Chapter 2: The Academy Gates ( Continued)
As Wolfie led me through the towering doors of the Academy, the air changed. Outside, it was all biting wind and fresh snow; inside, it smelled of ancient parchment, beeswax, and the faint, ozone-like hum of magic.
"The debt is gone, Drayan," my father's voice rang in my head from our walk earlier that morning. "The apartment is sold. We are clean. But in Redpaveley, being 'clean' isn't enough. You need a name. You need an anchor. This marriage... it's the only way people will trust a city-vampire like me again."
I hated that he was right. I hated that even with the money settled, my life was still a bargaining chip. I looked at Wolfie as we navigated the crowded hallway. She was waving at a group of students—some were-kin with thick, fur-trimmed vests, others were witches with glowing charms hanging from their bags. She belonged here. She was the anchor I wanted, but she wasn't the one my father had chosen.
"So," Wolfie said, breaking into my thoughts. She nudged me with her elbow. "What's the 'City Boy' plan for the first day? Hide in the library? Brood behind a pillar? Or are you actually going to sit with me at the Assembly?"
I stopped in my tracks. "Sit with you?"
She stopped too, turning around and crossing her arms. She raised an eyebrow behind her glasses. "Yeah. It's a thing friends do. Unless you're too cool for the local girl."
"I... I just figured you'd want to sit with your own kind," I said, my voice dropping. I looked around at the other vampires in the hall. They were dressed in expensive, dark silks, looking down their noses at everyone. I was wearing a faded hoodie and jeans. I didn't fit with them, and I certainly didn't feel like I fit with a girl as vibrant as her.
Wolfie's expression softened. She stepped closer, and for a second, the bustling noise of the school seemed to fade into the background. "Drayan," she said quietly. "In this village, 'kinds' don't matter as much as people think. And honestly? I think you're more interesting than a whole coven of pure-bloods."
I felt a rush of warmth—not just from her proximity, but from her words. For someone who had felt invisible since losing my mother, her attention felt like a lifeline. But then, the shadow of the arranged marriage fell over me again. How could I sit with her? How could I start something when my future was already signed away in a contract?
"I can't," I whispered, the words tasting like ash.
Wolfie's smile didn't disappear, but her amber eyes flickered with a hint of confusion—and maybe a little hurt. "Can't? Or won't?"
"I just... I have things I have to deal with," I said, pulling away. I couldn't tell her. Not yet. I couldn't tell her that I was a vampire who had nothing left but a name, and that name now belonged to a girl I hadn't even met.
I turned and walked toward the back of the Assembly hall, finding a dark corner far away from the stage. I sat down, my heart feeling heavier than the debt we had just paid off. I watched Wolfie walk toward the front, where she was greeted by a tall, powerful-looking man who looked like he ran the village.
I didn't know then that the man was her father. And I didn't know that the "Stray" she was talking to was the very person her father had promised she would marry.