‘I’m not mad at you; I’m scared for you, Bethan. I’m really fucking scared. We should have never trusted them.’ A small crack emerged in his usually deep voice when he spoke.

‘They haven’t given us any reason not to trust them. They helped with Canden, remember, they covered that up.’

‘Only because of Elnora. If it was me, I doubt they would have.’

‘It was you; you drove that dagger in his chest.’ She breathed. ‘Not Elnora.’

‘Because she told me to,’ he argued. ‘We both wanted to protect Sam and save him. Elnora was the one who enchanted the glass shards. I finished the job.’

‘Don’t bring Elnora into this then,’ Bethan said, gripping the sheets in a fist. ‘We can trust her.’

He nodded. At least he agreed with her on something.

‘It’s incredibly strange that the one out of three sources from the Blood Plague, the only one that implicates the Rennigan family, is the one that has been discredited.’

‘Because Kurai was unreliable.’

‘Maybe he saw something in his family the rest of the world didn’t. And it was only deemed unreliable because another Rennigan reviewed it.’

Kellan shook his head and paced around the room; she could see anger boiling within him. The more he paced, the more unsettled she became. She grabbed at the clothes on her chest, feeling like someone was standing on her, trying to suffocate her.

‘Julius doesn’t even try to hide his hatred for humans or vampires. I doubt he wants the grimoire to help them. I bet they’re part of the Adelian. Hells, Julius is probably the Unseen.’ His voice was getting louder. Bethan found herself wanting to cover her ears and curl up in a tight ball.

‘Don’t accuse people of something like that,’ she cried. ‘And you only want the grimoire to appease your mother. And she only wants it to make herself look better.’

He scoffed at her. And she curled into herself. His eyes softened, but the anger ate at him.

‘Maybe it started out that way for me,’ Kellan yelled. ‘But, Bethan, I say this with swearing on my heart. Krete has become a place I love. A place I want to fight for. With friends I want to protect. I’ll do it before I even dare to try and appease my mother.’

He continued yelling. Walls closed in around her; the floor beneath them felt like it was caving in, about to give way any second. And she was going to be trapped.

‘The First Grimoire isn’t going to give us the peace we want; it’s going to start a war.’

He was right, but the way he was saying it was wrong.

Everything is wrong.

Her mind raced, and she squeezed her eyes shut, anticipating impact, but she didn’t know why.