“Why carve them open when we can plainly see they’ve died of ‘natural’ causes?” he asked. “Hmm?”

Eager hands shot into the air like fireworks, exploding with the need to answer and prove themselves, ready to outshine their peers. The prince glanced around the room, sizing up the competition. There was an edge to him today. It was one of the first times I’d seen him show more than a passing spark of interest. Percy ignored them all, turning his attention on the one student who was distracted.

“Mr. Cresswell? Do you have any thoughts on the matter?”

Thomas, unsurprisingly, was a hand space away from being face-first in his cadaver, ignoring everyone and everything except for his scalpel and the cadaver. I watched the line of skin part under his blade as if it were a wave pulling back from the shore. He snatched up toothed forceps from his tray, inspected them, then went about the task of exposing the viscera, humming quietly. The tune was rather upbeat and jaunty given what he was doing. I raised a brow. Perhaps he had a bit too much passion for his work. Percy didn’t bother interrupting. He’d learned rather quickly that Thomas was a force unto himself while in the laboratory.

“Prince Nicolae?”

I forced my gaze to land back on Nicolae. He chewed his bottom lip, attention transfixed by the specimen before him. “We need to prove if they’ve died naturally. Unless we inspect them, there’s no other way of knowing for certain.”

“Partly true. Anyone else?”

Andrei swung his scalpel as if it were a sword and he the most inept defender the kingdom had ever known. Noah, distracted by Andrei’s antics, ducked away from the fool. The Bianchi twins were no better than Thomas—their gazes were wholly fixed on the bodies before them, their scalpels already making precise incisions. Cian and Erik both raised their hands, staring each other down in the process. One boy was like fire and the other ice—neither pleasant for anyone exposed to them for an extended period of time.

“So we can understand disease and its effects on the body?” Erik said.

“Sometimes. Should we always open up specimens for no good reason, then?” Percy asked.

Cian nearly tumbled from his seat in his haste to answer. “No, sir. Postmortems aren’t necessary for all. Only those who die under suspicious circumstances.”

“Thank you, Mr. Farrell. Mr. Branković, kindly put your scalpel down. It’s not a weapon. You’re going to hurt or maim someone. Most likely yourself. Anyone else have something more to offer?”

I raised my hand. Percy nodded at me, his gaze steady.

“Go on, Miss Wadsworth.”

“Because, sir, as in the case of the deceased before me, who clearly died in water, one might think he simply drowned or died of hypothermia. Conducting a postmortem is the only way to be sure of his cause of death.”

“Good. Very good. And what will studying his innards tell us?”

“It will alert us as to why he may have fallen in the water. There may be a preexisting condition—perhaps he had a heart attack. Or an aneurysm.”

“Or perhaps he’d had one too many spirits because it’s so bloody cold,” Nicolae added, coaxing nervous laughter from Noah and Erik. When the prince’s attention shifted to me, an uncomfortable chill trickled down my spine. It was hard to forget the drawings he’d done of me. Or the illustrated threats that had been made to the royal family. His family.

“Prince Nicolae, keep the jesting outside the dissecting chamber. It’s in poor taste. Miss Wadsworth, very good. Foul play might also be a factor. That’s precisely why it’s important to inspect each body thoroughly. One may never know what secrets we’ll uncover when we dare to plunge into less… pleasant places.”

Thomas leaned close and whispered. “He’s a bit odd, that one.”

“Says the young man who missed his name being called out because he was too taken with his cadaver,” I whispered back. “Percy’s no stranger than you or I or Uncle. You’re only envious that I’m his favorite.”

Thomas flicked his attention to me, but before he could dazzle me with a retort, I plunged my blade into my cadaver’s icy flesh, ignoring the deep blue discoloring and protruding eyes as I carved down to the rib cage. I fought with everything I had to see the corpse as it was, and not something staring coolly back at me, inconvenienced by the blade in my grasp.

Its torso was bloated, along with the rest of the body, making it rather difficult to find identifying features. I swallowed a bit of revulsion down, unwilling to cower when this cadaver needed respect.

I closed my eyes briefly and then inspected his heart, noting that all appeared normal before walking around to his head and pulling an eyelid back. There was no sign of petechial hemorrhaging in the whites of his eyes. This man had not been smothered or strangled before falling into the water, then. He likely had lost his life to the harsh mountain elements and hypothermia, not to some sinister cause. It was not the best way to go. Certainly not the most pleasant way either. I hoped he hadn’t suffered long—though I still had much to learn regarding hypothermia and its characteristics.

Glancing around the room, I noticed my specimen wasn’t the most foul to be seen. Nicolae had a rather ripe cadaver, its torso bloated and stretched beyond capacity. Little wormlike grayish-black lines crawled over its skin. That wasn’t a good sign. I watched the prince set his face blank as stone, then slice into the body. But his cut was too deep and swift…

Maggots shot from the intestinal area along with a terrible gaseous odor. Nicolae stepped back and swiped the larvae from his brow, hands shaking ever so slightly. His chest expanded and contracted as if he could contain the disgust with a few measured breaths.

Silence descended like a curse. It was an extremely undignified position for a member of royalty to be in, and yet he maintained that air of superiority even with maggots slung over his face. Erik paused, finally glancing up from his own cadaver. He slowly took in the scene, blinking as if it were all a terrible dream, then shrieked, tossing his apron toward the sullied prince.

Though it was hardly funny, I nearly choked on the laughter I swallowed down. Andrei was unable to contain himself even for a moment. He doubled over, laughing so hard he started wheezing. Erik clapped his back as Andrei coughed and sputtered.

Nicolae’s face flushed as Noah and Cian and even the Bianchi twins chuckled. Whether because of the horror of seeing those maggots, or the uncontrollable levity the scene brought, a small giggle of my own finally broke free. The prince stared coolly at me. But instead of lashing out with some obnoxious comment, he wiped the mess from his face and laughed. It was quick and restrained, but still. The action seemed to shatter the tension he’d been carrying since Wilhelm’s death.

Thomas lifted his eyes from the table beside mine, a smile spreading even though he tried taming it. “I’m utterly disgusted, yet can’t turn away.”

Percy strode over to the scene of the maggot attack, his mouth a grim slash of annoyance. “That’s quite enough, class. This is a forensic hall, not a bawdy house. Prince Nicolae, go wash up. Erik…” The professor handed him a new apron, then pointed toward his own teaching table as he addressed us all. “Please sit quietly and observe. If this is too much for your constitution, you may be excused. Class? Do not laugh during a serious scientific exercise. Have some respect for the dead. If this is something none of you are capable of controlling, then I will recommend that none of you make it through this course. Here at the academy, we take our duty seriously and execute it with great dignity. One more outburst and you will all be dismissed. Understood?”

“Yes, Professor,” we all uttered in unison.

We followed Percy to a table holding a specimen covered in a shroud. The fear of being tossed from the assessment course was enough to erase any lingering giggles. Without ceremony, Percy yanked the cloth back, revealing a body that was vaguely familiar. A bit of decomposition made it difficult to place at first and then—

I inhaled sharply, bumping into Erik, who had the nerve to sneer at my reaction as if he hadn’t just screeched at the maggots.

“Apologies.” I stared at the blond woman on the table, bite marks splattered across her flesh, dried blood indicating each wound. I could have sworn the sound of leathery wings echoed in the dissecting chamber. A cloth still covered her face for reasons I dared not ask about.

Thomas went rigid from his place near the corpse’s head, his gaze finding mine and holding it. I prayed our reactions would be thought of as the result of seeing a brutalized woman and not of having recognized her from the tunnels. Something uncomfortable prickled between my shoulder blades, tempting me to turn around and swat it away. I squeezed my eyes shut. If this was another figment of my imagination…

I subtly shifted and glanced behind me. Headmaster Moldoveanu entered the room and tapped a finger against his arm, focus drifting from the body on the table to my pinched expression. Deep in my bones I knew with certainty that he’d read the recognition on my face.

I pretended not to notice and wondered if Thomas was doing the same. I stole a glance at him, but he was watching the prince closely. I assumed he was trying to discern if Nicolae had already been acquainted with this cadaver.

Thomas finally noticed Moldoveanu just as the headmaster turned on his heel and left. He made no sound and yet it felt as if gongs were banging in my ears at his departure.

“This unidentified woman was discovered in the morgue before class, in one of the cadaver drawers,” Percy said. “The body has been drained of most of its blood. Bite marks are present over much of her person. Seems as if someone moved her there to keep her cold and to slow decomposition. We have a most intriguing case to crack, class.”

Percy had no idea how correct he was.

TOWER CHAMBERS

CAMERE DIN TURN

BRAN CASTLE

14 DECEMBER 1888

I bolted upright, blinking away the fang-toothed images my subconscious had created from darkness.

Moonlight streaked down the curtains in rivulets and pooled on the floor like a silver waterfall. A chill lay tangled in the sheets around me, but the cold wasn’t what had roused me from sleep. Sweat coated my skin in dewy patches—somehow my nightgown had untied itself, exposing more of my collarbone than was decent.