“The rest of us will be at the Vampire Court soon enough,” Luca says, “hopefully putting it back together once we oust Cyrus once and for all. So feel free to visit us, too. London’s great.”

“And I’m not going anywhere for a while,” I tell her, wrapping my arm around her from the other side. Then I think of the Crown I have to retrieve…and what I have to do to get it. “Except prison, but that doesn’t count, right?”

Macy laughs, but before she can say anything else, Jaxon walks up—in a pair of jeans and a black T-shirt, sans cap and gown.

“Where’s your stuff?” Macy asks. “The ceremony starts in, like, ten minutes.”

“In my room, where it belongs.”

“You’re not going to wear it at all?” I ask.

“And look like a giant penis?” He eyes the other guys with vague amusement. “I don’t think so.”

“That’s it.” Macy throws up her hands. “I’m totally getting Dad to change the gown color before next year’s ceremony.”

“That’s a year too late,” Luca mutters.

But Macy just rolls her eyes. “Not for me! Besides, better late than never. Now, come on, you guys, squeeze in. I want to take a pic with all of you.”

Jaxon rolls his eyes back at her, but I can’t help noticing that when it comes time to snap the pic, he’s right in the middle of the group—and he’s got a tight-as-fuck hold on both Hudson and me.

I can tell Hudson notices, too, because, despite everything, his hold on his brother is just as strong.

“It’s going to be okay,” I whisper, and even as I say the words, I don’t know if I’m talking to Jaxon or the universe or myself. I only know that when the wind kicks up and swirls the words away, I can’t help thinking that maybe—just maybe—we’ll make it through this if we can all just hold on to the fact that we really do love one another. And that the only people we need to fight are on the other side.

“Okay! I’ve got the pic!” Macy shouts excitedly.

“No, you don’t,” I tell her.

She looks confused. “What do you mean?”

“I mean it’s not the pic unless you’re in it. So get over here and let’s do this thing.”

Macy blushes in delight, even as she blinks back tears. And then we all crowd in around her as tightly as we can as she holds up the camera.

“When I count to three, say ‘Fuck Cyrus’ as loud as you can,” she tells us. “One, two, three!”

“Fuck Cyrus!” we all shout, and she takes the pic.

And as I open it up a couple of minutes later and stare at the eight smiling faces, I pray to the universe as hard as I can that somehow, someway, we all make it through what’s to come in one piece…and together.

104

Carpe Seize-Em

The graduation ceremony is surprisingly…anticlimactic. I don’t know what I was expecting—maybe a Golden Drake salute, like we saw at the dragon festival? Or witches lighting the place up?

Instead, it is dignified and orderly and basically like every other graduation in the world. Which I get. How exciting can you make a ceremony that involves walking across the stage to get a fake piece of paper that you later have to turn in to get your real piece of paper? Yeah, ours is printed on two-hundred-year-old papyrus, but other than that, I figure it’s pretty close to the ceremony I would have had in San Diego. Except here I have a lot more friends…and a lot more enemies.

After taking another round of pics—this time with most of their families—my friends and I head back to the castle. Since graduation had to take place at dusk to accommodate the vampires, Uncle Finn has a family dinner planned for Macy, him, and me; then tonight is the grad night that everyone says should be freaking fantastic…not to mention filled with all the paranormal spectacle graduation lacked.

I’m planning on checking my troubles at the door and having an amazing time, considering none of us has any idea what tomorrow will bring. And considering that, so far, Cyrus and Delilah have been on their best behavior today.

Which means it’s just a matter of time before the other shoe drops.

I’m about halfway to the castle when Hudson makes his way over to me. And, not going to lie, there’s a part of me that’s super excited he sought me out…and another part of me that just wants to run away as fast as I can. After last night, I don’t know what to say to him—or even if there is anything to say. I do know that I don’t want to fall for him any more than I already have…and I don’t want him to fall for me any more, either. This is already going to be hard enough.

The heat from the mating bond is still there, combined with the friendship and respect we’ve built up over the last few weeks… I don’t know. I don’t know how this is going to work, how we’re supposed to be together but not be together.

It was easier before New York, easier before he’d kissed me and touched me and… So much easier that I almost wish it hadn’t happened. Almost. Because the truth is that no matter what happens next, I wouldn’t trade those hours in New York for anything. Lying in Hudson’s arms, listening to him talk about everything and nothing…knowing it’s never going to happen again makes it even harder to look at him.

“Hey,” he says after we’ve walked several feet together in awkward silence.

“Hey,” I answer back. “Thank you for the flowers. They were beautiful.”

“I’m glad you liked them,” he answers, glancing at me out of the corner of his eye.

“I loved them.” I clear my throat, searching for the right words to say. In the end, all I can come up with is, “I’m sorry.”

“Nothing for you to be sorry about,” he tells me.

“That’s not true,” I say, reaching for his hand—then wishing I hadn’t as heat zings back and forth between us like a live wire. “I’ve made a mess of this from the very beginning. I didn’t remember you. I didn’t believe you. I didn’t…”

“Love me?” he asks with a smile that is more resigned than sad.

That’s the thing. I don’t know if I do love him yet, but I’m well past the point of realizing that I could love him…if things were different. If we were different. If this whole messed-up world were different.

“I’m sorry,” I say again, but Hudson just shakes his head.

“I love him, too, you know,” Hudson says, “and I need him to be okay as much as you do—despite his disturbing propensity for wanting me dead and wanting to be the one to kill me at any given moment.”

I laugh because the only other option is to cry, and I’ve already done that. “How’s your throat doing?”

“Vampires heal fast,” he tells me.

I glare at him. “That’s not an answer.”

“Sure it is. In fact—”

He breaks off as Nuri and several of her guards step into our path. “Hudson Vega,” she says, “you’re under arrest by order of the Circle.”

Surprise flashes over his face, but it’s gone between one second and the next. “Seriously, Nuri? Haven’t we done this before?” He fakes a yawn.

“We have,” she agrees with hard eyes. “But this time I came prepared.”

Four of her guards rush him, and seconds later, they slap thick, power-draining cuffs onto both his wrists and his ankles—cuffs that make the bracelets my uncle uses here at Katmere look like a child’s toys.

“Nuri!” Uncle Finn comes racing across the grounds. “Let him go immediately.”

“This isn’t your business, Finn,” she tells him.

“He is one of my students, which makes him my business,” my uncle growls furiously. And I have to admit, I didn’t know Uncle Finn had it in him, but right now he looks like he’s ready to take someone apart with his bare hands.

“Correction,” she tells him with a gleam in her eye that says she’s enjoying this a little too much. “He was your student. As of about half an hour ago, he is a regular citizen.”

“Yes, but you still can’t arrest him on Katmere’s grounds,” I tell her, outraged at her betrayal…and her breaking of the law.

She won’t even look at me when she answers. “The Circle passed a new law late last night. Students who break the law are safe on Katmere Academy grounds only while they are enrolled. The moment that enrollment lapses—through withdrawal or graduation—the school’s protection becomes null and void.”

“That’s bullshit,” Uncle Finn snarls, saving me from telling her the exact same thing. “You can’t change laws and enforce them before you’ve even let people know they’ve changed.”

Uncle Finn lifts his wand and points it at Hudson’s chains.

“Don’t do it, Finn,” Nuri warns him, looking over his head. “You’ll regret what happens if you do.”

I follow her gaze and see Cyrus watching from the edge of the tree line like the bully he is. Nuri gave us a week, but here she is after only three days going back on her word. I know it’s for his benefit, whether it’s because he threatened her or promised her something, I don’t know.

And honestly, I don’t care. Not now when she’s proven, once again, that she can’t be trusted.

“You’re pathetic,” I spit at her, more furious than I’ve ever been in my life.