chapter 5:1

5.1 Our Accurséd Lot

Dedicated to OctaviaLocke

Ren Romanovich weaved around bustling keepers

in search of a girl he'd never met. He'd thought

locating her would have been a simple task. After

all, she looked just like her father, only younger,

smaller, and female. But after a half-hour of

scouring Konstantin Academy's campus, he was

starting to wonder if Nika Dimitrovich had turned

invisible.

She hadn't been at the infirmary with the other

two survivors. Nor did he find her at her dorm, or

the administration building. Students and staff

alike hadn't seemed shocked. Apparently, the girl

had a reputation for being impossible to track and

control. Especially when she was up to mischief.

Now, as Ren entered the scene of the attack, he

came upon the large, crimson stain in the dirt,

where a student had been slaughtered mere hours

ago. He slowed down to study it for a moment.

"It's hard to believe there was onlv one fatalitv."

Ren whirled around at the source of that familiar

voice. Misha Kovac approached from the

dilapidated cabin nearby, offering a small smile,

despite the grave pallor of his face. It wasn't often

that Ren saw his friend with such a severe

demeanor.

"I didn't realize you were investigating this case,"

Ren said.

Misha came to a halt before him, running a hand

through disheveled, brown hair. "My dad assigned

it personally. He needs someone he can trust."

Ren should've guessed. Given the recent events at

Konstantin Academy, it was necessary that the

High Keeper of the Vigil's North American division

appointed the most trustworthy of people to solve

matters. And who was more trustworthy than your

own son?

"How much do you know?" Misha asked.

"'m not supposed to know anything"

A pointed look. "That wasn't my question."

Ren conceded, "Minister Dimitrovich claims that

Volkari attacked five students." Looking at the

scarlet stain, he added, "and killed a Nefili boy."

"Don't forget about the kidnapping"

That part, Ren hadn't yet discovered. Children in

prominent bloodlines had been targeted in the

past-mainly by Inferni-but Ren couldn't recall an

abduction. Especially not one orchestrated by

Volkari, since they were supposed to have been

nonexistent.

"Who?"

"Luiza Lazarov."

It was a name he'd heard before, and not just

because the Lazarov family was one of the most

respected in the Daemonstri community. Markos's

daughter had lived and been raised alongside

Luiza.

"Any leads?"

Misha shook his head, then frowned. "What are

you doing here?"

"I was sent to find Nika Dimitrovich."

"I thought you were the head of Markos's security,

not his errand boy"

"Sometimes, I wonder if there's a difference."

With a breathy laugh, Misha turned, gesturing for

Ren to follow. They passed by keepers-all of them

members of an investigative team and under

Misha's command-examining massive Daw orints.

collecting blood and hair samples. Anything that

might yield clues.

Despite being a keeper himself, Ren didn't do such

things. His area of expertise was security, and his

current position was one of the most important in

the Vigil. And while Misha answered to his father,

Ren took orders from the man who signed his

paychecks-Markos.

"Nika got here a while ago," Misha said, "trying to

do my job for me, apparently. She seemed ready to

run off into the woods to hunt down the wolves

herself, so I had to take extreme measures."

He guided Ren up the creaky steps of an old cabin,

and as he unlocked the door-which had been

bolted shut from the outside-someone hissed,

"Kovac, if you don't let me out of here right now,

I'm going to-"

Misha opened the door and swiftly sidestepped,

and a girl in a red hoodie slammed to a halt just

before colliding into Ren, her chin lifting up, up, up

as she met his gaze.

Had the circumstance of this meeting been

different, Ren might have laughed. She was..

tiny. Probably a foot and a halí shorter. Then

again, he was rather enormous in comparison to

mact naanla ca ha chauldn't haua haan

most people, so he shouldn't have been surprised.

"You're going to what?" he said, raising a brow.

As Nika assessed him, she looked like a cat. Her

compact figure deathly still, clever eyes

unblinking. And dangerous curiosity flashed across

her face, like she'd found a new, fascinating toy to

play with.

"Is that a Russian accent I hear?" Nika said. "I

hadn't realized that mammoths were native to

Russia. Or that they're no longer extinct. Though

there seems to be a lot of that happening lately."

Ren's lip curled, and apparently, that was all the

proof necessary to confirm that she'd vanquished

him, because he found himself dismissed as she

regarded Misha, batting her feathery lashes.

"Won't you please let me out?"

As she cajoled him, Ren noted the gash hidden by

Nika's dark gold hair. It had been sloppily

bandaged, and her thigh was wrapped in a white

cloth as well. But from the way she leaned on the

opposite foot, it did little to ease the pain.

"Have you seen a medic?" he asked. When she only

frowned at him, he gestured to her wounds. "You

should take some blood pills."

For the Nefili race, blood consumption was

curative. As such, keepers-or novices, in Nika's

case-often took blood pills as remedies for

whatever injuries the job had inflicted.

She squinted at him, as if suspicious. "I'll be fine.

Who are you again?"

Ren opened his mouth to respond, but someone

from behind beat him to it, shouting,

"Romanovich!"

He turned around to discover his boss marching

toward the cabin. Keepers nodded reverently as he

passed.

"It's been thirty minutes. Why haven't you"

When Markos looked up from the ground and

beheld the girl with whom Ren stood, the man's

face flooded with emotion. Then he started

running.

Ren stepped out of the way just in time for Markos

to swoop in and embrace Nika. She seemed to be

torn between astonishment and anger as she

awkwardly reciprocated the gesture. They didn't

have the best relationship-though Ren was

unaware of the details-and it was evidentin

Nika's lack of enthusiasm.

Misha dismissed himself, leaving Ren to watch the

father-daughter reunion in uncomfortable silence.

"Minister" he finally said, and Nika ripped away

from her father. "You shouldn't be here."

Markos only glared. "You were taking too long. I

got worried."

There might have been an inkling of pity in Ren,

but he didn't let it show. Especially not whenhe

felt Nika focusing on him.

"You're his keeper" she said with no shortage of

dissatisfaction.

Head keeper, he wanted to say, but instead, he

shifted his attention back to her father. "I should

take you to the campus. Vigil protocol"

"Yeah, sure," Markos said, waving his hand for

silence. "Just give us a moment alone, will you?"

Before Ren could object, Markos ushered him onto

the porch and shut the door in his face. Ren leaned

against the wooden frame, and since he had

nothing better to do, he focused on their voices.

"T'm sorry about Luiza," Markos was saying. "

know what she means to you."

"She's still alive" Nika replied. "One of the Volkari

-Dante Azzara-said they needed her"

"He didn't happen to mention what for, did he?" It

was a pathetic attempt to lighten the mood, but

Ren didn't think Nika found it helpful.

After a beat of silence, she said, "It must be

connected to Konstantin's journal somehow.

Dante all but confessed to stealing it."

Ren stiffened. The journal of Konstantin the Keeper

had been stolen?

"I heard about that," Markos said. "And you

happened to be one of the suspects, until you

brought news of an imposter wandering around

campus."

Nika remained quiet.

"Why did you skip class?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"You never want to talk about anything"

"Why should I?" she snapped.

Ren almost flinched at the sheer spite in her tone,

and in the tense moments that followed, his mind

buzzed with questions.

Why did the shapeshifters need a teenaged girl so

desperately? Or Konstantin's journal? And how had

they returned from the afterlife in the first place?

He hoped Misha solved the mysteries soon, just to

sate his curiosity.

A sharp intake of breath pulled his attention back

inside the cabin. "I tried to stop them, but it all

happened so fast and"

"Shhh, Nika, it's alright. It isn't your fault." A sigh.

"There's something you should know"

Markos paused, as if to gather his thoughts.

"I'm sure you're aware that my job requires me to

lie sometimes. Even to those I love. And some of

these lies are... Well, -all Ministers, that is-do it

mostly to help our people, to make life better for

Daemonstri-kind as a whole. But...

Ren had never heard Markos stutter before, had

never witnessed such nervousness.

"But," the Minister continued, "if the public knew

about some of these lies, the community could fall

to ruin"

"What are you getting at?" Nika insisted.

"I fear the Ministry's secrets might have

contributed to tonight's attack."