“He’s not answering. He shut off his phone.”

Josiah arched an eyebrow. “Great parenting.”

“He’s not really a… parent,” she muttered.

“I have no idea what he’s talking about, but like I said, I’m here to protect you. Get some rest. I’ll let you know when you need to come before the Chamber.”

The blood drained from her head as a horrible thought struck her. “Will I need to go in front of Randolph Loring and everything?” He was the flame-haired leader of the Brotherhood. His family’s power stretched back centuries. The man was at least ten times as intimidating as Josiah.

“Relax. Randolph has better things to do than listen to a novice.”

Rosalind rose, but Josiah touched her hand. “Don’t think about the mage. Whatever he said to you, he was just trying to screw with your mind. And stay out of trouble tonight. If a mage has marked you for some reason, you need to stay hidden. You know how much they’d love to take you as a slave for their own disgusting purposes. He’ll want to rape and feed on you. Or turn you into a monster like him.”

She winced, thinking of how easily the shadow mage could lure someone into a trap. His beauty and sensual aura were all the weapons he needed. “I’ll be safe. Thanks, Josiah.” She curled her fingers around the chalice pendant.

“Lux in tenebris lucet.”

She smiled. “Light shines in the darkness.”

As she left the Great Hall, she tried Mason again, but the call went straight to voicemail. At the sound of his clipped voice on the recording, her muscles tensed. It was hard not to remember him calling her an “abomination.” Hard not to think of him tying her to a chair to beat her legs every time he lost his temper. She had no idea why he’d wanted to adopt her at all.

As she walked through Harvard Yard, she shoved the images from her mind and tried to imagine her life before Mason. Before the vamps ripped her life away by slaughtering her parents. She could remember only glimmers. Buttery sunlight. Someone patching up her knee. Toes sinking into the sand on a beach. Her parents giving her periwinkle and yellow wildflowers on her birthday. Her own face, smiling.

She could have sworn someone else lingered at the edges of the memories: a boy.

With a jolt, she remembered his eyes, pale and gray—not unlike the shadow mage’s.

Chilled to the bone, she hugged herself tight.

Of course, it wasn’t like gray was such an unusual color.

Yep. That mage definitely messed with my head.

Chapter 4

By the time she returned to Thorndike’s campus, the rain had slowed to a light drizzle. Rosalind stalked across the quad, trying to sneak through the shadows undetected. She couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was watching her. At least she had her weapon belt if the mage planned to stalk her.

Once inside her dorm building, she released a breath. Demons and mages could enter here, but their magic wouldn’t work within the walls.