I wrapped my arms around my knees, staring out across the scenic campus. Each day that passed caused the trees to shed more leaves, for the reds to turn to browns. For the air to become more biting. I couldn’t believe I’d only been at the academy for only a week. So much had happened so fast.

A blanket fell across my shoulder and I looked up to see Adora offering me a half-smile. “Don’t want you to catch a cold on top of everything else.”

“Thanks, Adora.”

She dragged the other metal chair across the balcony and settled down next to me. “I talked to Kaz. He convinced Claude it wasn’t you.”

“Claude believed that?”

“Apparently. Kaz said something about the way you held your dagger helped your case.”

I turned to her. “What do you mean?”

“Claude said the person who attacked him used their left hand. They were behind him when they attacked, but he remembers them using their left hand. You picked your dagger up with your right hand.”

“What if I’d picked it up wrong to mess with him? That doesn’t seem like a good enough reason for him to believe me.”

“Did you do that?”

“No.”

Adora shrugged.

I rested my chin on my hands. “So much for innocent until proven guilty. What if I’d died?”

“I don’t think Claude would have killed you…”

“You sound so confident.”

She winced. “Well. I’m pretty sure Claude doesn’t want to start a war either.”

“I wish he would believe me when I said I want the same. Our interests seem to align, don’t they?”

“I’m not saying this to excuse Claude, but there’s no such thing as a crown without blood. He has to sleep with one eye open. Imagine living your life with the threat of regicide over your head? And now imagine if the daughter of the person who killed and hurt your family members attacks you? I wouldn’t act rationally. Would you?”

Would I? I didn’t want to kill anyone. But what if they tried to kill me? Beyond what Rehan had tried to do. What if it was life or death? I remembered reaching for the blade to stab Claude, just to break the Sway. What would I do?

Then I registered the rest of what Adora said. “Wait. Family members? Who died?”

Adora’s eyebrows creased. “What do you mean?”

“I know about his grandfather.” I nearly slapped myself. “Like, I know he died. Not how.” Now I really wanted to hit myself. Sound more obvious.

Adora didn’t catch onto my awkwardness. “No one knows how Cyrios died, don’t worry. But I’m not talking about him. I’m talking about Claude’s parents.”

“What? What’s that have to do with me?”

She stared at me. “You really don’t know?”

I unfurled from my position and faced her, frowning. “No. I really don’t. Tell me.”

“What else are they keeping from you?” she said in disbelief.

“What happened?” I asked, an edge to my voice now.

“Your father executed the king right in front of Claude and his mother, then he imprisoned the queen after charging her with a war crime for slaughtering civilian humans. He plucked out anyone in positions of power to win the war. Claude barely survived. I thought they spared him because he was a child, but the more I learn about your father, I think Claude surviving was an accident.”

“That can’t be right. My father said we had nothing to do with your king’s death— why would he lie to me about that? And where would he even keep the queen imprisoned? How would I not know about that at all?”

Adora made a face. “It sounds like your father hid many things from you, Cleo. Is this really that surprising to you?”

My mind raced. But why would my father lie about that? I tried to think of any reason why he would, but couldn’t come up with anything. Was it because I already felt upset about all the other vampires he killed? It couldn’t be that. He’d never made any kind of attempt to avoid bragging about his other kills. Wouldn’t the death of Caelum be something he flaunted?

My stomach tumbled. This wasn’t something trivial he’d hidden from me. Especially considering he’d sent me to Maiestas Regia. I had a bad feeling about this. Whatever reason he had for doing that couldn’t bode well for me. “When did that happen?” I asked Adora.

“Ten years ago. At the end of the Blood War.”

“But that’s about the same time Cyrios was killed.”

“Yeah, only a few months after. I know we were young back then, but I still remember how shaken up my mom was. Especially since right after the queen was imprisoned.”

I tried not to think about the fact Claude lost three family members in a matter of a few months. No wonder he had it out for me. No wonder he couldn’t trust me. I didn’t even know. I just shamelessly wore his grandfather’s bones as a fashion accessory because my father told me to.

My father, who somehow kept the fact he had someone imprisoned from me. Did he hide that just from me? Or my mom, too? My sister? Did he hide secrets from all of us?

Groaning, I rubbed my hands over my face. “Who’s on the throne now then?”

“The king regent Nadir. Claude is technically of age, but he has to finish school before he can inherit the crown.”

“If my father released the queen from prison, would she take the throne again?”

“I think so. No one believes she’s guilty of what your father accused her of. I knew the queen personally. She isn’t— she would never do that. The late king may not have been the nicest person, but Queen Sura is someone from a fairy tale. Strong and endlessly kind. She held nothing against anyone, not even hunters. She would never massacre innocent human civilians. Never.”

Adora’s voice grew louder with conviction, and the muscles of her face tensed. I could tell the queen meant a lot to her— and that there wasn’t even a small part of her that believed the queen was guilty. I knew very little of the queen. In fact, I knew very little of the royal family in general. My father never spoke of them. And now I was suspecting it was on purpose. The more I thought about it, the more obvious it became. Flat out denials when it came to providing me with the materials to study about the family, avoidance of any topic about them, the disdain he held for royalty itself…

But… why?

“I wish I could talk to my father,” I said.

Adora wrinkled her nose. “Really? You’ll have a chance soon, though.”

“What? How?”

“Friends and Family day. It’s in two weeks. Your family is invited. They’re taking a lot of precautions, though.”

“Friend and Family day?” I repeated, feeling my blood turn cold. My father wouldn’t attend, would he? No, of course he would. He wouldn’t give up a chance to check on my progress. What would happen when he found out I didn’t have any new information? What would he do when I found out I didn’t want to continue investigating?

Suddenly my plan of not following his orders didn’t sound so appealing. I hadn’t been prepared to see my father so soon. I thought I wouldn’t have to face him until Christmas at the earliest, but I’d also secretly hoped it wouldn’t be until the end of the academic year when my time at the academy was already up.

“Cleo?”

I jerked my head toward her. “Huh?”

Her eyebrows pinched together. “Are you okay?

“No… I just…” I trailed off, unsure of what to say. “I’m just thinking of a good way to bring this up to him. Why he didn’t tell me any of this.”

“You don’t think he sent you here for some other reason than the peace treaty, do you?”

My heart leaped into my throat. I couldn’t lie to Adora, but I couldn’t tell her the truth either. “I… I don’t know.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if he had. But I know you will do what you think is right, Cleo.” Adora reached for my hand, squeezing it. “I know you’re different.”

“Why do you have so much faith in me?”

“It’s hard to explain. I just knew when I first saw you there was something different about you.”

“What did I do to make you think that? I only said hi to you.”

She grinned. “Nah, that’s not the first time I saw you. It was a few years ago. My mom and I came to your estate.”

“You came to my house?”

“Yeah, and I was a seriously nosy little kid.” She paused. “Actually, I’m still pretty nosy. But anyway, I’d heard Gerard had a daughter my age and at the risk of finding a vampire hunter who probably wanted to kill me, I went looking for you. And you know what I found?”

I was positive I’d never seen Adora before coming to the academy, so it couldn’t be me she found. I shook my head.

“A little girl talking to a dummy in the shape of a vampire, apologizing for what her sister had done to it. Talking to it like it was her only friend in the world.”

Memories of the dummy that smelled like mothballs and damp earth entered my mind. Yes, I knew exactly what Adora was talking about— fondly nicknamed Quin. My sister always made fun of me for feeling bad for it whenever we used it for target practice. Maybe it was silly to feel affectionate toward inanimate objects, but I couldn’t help it. Attacking anything that resembled a person didn’t feel right.

“That sounds like me,” I admitted.

Adora grinned. “It was. After that, I had my mom start asking about you to indulge my curiosity about you. Each time we made a visit to your estate, I’d seek you out.”

“How did I never notice you?”

“Sneaking around is my specialty. Your sister caught me a couple of times though.”

“Did she?”

“Narrowly avoided one or two daggers chucked at me.”

My mouth fell open. “What? Kieran threw daggers at you?”

Adora nodded. “She’s definitely not as nice as you, that’s for sure.”

“How come you never just came up to say hi to me?”

Her cheeks went pink. “Well, I could never get the courage up to do that. My mom also didn’t want me to approach you. Just because you might have attacked me, didn’t mean someone else wouldn’t. Your sister for example.”

“No wonder you acted like you knew me when we first met,” I remarked, smiling at her.

“Yeah, sorry,” she mumbled, dipping her chin down. “I hope I’m not coming across like some creepy stalker.”

“No way. I think it’s sweet. Back then, I really struggled with loneliness. I’m used to it now, but as a child it was hard. To know that someone was out there wanting to be my friend, caring about me even if in some distant way, it makes me happy. Thank you, Adora.”

Adora’s eyes widened, the blush creeping down to her neck now. “W-what? You don’t need to thank me!”

I pursed my lips, grabbing the armrests of her chair and yanking it closer to me so that our knees were touching. “You better not stop sneaking off to see me when I return home now that I know. Promise me.” I held up my pinky.

Adora wrinkled her nose cutely, but still hooked her pinky around mine. “So childish.”

“Now press your thumb to mine. That’s sealing the promise.”

“There. Pink promise secured.”

I let go of her hand. “Now you can’t break it. I expect you to come up and say hi, too.”

“What if you didn’t have to go back?”

“What do you mean?”

“Like if you had a choice. Would you go back to live with your father?”

“Why wouldn’t I go back? That’s my house.”

“But your father abuses you—” she blurted, then snapped her lips shut, covering her mouth. A panicked expression crossed her face.

A feeling of dread settled over me. Air felt trapped in my throat. I struggled to speak. “Why would you say that?”

As if she decided the reservations she had for cutting herself short evaporated, she leaned forward, speaking quickly. “You can’t deny it, Cleo. I’ve witnessed it. Not even attempting to avoid hitting you while you train together, making you keep going until you pass out, making you run with an injured ankle. Locking you in that dingy shed for days at a time? That’s not normal or okay—”

I stood up abruptly from my seat, startling her. Heat coursed through me, but I wasn’t sure from what. “What are you talking about, Adora? All that was done to make sure I’d be protected from vampires. That’s not— not what you think it is.”

Adora stood up too. “Cleo, you have been trapped for so long you don’t even know what’s right and wrong.”

“Trapped? I lived with my family. I wasn’t trapped. My father is tough, yeah, I know, but that’s all. He just wants me to be able to stick up for myself.”

“Then how come your sister never had to do any of that?”

“You don’t know everything just because you spied on me every now and again. My sister trained just as hard, too.”

“You have to see the difference between you two,” Adora said, her voice rising in pitch. “I know it’s hard to accept—”

“I’m hungry,” I cut her off. “I’m going to go to the cafeteria.”

“Cleo.”

“You can stay here. I’ll be fine.”

“Cleo, no. Wait.” She reached out and grabbed my elbow, stopping me. “You can’t go alone.”

I turned my face from her. “I’m fine.”

“I’m sorry for over-stepping,” she continued. “Forget I said anything, okay?”

How could I forget? Now I understood the looks she’d given me when we first met. It felt like cold water was trickling down my spine. She didn’t understand. Maybe my father took things a little far at times, but it was only because I didn’t do my best. I learned from it. I became stronger. I wasn’t being abused. This just came with growing up in the Levant family.

Had she said anything to anyone else about me? I thought about Kaz’s kindness. Was that because of this too? They thought what? That I just sat there and let my father hit me? That I wouldn’t defend myself if I felt like my life was in danger or he was doing something wrong?

Swallowing, I shook my wrist out of Adora’s grasp. I felt my hands shaking as I headed for the door, grabbing the doorknob. Why was I having this reaction? Like I was ashamed. I wasn’t embarrassed of anything. Nothing was wrong, even if Adora didn’t agree. We just grew up different. That was all.

I yanked open the door and stepped out, smacking straight into something solid. My nose bumped the metal button of a uniform jacket and I backed up, turning my head up to see Claude. All the warmth rushed out of me, replaced with an icy chill.

His jaw twitched almost imperceptibly. I then remembered the wound on his chest.

“Sorry,” I choked out.

Adora stepped up next to me, angling herself so she stood half-way between me and him. “Why are you here?”

“I have something to discuss with her.”

“Me?” I said.

“Alone,” Claude said pointedly, sharp gaze fixing on Adora.