New Blood by Lara Lynwood

Author:Lara Lynwood [Lara Lynwood]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lara Lynwood
Published: 2023-08-06T00:00:00+00:00

twelve

Discussion

The conversation petered out again after that. We’d hit a dead end, yet again. We were pretty much back where we’d started, except now I suspected that somehow Nathanael’s quest to create dhampir was involved. It had all happened before he had realised I was alive, after all.

That was one day gone by out of the week we’d been given, and we were still no further towards figuring out how to take down Irving. At this rate, we might as well hand the whole thing over to the Architrave, and damn the consequences.

It was genuinely tempting, just for a moment. Until I remembered the root of the whole problem. The trainees, the Guild orphans – the ones who Irving might well send out into a fight, if it came down to that. I had to do everything I could to avoid putting them at risk, even if I wasn’t technically part of the Guild any more.

Well. Even if we hadn’t achieved anything useful today, I could at least see if I could solve any other problems.

“Simone,” I said. “Can I talk to you for a moment?” I glanced at Felix. “Alone,” I clarified pointedly.

Felix raised an eyebrow.

“Cast out in my own home,” he said dryly. “Am I at least permitted to know what you’re planning to speak to her about?”

I hesitated – I could lie, but it felt wrong.

“It’s private,” I settled on eventually, and Felix heaved a sigh, but left.

I waited until he was entirely out of the room before I turned to Simone. Then I paused, tipped my head to the side, and focused on my hearing as hard as I could. I could make out a faint sigh in the corridor outside, and – was that Felix’s heartbeat? What the fuck. I could hear heartbeats now, apparently. I decided I wasn’t going to examine that too deeply, and listened just long enough to be certain that Felix had gone well out of earshot.

“Simone,” I said. “What do you know about imprints?”

She stilled, her eyes flicking towards the door Felix had just left through.

“This is about Felix,” she said, her tone wary.

She knew? Well, I supposed she must do. I still wasn’t sure how old either of them were, but when Simone had directed me to Felix in the first place, I’d thought even then that she wouldn’t have sent me there unless she knew why he had been cast out of the Academy. Had she been at the Academy at the same time as Felix? Or earlier, or later? That was a question for another time. For now I just nodded.

“They don’t make him a danger to you,” she said, and all I could do was blink in confusion. Apparently Simone didn’t realise how thrown I was, because she continued, “I don’t know how much you know about what happened, but it was a one-off. There are mitigating circumstances –”

I held up hand, cutting her off. “I know,” I said. “Felix told me… Well, maybe not everything. But the story of what happened that day, he told me that.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.