Chapter 149: The Only One Left

The Wintercrests left at dawn.

A long black car idled at the curb while Beralt loaded the luggage into the trunk himself, grunting theatrically with every suitcase so that everyone would notice how strong he was. Luna was already in the back seat with her sunglasses on, sulking. She hadn’t said a single word to anyone since she arrived.

Clarice kissed Daemus on both cheeks. Then she turned to Blair and hugged her. It was a short, stiff hug,, and when Clarice pulled back, her silver eyes lingered on Blair’s face for a moment longer than they needed to.

"Study hard, dear," she said. That was all.

Beralt came last. He rested one hand on Blair’s shoulder and smiled that same warm smile.

"Remember," he said. "You are of Wintercrest now. If anyone gives you trouble, you tell them whose name you carry."

"Y-yes, sir," Blair whispered.

He didn’t say goodbye to Daemus. Daemus didn’t say goodbye to him. They stood three feet apart on the front steps and managed not to look at each other so thoroughly that it was almost impressive.

The hardest goodbye was Kael.

He wrapped himself around Blair’s leg like a koala and refused to let go. Clarice pried at one arm. He grabbed on with the other. Beralt tried to lift him. Kael went completely limp and slid down onto the pavement like a puddle, still clinging to Blair’s ankle.

"I don’t wanna go," he wailed. "I want Blair to come!"

"I’ll see you soon," Blair promised, crouching down to hug him. "I promise."

Kael sniffled against her shoulder. "Pinky promise?"

She hooked her little finger around his. "Pinky promise."

That seemed to satisfy him. He let Beralt scoop him up and carry him to the car, waving at her over his father’s shoulder the entire way.

The car pulled away. Blair stood on the curb and waved until it turned the corner.

* * *

Jack drove them to the academy an hour later.

Nobody spoke. Jack drove with his eyes on the road and one hand on the wheel. Daemus sat in the front passenger seat with his arms crossed and his head tipped against the window, pretending to sleep. Blair sat alone in the back with her bag at her feet and watched the city slide past.

She was so tired. She hadn’t slept properly in days. The steady hum of the engine and the flicker of sunlight through the trees made her eyelids heavy.

Somewhere along the way, she noticed Daemus’s hand.

He had let his arm drop between the two front seats. His big hand was resting there, palm down, just in reach. He wasn’t looking at her. His eyes were still closed.

Blair stared at it for a long time.

Then, very carefully, she reached forward and hooked her little finger around his.

He didn’t open his eyes. He didn’t turn around. But after a moment, his finger curled around hers and held on.

They stayed like that for the rest of the drive.

In the rearview mirror, Jack’s red eyes flicked to their joined hands. Then back to the road.

* * *

The academy looked exactly the same.

The same black spires stabbing up into the gray sky. The same gleaming marble paths. The same beastmen lounging on the lawns in their expensive uniforms, laughing, shoving each other, and sneering at every human who passed.

It felt like she had been gone for a year.

Jack dropped them at the main gate without a word and drove off toward the faculty lot. Daemus lingered for a moment beside her, his duffel bag slung over one shoulder, looking like he wanted to say something.

"See you at dinner?" he said finally.

"See you at dinner," Blair whispered.

He nodded and headed off toward the faction houses. Blair watched him go. Then she picked up her bag and started the long walk across campus to Dormitory G, keeping her head down and her eyes on the cobblestones.

She made it as far as the main courtyard before she heard it.

"...swear it’s true. My cousin works at the hotel. A human girl with pink eyes."

Blair’s steps faltered.

Two beastwomen were sitting on a bench near the path, their heads bent together.

"And her hair was so weird. Dark, but the roots were all these colors. Pink and purple and silver, like it was glowing. She was naked, apparently, right in the middle of the lobby."

"No way. Humans don’t look like that."

"That’s what I said! But he swears he saw her. Said there was a wolf there, too."

Blair tugged the hood of her sweater up over her head and walked faster.

Dormitory G was worse.

The moment she stepped into the lobby, the conversations died. The human students clustered by the mailboxes turned to stare at her. Then, one by one, they looked away. A girl near the stairs actually took a step back as Blair passed.

Blair was used to being avoided. But this was different.

The silence only lasted a moment. Then the whispering started. It wasn’t the careful kind, either. It was loud, meant to be heard.

"Oh my god. She’s alive?"

"I thought she was dead. Everyone said she was dead."

"No, she was missing. Like her roommate."

"Great. So she’s back and Heather isn’t?"

Blair kept her eyes on the floor and her grip on her bag and walked toward the stairs.

"I’m telling you, that girl is bad luck. Heather hung around her for one week, and look what happened."

"Honestly? It would’ve been better if she’d just stayed gone."

The words hit like small stones. Blair didn’t flinch. She just kept walking, one step at a time, her face as blank as she could make it.

"Where was she, anyway? She’s been gone practically the whole semester."

A girl by the mailboxes lowered her voice, but not by much. "I heard she got knocked up."

Blair’s foot missed the first stair.

She caught herself on the railing. Behind her, someone giggled.

"Knocked up? By who?"

"Who do you think? She was always hanging around the Wolf Prince. Everyone saw them."

"No way."

"Why else would a lesser just disappear for weeks and come back like nothing happened? She probably went off somewhere to..."

Blair climbed the stairs faster. Her face was burning. Her heart was pounding so loudly in her ears that she almost didn’t catch the last whisper, floating up the stairwell after her.

"Figures she’d be the one to come back. She’s the only Blair left."

Blair stopped on the landing.

The only Blair left?

She didn’t understand. She turned around, just slightly, but the girls at the bottom of the stairs had already looked away, whispering behind their hands.

Nobody explained. Nobody was going to.

Blair turned back around and kept climbing.

* * *

Room 204 was exactly as she had left it.

Her narrow bed. Her small desk. And on the other side of the room, Heather’s bare mattress, stripped of sheets, with nothing on the walls above it but a few scraps of old tape where Heather’s pictures used to be.

Blair set down her suitcase and went to the window. She needed air. She pushed it open and leaned against the frame, breathing in the cold autumn wind, trying to slow her pounding heart.

From up here, she could see across the whole courtyard. The tiered marble terrace where the great crystal fountains sparkled in the thin afternoon light.

Someone was sitting on the edge of the largest one.

Blair’s hands tightened on the windowsill.

Long blue hair, woven with pearls. Diamond chains glinting at his throat. A crowd of beautiful beastwomen gathered around him, laughing at something he’d said.

Jasper Silver.

He was looking straight up at her window.

Then he smiled that bright, beautiful smile, lifted one hand, and gave her a slow, cheerful little wave.

Blair stumbled back from the window and slammed it shut.