Chapter 58: Forged in Blood: Chapter 56

“Ibrought supplies.” Cadence shakes a bag of Tate’s chocolate chip cookies.

I pull two glass bottles of soda from my backpack and hold them in the air. “Me too.”

Giggling, she drops into the chair beside me. “Girl, we make such a great team.”

A smile lights up my face. Visiting the library has always been one of my favorite ways to pass an afternoon, but with Cadence, it’s become a hundred times more fun. And after everything the professor told me yesterday, I could do with a distraction. There is no way on earth that I’m one of those elementai beings he spoke of. No way at all.

We’re done with the pledges for today, baby. You need any company? Malachi’s voice in my head fills my stomach with a warm flutter.

I’ve grown used to their presence in my mind—surprisingly fond of it too. They are never far from me, whether in thought or in physical form. I’m okay. Cadence is here, and we’re going to hit the books … and the cookies. Hard.

He laughs. Yeah, cookies are a good idea, you need to keep your energy levels up, baby.

That annoying flush creeps over my cheeks. I dip my head so Cadence won’t see and wonder why the hell I’m blushing simply sitting here in the library.

Stop it! I admonish.

He laughs again. I’ll come pick you up when you’re ready to leave.

I roll my eyes. I can walk home alone. I’m super powerful, apparently.

I don’t doubt it for a second. You already have me and my brothers on our knees for you. But I’m still walking you home. Now, be good, and I’ll see you later.

“Hey, did you hear that?” Cadence interrupts my conversation with Malachi. Did I say any of that aloud? Or even worse, can she read minds? She is a witch, and I still don’t know what kind of powers witches have.

But she frowns and glances over her shoulder.

“No. What was it?”

“Like someone called out.” She shakes her head and turns back to me. “I swear this place is haunted.”

“You think ghosts really exist?” In all my conversations with the guys, I never thought to ask about the existence of ghosts.

“I think there are plenty of things in this world that can’t be seen with our own eyes.” She shrugs. “Doesn’t mean they aren’t real.”

I nod my agreement. “I get exactly what you mean. Like sometimes you can feel something, even though nothing’s there.” I stop talking, afraid I’ll reveal something I shouldn’t. But long before I learned what I am—according to Professor Drakos, anyway—I always felt like something lurked nearby, mysterious and unseen.

Cadence leans closer and drops her voice to a whisper. “Have you ever made anything weird happen and couldn’t explain why?”

My throat feels like it closes over. “Have you?” I croak.

She sucks in a breath. “Kind of. But then I’m …” She glances around us. “Can I trust you, Ophelia? Because my gut tells me I can, but I need to know that you won’t tell just anyone about this.”

I understand her dilemma because I don’t know how to tell her that I share my headspace with three hot vampires without revealing too much about myself.

“Some people might freak out, is all,” she adds.

I take a deep breath and go for it. “You mean nonmagical people?”

She smiles. “So you know about magical beings? I know you hang out with the Ruby commanders, but I wasn’t totally sure if you knew …”

I nod. “I know about witches and vampires and werewolves and the like.”

She grins. “Demons and warlocks too.”

And elementai, I want to add but don’t. “I won’t tell anyone who might freak out. I promise.”

“I’m a witch,” she whispers.

“I knew it!” I mentally fist-pump the air.

“You did? How’s that?”

I blink in confusion, but there’s no hostility in her tone, simply curiosity. “I sensed something in you, I guess.”

She arches an eyebrow. “Because maybe you’re a witch too?”

“I don’t have any powers, though. Why would you think that?”

She tosses her auburn hair over her shoulder. “Like you, I sense something. Some witch’s powers are latent.”

“Latent?”

“Uh-huh. Buried in generations of nonmagical beings. They may not manifest in each generation, but you, Ophelia Hart …” She sucks in air between her teeth. “I can feel your power buzzing just beneath the surface.”

I force a laugh. “I wish I could feel it.”

Cocking her head to the side, she scrutinizes me. “You will. We just need to figure out how to tap into it, is all.”

“Maybe,” I mumble.

She rests her hand on my arm. “Definitely.”

“I guess it’s hard to wrap my head around it when I know so little about the whole magic thing. Until recently, I didn’t know anything like witches even existed, and then I came to Montridge and …” I blow out a breath.

She swivels my chair so I’m facing her. “Well, witches I can tell you about. What do you want to know?”

“I have no clue.” I shrug. “It’s hard to know what you don’t know.”

She arches an eyebrow. “How about I give you the CliffsNotes version?”

I nod eagerly, and over the next thirty minutes, Cadence gives me a brief history of witches. How some of the most powerful can channel magic to live for centuries; how they can only be born to other witches, but the gene can skip generations; and how the most powerful families’ roots can be traced back several millennia.

“Wow!” I shake my head. “I can’t believe I’m nineteen and had no idea that there was a whole other world literally existing alongside us. Magic is real, yet half the world’s population doesn’t have a clue.”

“More like nine-tenths,” Cadence says with a sad smile. “There are far fewer of us now than there were centuries ago. The human population has grown exponentially, but ours declines every generation. Not only witches but …” She snaps her mouth closed and grabs a cookie before biting off a huge chunk, like she’s trying to stop herself from saying something she shouldn’t. She points at her mouth. “These are sooo good.”

“I know that vampires and witches and wolves have societies here.”

Her hazel eyes sparkle. “You have been studying, Ophelia. So, you have to know there is something different about you too, don’t you?”

I shake my head. “I don’t know about that. I’m just fascinated by the whole idea, you know? Always have been, even before I learned any of it was true. While the other girls in my foster homes fantasized about being rescued from the dragon by a handsome prince, I dreamed of taming the dragon and becoming powerful enough to rescue myself.”

Cadence leans forward and lowers her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “Legend has it that dragons existed once too.”

“No!” Surely that can’t be true. I’m going to have to deal with the professor’s annoyed grumbling about how I ask too many questions if I want to get the inside track on dragons, but it’ll be worth it. “How fricking awesome is that.”

“It would be if they were still around. But, assuming they did exist, they died out over a thousand years ago.”

“Like the elementai died out?” The words come out of my mouth before I can stop them.

Cadence’s eyes widen, and her mouth opens like she’s about to speak when she’s cut off by another voice that comes from directly behind us. “Hey, do either of you have a highlighter I could borrow? Mine died right in the middle of Hamlet.”

I spin around to see we’re no longer alone in our little corner of the library.

Cadence turns too, and upon seeing our new companion, a smile spreads across her face. “Oh, hey, Sienna.”

Sienna tosses her long black braids over her shoulder and props her hand on her hip. “Hey girl. I didn’t realize that was you.” Her lips curve in a wide smile, and her dark eyes flash with flecks of amber. I stare into them for a few seconds, mesmerized by her. “How you been?” she adds.

She’s one of the most beautiful people I’ve ever seen. Strong and athletic but with curves. Her flawless dark skin shimmers in the overhead lights, so tantalizing that I want to reach out and touch her. It’s like she’s covered in some kind of magical body glitter. I wonder where she got it, but that doesn’t seem like an appropriate question to ask someone I just met.

“Same old. You know,” Cadence replies with a self-deprecating laugh that serves to pull me out of my stupor.

Sienna’s eyes flicker to me, and she smiles expectantly. However, I appear to have been rendered mute.

Thankfully, Cadence comes to my rescue. “This is my friend Ophelia. Ophelia, Sienna.”

“Hi.” Sienna offers me a small wave, then she runs her tongue over her bottom lip, and I’m almost certain that I hear a faint growl.

“Hi,” I croak. “You’re beautiful.” Wow. I am such a moron.

Sienna’s eyes sparkle with amusement. “Thank you. You’re pretty cute yourself.”

Why are you feeling all warm and fuzzy, Cupcake? Xavier asks.

I press my lips together and try to tune him out while Sienna rummages in her backpack for a highlighter.

Ophelia! Do I have to come over there and bite somebody? Xavier’s warning growl has the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end.

No! I’m just talking to someone. Her name is Sienna. It’s just that she’s so … captivating.

That will be Sienna Brackenwolf, Malachi says. Commander of the Amalthea Society.

So she’s a wolf. That makes sense.

Why? Axl joins the conversation now.

I think she growled at me.

All of their voices fill my head at once. I will tear out her heart. You’re ours, sweet girl. I’m coming over there.

Relax! I admonish them. It’s nothing like that, you possessive Neanderthals. She’s just … I don’t know. I feel like I want to be her best friend.

Never trust a wolf, baby, Malachi growls.

I resist the urge to roll my eyes. Noted. Now please get out of my head or I’m going to start looking like a girl who has voices in her head.

Xavier’s laugh booms through my mind. You are a girl who has voices in her head. Then they all fall silent.

“So?” Sienna’s voice cuts through the internal noise as she stares at me with curiosity.

I press my lips together and nod with no idea as to what she’s asking me. A musical laugh falls from her lips before she speaks again. “A highlighter?”

“Oh, yeah. Of course.” I spin around and blow out a breath before rifling through my pencil case and pulling out a bright-yellow highlighter and handing it over.

“Ophelia, you are a lifesaver, girl. I’ll hand it back as soon as I’m done.”

I dismiss her suggestion with a wave of my hand. “You can keep it. I have plenty.”

She tilts her head, her dark eyes raking over me. And I’m sure I hear that growl again, but Cadence doesn’t seem to notice. “Thanks. Hopefully I’ll be able to return the favor sometime.” She winks at me, and I feel my cheeks heat with embarrassment. Or maybe it’s happiness. At this point, I don’t know what I’m feeling from one second to the next.

Sienna says goodbye to both of us and heads back through the shelves of books to the other side of the library.

Cadence nudges me in the arm. “Is that the first time you’ve met a werewolf?”

I shrug. “I dunno. I think so. Who knows at this school?”

That makes her laugh, and she bumps her shoulder against mine. “She was right … you are cute.” I shake my head dismissively. Her eyes narrow, homing in on mine. “Smart, too, if you know about elementai.”

My mouth dries up like someone poured a cup of sand in there. “I think I read about them in a book.” My heart is racing, but I force my voice to remain calm. “Are they legend too?”

She takes a few seconds to answer. “No, they were very real. Elementai were closely related to witches.”

My curiosity is too strong now to let me stop asking questions. I will gladly risk the professor’s wrath to know a little more about what I supposedly am. “What happened to them?”

Her eyes fill with sorrow. “They were wiped out.”

I blink. “Wiped out?”

She nods sadly. “Hunted down and killed. Every single one of them tortured to death. From the oldest and most powerful elementai who had been alive for several millennia to the youngest babes.” She shivers. “It was such a dark time in our history that nobody speaks of it.”

“But why? And who hunted them down? Humans?”

She shakes her head. “Humans aren’t powerful enough to overcome one elementai, and definitely not their entire species.”

“Then who?”

“The vampires, of course. They hate the elementai. I guess they couldn’t handle the fact that their species was so much more powerful, so they slaughtered them all. Misogyny at its finest, huh?”

My pulse spikes and my stomach rolls. I’m sure I must have misheard everything she just said. I swallow the thick knot of anxiety balling in my throat and force out my next words. “Vampires? Misogyny?”

“Elementai are female, and all bloodborne vampires are male. Some of them even turned on their own families. Their sisters, wives, daughters …” She shakes her head and swats a tear from her eye.

That can’t be true. My racing heart goes into overdrive. “Vampires killed them?” I whisper.

“Yeah. I know they’re super-hot and brooding and all—I enjoy some vampire company myself occasionally.” She leans in and puts her hand on my arm. “But, girl, they can’t be trusted.”

My heart splinters into a million pieces, fracturing like tiny shards of glass that tear their way through my chest. Have I been fooled again? I allowed myself to be taken in by Axl, Xavier, and Malachi just because they make my body feel good. How could they not have told me? And the professor … After everything he said in the library about the power of the elementai and how special they were. Was he lying too? Anguish threatens to sweep me away.

I shake my head. No. No. No. I repeat the word over and over in my head. Cadence must have it wrong. It can’t be true that vampires hate elementai. That they slaughtered thousands of innocents just because of their power. Because if that’s true …