Power.
There was that word again. I leaned forward in my seat. I had that feeling of a nascent idea dancing on the edge of my consciousness. Like, if I only peered harder at Alcántara, listened more closely, some essential truth would drift into my mind like a red balloon.
“The first lesson of assassination is discretion. The word has two meanings, does it not? The first is caution. On a mission, you rely on discretion to remain unseen, invisible to those around you. Hidden in plain sight. ”
I thought of the book Carden had given me and its secret hiding place. Unobserved, unnoticed…I was well acquainted with the concept, on all kinds of levels.
“And the second meaning?” He raised his brows as though one of us might like to pipe up with the answer, but we kept our mouths shut—we’d seen how Frost had been given the shutdown. “I will tell you. It is choice. ”
I bit my cheek, seriously doubting we’d ever have any choice in anything on this island, but sure, I’d give him the point for argument’s sake. The elaborate wordplay was so like Master Al, who was scholarly to the point of aggravation.
“Discretion implies preference,” he explained. “Inclination. Elements with which your future assignments will be rife. You will need to know the how of a job. When, where. And, sometimes, there
is a choice…to act or not to act? These things you must answer for yourselves. Perhaps you’ll make a decision your classmate does not; perhaps your subtle alteration will be the thing that keeps you alive and the thing that finds them dead.
“We will study a history of assassination and thus learn through example. Through the successes—and mistakes—of others. And I have a surprise, my dear Initiates. ” His lips curled into a smile, those coal-dark eyes dancing with a cruel bemusement that chilled me. “To make this more real, less of an academic endeavor, as a part of your curriculum, you will receive a top-secret assignment. ”
The classroom was so quiet, I could hear the breathing of the girl next to me. The silence told me I wasn’t the only one who knew that, on this island, top-secret assignments were often a clever way to cut class size, generally resulting in a more favorable student-teacher ratio. Meaning: Acari who got special assignments often found themselves dead.
“Perhaps it will be a treat for some of you,” he went on, and that chilling smile turned into an all-out grin. “You will each be assigned a Trainee, one of the young men from among our newest recruits. You will eliminate your Trainee, using skills learned in this class. ”
A hand shot up. “You mean, we have to kill someone? Like, for class credit?”
“You must kill someone,” he confirmed. “An assassination…like, for class credit. ” His lip curled, speaking to his distaste for her diction. “Moreover, you will not disclose your target to anyone. ”
“We get to kill one of the guys?” A couple girls high-fived one another.
Wow. Did these girls have no clue? I’d killed before, and each time it stole a part of my soul. Maybe these girls simply lacked humanity altogether, and that was how they’d found themselves on this island in the first place.
“I ask that your project be thoughtfully executed. Extra credit is given for kills that move me. I appreciate the…poetic. ”
I shuddered. I wanted to drop my head, to cradle my forehead in my palm like the girl in front of me was doing. But I knew better than to show emotion and kept my face a cold blank, eyes glued to Alcántara.
His cold, black gaze shot to mine. His lips were a straight line, but somehow I could detect a smile in his eyes.
“What happens if we can’t do it?” one of the other Initiates asked, and someone clarified, “Like, if the Trainee fights back?”
His eyes shuttered, head swinging to face her. “Then you have failed,” he snapped. “The cost will be your life, presumably at the hands of your assigned Trainee. ” The way he’d said the words made it sound like she were dead already.
Great. Yet another semester wherein failure meant death. You could say I really missed the whole GPA system.
“However,” he added, and my foreboding grew as he let the word hang, “there are rules. You are not to discuss this outside of class. ”
It took a moment for me to get the full implication of this statement. A chill settled over me. I didn’t know what worried me more—that we weren’t allowed to tell anyone what we were doing, or that at this very moment, other students in other classes were being given equally mysterious, equally deadly, tasks.
As though hearing my question, he elaborated. “The boys also have an assignment. ”
I thought of Regina and had a feeling I knew what was coming.
He gave us a patronizing smile. “A selection of Trainees have been told to catch one of you lovelies unawares. To catch you and bite you. So stand warned, queridas. ”
Trainees dropping out of the sky to bite us. Well, that explained that. Regina had been on their list.
Had Yas and Josh had assignments like this last year? The Trainees and their secrets…and they were going to grow into vampires with secrets. Their whole world was shrouded with it, the secrets of men, hidden behind the iron gates of their keep.
Not if I had anything to say about it.
Not if I could infiltrate their world.