“I’m looking for books on Collweya.”
“This way,” the cat said and led us up the ramp and into an alcove of books. “Here you will find everything we have.”
“Thanks,” Legacy said as I had already begun browsing the shelves. My fingers slid along silver and gold lettering.
Legacy started on the opposite side of the small room as me. “What if the person who killed Finnick is just one of us and had weapons or even slightly shaped shifted to be part animal?”
She’d seen what I did and we hadn’t really talked about it. In the past week she’d dealt with it in her own way but she didn’t feel the guilt that I did. She didn’t blame herself like I did.
I considered her words, it hadn’t occurred to me it could have been a shapeshifter. Someone who could use magic to become something else. If that were true, it would have to be someone very talented. But I hadn’t told her about my other vision that involved the princes and myself, where I’d seen the human faces and red eyes of what I assumed to be hostile killers, and nothing about them looked animalistic. No claws on their perfect hands, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t have sharp predatory teeth.
“True but you heard those professors from Collweya saying they suspected something followed them from the cold north. So it sounded to me like it wasn’t just someone using magic.”
Legacy nodded slowly. “They mentioned a wolf, what if it’s part wolf by nature? I could just ask Aric and save us the time.”
“If you ask Aric,” I said pulling a book that looked promising by the title Creatures of the Dark, “that will lead to more questions about why we were there when Finnick died.”
“Aric wouldn’t tell anyone.”
I ignored her and sat down at the small round table. Flipping through the pages I saw many frightening sketches of terrifying things with claws and teeth and scales and stuff of nightmares, as Aric had once said but then I stopped at the beautiful face of what appeared to be perfectly human woman, and the only thing of color in the sketch was her red eyes. “You don’t need to ask him.”
“You found something?” She leaned over my shoulder.
I read aloud: “Corsea Bludara.”
“Blood drinkers,” Legacy said in a quiet voice.
I didn’t read the rest aloud because the page was full, and with Legacy leaning over me, she could read it herself.
Blood drinkers or vampires, as they are known in Collweya, are thought to be survivors from the previous civilization who founded the place under the protected dome. It’s suspected that dark magic created these beings and eventually they killed the spell castors and then each other except for a small group of survivors who integrated with our recent founders in secret.
In most physical aspects they appear human. Major differences include:
Drink blood to survive
Thrive in the dark
Skin burns and withers to ashes in prolonged sunlight exposure
Enhanced speed and strength
Fangs that only appear before they bite
Cold blooded
Eyes may turn red after a feeding
It is very difficult to distinguish a vampire from a human. Some clues: they only come out at night. They will try to lure unsuspecting victims with their beauty and seduction. There have been reports of some blood drinkers able to walk freely in the sunlight with the help of a spell. Said blood drinkers will be marked on their skin by the magic somewhere on their body.
My heart seized and nausea flared in my gut at the last sentence, and when I looked up at Legacy her face had paled. Her eyes welled with tears and she blinked several times. “He can’t be,” she whispered.
I swallowed hard and looked at the last sentence again. I replayed in my mind every interaction Aric and I had ever had. Every move he’d made, every sparring match, every meal. He didn’t appear to have enhanced strength or speed but that could be controlled—hidden. It only said eyes may turn red. “Let’s not jump to conclusions. Zyacus told me that mark is from a deal Kyria made during the Queens Challenge. She owes a life and they think it will be his.” Then I realized it wasn’t much better to her that her boyfriend was cursed to die so I added, “But he’s alive so we don’t know that for sure either.”
The tears she held back began to fall, and her lip quivered. “What if Zyacus was lying to protect Aric?” Her voice was barely audible through her wavering, breaking voice. “What if… what if…” she couldn’t go on.
My own eyes stung at the possibility she could be right. That Aric was this monster who drinks blood to survive, the person who killed Finnick. Zyacus could have lied, and he had been so adamant on knowing what happened when Aric touched me. He already suspected I had other gifts because of my parents, what if he thought I saw Aric for what he truly was?
I closed the book and replaced it on the shelf. “What are you going to do?”
Shaking her head, Legacy dropped her face into her palms. “I don’t know.” She looked back up at me with a tear-soaked face. “He never felt… cold when I touched him. I just don’t know if he could be one of those things. He’s so—kind.”
I tapped my finger on the hilt of my sword. “Cold blooded animals aren’t always cold. Their bodies adjust to the temperature of their environment.” I pursed my lips for a moment. “Literally the only thing we have to suspect is that birthmark—”
“It’s a human skull,” Legacy blurted. “It doesn’t get much more sinister. The blood drinkers who can go into daylight will be marked by magic. That’s what the book said.”
I didn’t want to admit she was right. “Maybe we should give it some time before—”
“No, I’m breaking up with him and then we can tell Madison and your Papa what he is.”
I shook my head. “I already told her my suspicions and she doesn’t think he’s a monster. If we want to figure it out, we’re on our own.” Without another word, Legacy hurried out of the book cove and started down the ramp. I jogged after her. “You’re breaking up with him right now?”
The glare on her face would have been answer enough. “Yes, I can’t kiss someone, or even be near someone that may have murdered Finnick right in front of us and then pretended like nothing happened. Thankfully we don’t have classes together.”
“What are you going to tell him?”
Her face was set in a rage and I didn’t think there was any convincing her that we could be wrong. “I’ll tell him that it’s over. Period. I’m not even going to talk to him in person, I’m sending him a note.”
If we were wrong then Aric would have a broken heart and might be fated to die but if we were right, then my vision when Aric and I touched was more likely to be my death than his. I felt like I might throw up.
∞∞∞
After the whispered spell and paper burned in the flames of the candle, I expected Aric to write back to ask why at the very least, but there was no return note. Maybe he needed more time or maybe he’d approach her in person demanding an explanation. That’s probably what I would do in his situation. All she wrote was:
It’s over between us Aric. Please leave me alone.