I furrowed my forehead.
“He wanted to meet me to tell me something important.”
“And?” I asked, trying to sound visibly unimpressed by Tristan’s appearance.
Tristan was the traitor of the family. A black sheep, if you wanted to look at it that way.
Shortly after my transformation, he had left the family to join the dark side. And if he was here, the Tenebris Order couldn’t be far away.
That filthy gang would ruin Nicolaj’s reputation in town. Because the damned Senseque wouldn’t see any difference between those fucking outcasts and us. They’d probably be rubbing their hands together, just looking for a weak spot in the contract to get rid of us.
“He didn’t show up...”
Bastien sounded annoyed.
He was unable to let him go.
“Be glad. Maybe he used his head and figured out for himself that it wouldn’t be smart to show up here.”
I looked around. The wind had picked up. A cool breeze brushed the back of my neck, and it was as if I felt something like goose bumps. Unusual.
“Hardly. One of his men was there and said their master had reprimanded Tristan, and we should be careful.”
“Did you tell him that he can go to hell?”
I gave Bastien a scrutinizing look.
He really seemed different than usual. Not so calm, but as if Tristan was a threat – or at least what he brought with him.
Bastien was a master of his emotions. And if he reacted like that, then we were all in for something bigger.
“I want you to be careful and report any suspicious activity on this campus to me.”
I looked at him in question.
“What would he want here?”
“Not him...”
I couldn’t believe my trainer was actually talking about the Tenebris Order.
“Here?”
“Think Adrian. Where would you go to cause chaos when there’s only one place in an area full of split territories where all three species clash.”
He was right. I’d been a bit brain-locked since the incident yesterday at lunchtime with that girl. She had wanted to put me in my place just like that. And nothing about my aura had frightened her. On the contrary. She seemed to enjoy being played with.
But there were more important things now, and I had to think straight.
Turning women into problems was something only sentimental fools did.
“It could be that someone from the Order is behind the murder. Someone who wants revenge on Tristan and his family.”
I pressed my lips together and looked across the campus.
I couldn’t allow myself to let anyone see how much I hated this man for what he had done to our family.
And I hoped Bastien didn’t feel into me. Then he would have questions. Questions I would never be able to answer.
“Whatever you find out, report back to me. And tell Miles that Laurent and I are increasing your training stakes.”
As if I hadn’t already spent enough afternoons wielding a dagger, letting Bastien kill me with his fencing training, or spending hours in hand-to-hand combat. The most annoying were the observation lessons and the chemistry lessons, where Miles always mixed up the chemicals so that the windows on the first floor had to be repaired at least once a month.
He was good at fencing. I had to give him credit for that. But he'd never been good at science.
“Every evening.”
I nodded.
Bastien’s expression relaxed a little.
“Do you think he’s here to warn us?” I asked.
Bastien looked at me thoughtfully. His body had been tense the whole time.
That was usual when it came to his favorite brother. He had always tried to keep him out of these dark things. Unsuccessfully. Tristan had become one of them. And at the same time, he had completely crashed. An alcoholic renegade.
“I hope not.”
