All eyes landed on me. I didn’t care, though. They could stare all they wanted. Screw them. Screw this island. I was over it. Done.
Judge was dead. Nice, decent, smart Judge. And now Carden was going to be right behind him, accused of crimes he didn’t commit. Carden, whose eyes crinkled at the corners when he smiled. Who called me ridiculous names. Who might have been an all-powerful vampire, but he talked to me, confided in me. Softened for me.
He’d be staked unless I did something about it.
Talk about a no-brainer—I would do something about it.
Carden hadn’t killed anybody, least of all Tracer Judge. How could he have? He’d been with me all night. Only there was no way to come forward as his alibi without outing our relationship.
That bastard Alcántara had something to do with it—I just knew he did. And now he wanted Carden dead.
Screw that. Screw the Directorate. Screw them.
Mei leaned over to whisper in my ear, “Are you okay?”
I startled and made myself nod. It was all I could manage at the moment. I turned and left, blind and deaf to her and everyone else.
Guilt swamped me. If it weren’t for me, Carden wouldn’t even be here now. It had to be up to me to fix it.
Someone was on a killing spree, and it wasn’t Carden.
I’d deal with this. I’d help him. I needed to think. First things first. I couldn’t call attention to myself. I needed to act normal. I’d go about my usual business and come up with a plan. What day was it? I’d go to class.
Wednesday. Combat Medicine day.
But Judge was the teacher and he was dead. Knowing the vamps, though, they’d have another teacher installed in there immediately, as though Judge had never existed.
Combat Medicine, then. I headed that way, knowing I’d need every ounce of discipline to sit in the classroom and act like I was paying attention as every girl stared at me. As Carden festered in a cell somewhere. As I pretended not to care.
Masha was leaning against the door to the sciences building as I entered. “Wonderful news,” she said, smiling brightly.
“Fabulous news,” I replied, grinning a little wildly. Was I having a psychotic break? I felt sort of giddy and unhinged. Kind of nuts. I’d worked myself into a lather as I’d walked across the quad. Whoever did this was going down. I’d take them down.
By the strange expression on Masha’s face, my manic reply had confused and freaked her out a little. Good. I’d take her down, too.
And the thing was, in my heart of hearts, this intense, self-effacing focus felt saner than I’d ever been.
Ronan was at the front of the class—of course. He was the likeliest temporary replacement for Judge. Seeing him standing there, though, alone and holding himself so stiffly, I felt a pang.
“Sorry,” I whispered as I passed him on the way to my seat. And I was. Ronan and Judge had been close. He’d lost so many people—more than I had. I couldn’t fathom it. Couldn’t fathom why he stuck around. But like all of us, he had his reasons.
But then I messed up and heard myself add, “Carden didn’t do it. ” It’d sounded more vehement than I’d intended.
Ronan only looked at me with flat, dead eyes.
I took my seat.
I couldn’t think about Ronan just then. I felt bad, but if I were to do any good, I needed to numb myself.
I needed a plan. Investigating Trinity’s death had been a dead end. All I’d discovered was that there were two men on the island, probably vampires, who may or may not have been German and who might or might not be involved. Their words ran in a loop in my head. Is he in control? They grow reckless.
I didn’t know what to do with that. As I sat, waiting for class to start, I made a mental list of what I did know.
Alcántara was behind Carden’s arrest, which meant he wanted Carden dead. That probably also meant the whole Directorate wanted Carden dead. But why?
Acari Kate had seen something on that cliff top the day she fell, and something about that whole episode nagged at me.
Carden was imprisoned somewhere. My guess was the castle on the hill. Which led me to…