line of sorcerers.”

“But we’re not descended from the Four Fallion gods,” I said. “Le Chasseur forbid it from the first moment he raised an army in order to avoid repeating the mistakes his former self Adrian committed.”

“We’re not descended from them, but according to the old legends, Adrian’s Children used Adrian’s powers to a much higher degree than we can use Le Savant’s.”

“Then what about vampires?” I cringed. I hadn’t meant to ask that at all.

“Vampires became vampires because they devoured the god they were supposed to worship,” he said. “Cain’s blood transformed them, and thus they must share their stolen blood to create new vampires.”

I stared at him. “How do you know that?”

“The apprentice said it.”

“The apprentice?”

“You wouldn’t stop whingeing about how you didn’t want to become a vampire.”

Oh… Good? I had no recollection at all.

Valere seemed to accept my outright confusion, relaxing a little more. “We use potentia to explain this, yet no one, not even sorcerers, have pursued what this really means.”

When he didn’t continue, I had to prompt, “Which is…”

“There’s something unique among individuals capable of using a god’s power, and it’s not the god’s favour,” he said. “The potentia is in the blood. We need to find it.”

My breath hissed in my ears as I exhaled. That was his project?

I dropped my gaze to my hands in my lap. I should have guessed where this line of thought had been going. Had I been right that Valere had spoken of a project in that vampire’s favour? But how? I shook my head. It didn’t matter. This project was forbidden. “We can’t do a project involving blood.”

“There’s no rules against it.”

There needn’t be. Everyone understood blood was considered off limits ever since Le Chasseur had taken his new name. Even the elite chirurgeons, whose stock and trade was everything to do with the body, only researched blood by special permission from the Hunter’s Guild.

And I’d just been bitten by a vampire.

“Roux will never approve it,” I said.

“He will.” Valere spoke with such certainty, he might as well have said the sun rose from the east.

“It’s—”

“Harmless,” he interrupted. “The Sorcerer’s Guild wastes so much time and effort training boys who never develop any real aptitude. They admit over two hundred students each year, only a quarter of which make it into the post-sixth years, where they start actually learning sorcery, and only half of that make it to their final year. If we can determine whether a boy has the right potentia to begin with, we could make the training process more efficient.”

The Hunter’s Guild would not see it that way. They’d only see my bite mark. They’d only see the blood. The Sorcerer’s Guild wouldn’t see anymore.

“If you’d prefer to work alone…” Valere trailed off.

“No!” But blood? Of all projects… I grimaced, twisting my head as if a better idea would shake loose.

“It’s this or nothing.”

I clenched my hands in my lap. One chance, I had one chance, which may end up sending me into the pyre.

Valere shrugged and started to stand. “Fine—”

“I will!” The words burst from my mouth, but I couldn’t take them back. I had to. No matter the risk, I had to get into the guild.

All I received in return for my loss of morals was a cold shoulder. Vespasian had been right. No one would expect Valere.