Beyond the door at the top of the staircase, the hallway leading in seemed longer than any other hallway in Ravencrest.
The stone walls on either side echoed their footsteps, mingling with Elara’s racing heartbeat.
Every step brought her closer to the answer she’d been waiting for all this time–and for some reason, that was exactly what made her even more afraid.
Kael walked beside her with steady steps, though he couldn’t hide the tension on his face.
Elara stole a glance at him once, trying to find a little peace there, but all she saw was Kael’s tense jaw.
The door opened before they had even knocked.
Inside, the light glowed dimly along the tall bookshelves that lined the walls, and the air felt warmer than in the hallway they had just walked through.
Magnus sat behind his spacious desk, papers neatly arranged.
Elara swallowed hard.
The room felt too quiet for a conversation she suspected wouldn’t be pleasant.
Magnus didn’t give them a second to catch their breath.
As soon as Elara reached his desk, he spoke immediately, “I’d like to ask you one thing first, Elara.”
Elara’s heart began to race as she heard the sudden seriousness in Magnus’s voice.
“Yes, Headmaster,” she replied awkwardly.
Magnus smiled briefly.
“Just call me Magnus.” Then his expression turned serious again.
“When you were in the forest, do you remember what that vampire said?”
Elara blinked a few times.
The vampire’s appearance alone was enough to make the hair on her arms stand on end.
She tried to recall everything the vampire had said, but her memories felt hazy and jumbled, like a nightmare she’d deliberately pushed far from her mind.
She couldn’t remember much because she’d been too scared at that moment.
“I don’t really remember the details of what he said.
I only remember him saying that just a little of my blood could keep him comfortable for years.”
Magnus nodded in understanding, but no explanation followed, and that only made Elara even more anxious.
Elara glanced at Kael, searching his expression for a clue.
Kael was also staring intently at her, as if weighing something he couldn’t bring himself to say.
That uncertainty made Elara’s chest feel tight.
She added, half-hoping someone would explain, “To be honest, I don’t know why my blood attracts vampires so much.”
This time Magnus frowned in surprise, and that reaction stung, like she’d just been caught not knowing something she should have.
The vague anxiety she’d been feeling now turned into something more tangible.
“Should I have known?” Elara asked, her voice quieter than she intended.
Kael sighed softly.
“Ever since she fainted, she’s been acting like an idiot–and I can’t exactly explain things to her, because other people would hear us.”
Elara gently nudged Kael in the side, frowning in annoyance. Follow the newest chapters on g.com.
A mix of embarrassment and frustration flushed her cheeks.
“Shut up.”
Kael didn’t care.
His gaze swept around the stone-walled room, alert as always.
“But I think we’re safe here, right?
Can you explain it to her, Magnus?”
Magnus smiled once more, though his beard and long hair made him look almost villainous.
But the calm on his face did nothing to ease Elara’s nerves.
Instead, she felt even more trapped between two people who seemed to know more about her than she knew about herself.
“It’s normal for her to lose her memory after you hit her head that hard.” He looked at Kael with a smirk.
“So you’re the one who knocked me out?” Anger surged so quickly, the heat spreading all the way to the tips of Elara’s ears.
She would have exploded if she hadn’t remembered whom she was facing at that moment.
“Technically, I wasn’t the one who hit her head, Magnus.
I just threw her to the ground; she was the one who slammed her head hard against the ground.
So it’s not my fault.”
Elara stared at Kael for a long time, her jaw tight as she held back her anger.
Her hands curled into fists at her sides.
She’d have to settle the score with Kael later–but not now, not in front of Magnus.
She took a slow breath, forcing herself to refocus on why they were here.
“It’s up to you guys.” Magnus leaned back in his chair, then looked directly at Elara.
“I want you to understand the situation, but before that, you need to know what’s inside your body.”
Magnus pointed his index finger at Elara.
“A rare kind of blood flows through your veins.
Until now, no one has been able to explain where it comes from or how you came to have it.
A single sip of your blood can quench a vampire’s thirst for months.
It can also enhance their strength.
Vampires call your blood ‘perfect blood.'”
Elara felt her whole body go numb.
Those words echoed in her head, too overwhelming to take in all at once.
All this time, she’d simply thought she was unlucky to be in the wrong place.
It had never crossed her mind that her own blood was such a prized target.
“My blood must have come from my parents.
Are they just like me?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper.
Magnus shook his head.
He rose from behind his desk and stood directly in front of Elara and Kael, his figure towering in the dim light.
“Your parents are just normal humans.
That’s why all of Ordovia considers you special.
Because they can’t figure out where your blood comes from, all they know is what it can do for them.”
Another question hung on the tip of Elara’s tongue: if that’s the case, where does this blood actually come from?
But she didn’t get a chance to say it.
Kael interrupted impatiently.
“Uhm, about that.
Right now, besides the royal family, no one is allowed to take your blood.
So we’re in a critical situation–”
Magnus cleared his throat, glancing at his top student.
“You really are impatient.” He sighed softly before continuing, and that pause alone was enough to send a chill down Elara’s spine.
“So, Elara–about what we found yesterday in the western forest–there was indeed a crack that the vampire managed to get through.
We can’t conclude that the vampire actually made it inside Ravencrest, since there’s no trace of it.
But we can say that at some point, that’s where a vampire from outside met with someone from inside Ravencrest.”
Elara’s breath caught in her throat.
“So it’s true–there’s an intruder in here, targeting my blood?”
“I didn’t say that.
We haven’t found any clear evidence yet.
Since there’s no solid evidence, I hope you’ll all stay on high alert for now.”
“Those traces were erased on purpose–someone did it deliberately.
And whoever did it knew what they were doing; that’s not a skill just anyone in Ravencrest has.
It sure wasn’t a werewolf’s work, either.
You know what that means, right?”
Magnus fell silent upon hearing Kael’s words.
His smile faded, replaced by an unreadable expression.
The room was quiet for a moment–only the sound of wood crackling softly in the fireplace as it burned, and the pounding of Elara’s own heart, which felt so loud in her ears.
She looked closely at Magnus’s face, searching for something that could reassure her that everything would be all right, but she found nothing there to ease her mind.
Instead, the opposite seemed to be true–as if Kael’s suspicion had already crossed Magnus’s own mind, and he wasn’t ready to admit it.
That suspicion crept slowly into Elara’s chest, cold and unsettling.
Elara glanced at Kael, who was staring sharply at Magnus.
For the first time since entering this room, she wondered–if Magnus, supposedly the most reliable person in Ravencrest, couldn’t give her a convincing answer, who else could?
A power stone would mean the world to me.
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