The Keep: The Watchers (16 page)

Maybe since Kenzie had come to my aid so quickly, he’d felt he hadn’t been needed. Maybe Carden even purposely stayed away to avoid discovery of our bond. Both were good excuses, but neither completely erased the pang of hurt.

I was telling myself to grow up when I heard Alcántara pause and clear his throat.
Crap.
I looked up, and those fathomless eyes were waiting for me.

A smile curved the corner of his mouth. An
I’m-watching-you
smile.

Pay. Attention.

It was no secret that Alcántara was one of the main baddies in this place, but how could I get more insight than that? I pretended to take notes, writing down random phrases from his lecture—secrecy…motives…Shakespeare’s
Macbeth
?—embellishing the words with squiggles and curlicues, considering Alcántara’s secrecy. Alcántara’s motives.

Lissa asked a question, and as I turned to look at her, only then it struck me. There were empty seats—like, a
bunch
of empty seats. The realization shot me back into the present. If Emma were alive, she’d want me focusing on guarding my own hide and less on what’d happened to hers.

I wish I’d done a head count that first day. Just how many girls were missing from class? Did those empty seats represent girls who’d tried—and failed—to execute Alcántara’s assignment? (Pun intended.)

Rather than listen to Lissa’s question, I was mesmerized by the look of her. She was pale and drawn. I realized her pert-nosed friend was conspicuously absent. When Alcántara had given our assignment, he’d told us the cost of failure would be our life. So I guess Lissa’s friend was a fail.

My roommate, Frost, rose from her seat.

What the—?

My attention snapped completely back into class. Frost was about to report on her project.

Already
. She’d already killed her assigned Trainee.

Jeez…these people. I was still trying to wrap my mind around what this whole business entailed, and yet there was my roomie, going to the front of the class so calmly you’d have thought she was about to give an oral report on
Jane Eyre
instead of detailing for us the finer points of her first successful assassination.

Bloodthirsty much?

“Acari Frost.” Alcántara purred the name—and how annoying was it that even the vampires no longer called her Audra? “Tell us, did you successfully complete your assignment?”

“Yes, I did,” she said proudly.

“Well?” Alcántara looked like his patience was wearing thin already. Apparently, Frost wasn’t
every
teacher’s pet. My feelings for the Spanish vampire aside, I found his distaste to be just the slightest bit gratifying. “Why don’t you begin by outlining the details of your personal assignment? For example, do you know
why
you were assigned the target you were?”

So there
was
a method to Al’s madness. What did it mean that my assigned victim was Trainee Farm Boy? He’d asked that our assassinations have some sort of poetic twist.
Horrific.
Alcántara wanted a story, and I was suddenly curious to hear Frost’s.

“Yes,” Frost said. “Trainee Marlin Grosse was my assignment.”

I searched my memory banks…Marlin Grosse. I’d never met him—I mostly knew the Trainees in Yasuo’s circle—but I pictured a tall, gangly guy with a blond buzz cut. Grosse—I’d assumed it was German, but it could’ve easily been Norse. Had he been in one of Frost’s advanced Norse classes? She was obsessed with it—if he’d been competition for Dagursson’s attentions, I’ll bet she hadn’t liked that one bit.

“Due to our mutual interest in Old Norse literature and mythology, we’ve had several classes together,” she said, confirming my suspicions. “I believe he was my assigned Trainee because…”

She faltered, and I shot up in my seat. Was I about to glimpse into the truth of Frost’s tiny heart?

She cleared her throat. “Marlin has troubled me in the past. I believe this is the reason he was my target. To force me to face my…problems.”

She’d been about to say
face my fears
—I’d have put money on it.

Alcántara steepled his fingers, cocked his head, and furrowed his brow. “What is the nature of the trouble he’s given you?” His fake sympathy made me sick.

“He tried things,” she said simply. From the steel in her expression, I could guess what those
things
were. Some of the guys on this island were real scumbags. Rob had
tried things
with me. I got where she was coming from.

“This made my strategy easy.” The way her eyes pinched at the corners told me not all of it had been that easy. “I got him alone. I told him…I’d changed my mind. About him, I mean.”

She slowly began to unfold a square of linen, and everyone—even Alcántara—leaned forward to see. “The next question was, which weapon to use?” She revealed the long, thin knife that’d been tucked inside.

I craned my neck to get a better look. I knew for a fact this wasn’t her weapon—she carried some obnoxious Viking ax thing (of course)—and at closer inspection, this didn’t seem like the typical choice at all. Sure, it was a knife, but the blade looked shoddy, like it was a kitchen implement bought on the cheap rather than a prized weapon.

“Tell us about this crude blade,” Alcántara said.

“When considering how to do it,” she continued, “how to kill him, I began with his name.
Marlin Grosse.
From there, it was simple.”

“Simple…how?” Alcántara seemed interested now.

Frost clearly liked the attention. I watched her loosen up. Warm to it. “It’s a fishing knife that I…
borrowed
from the kitchens.” She looked up through her lashes and smiled at Alcántara. She loved the vampires, loved life on this island, and it made me sick to watch her fawn like this.

“Fine, fine,” Alcántara said, sounding impatient again. “Perhaps you’ll share with the class the significance of this choice.”

“I’m from Maine,” she continued. The warmth had bled from her voice and she was robotic again. “My father was…is…a fisherman. I know how to use a boning knife.”

There were a couple of chuckles in the room, and her eyes shot up. “Yes, ha-ha,
boning
. A boy like Marlin would’ve had the same reaction.”

“And that is why you chose this particular blade?”

“Well, that and the fact that his name was Marlin. You know”—she paused, waiting for the dimmer kids in the class to get it—“like the fish.”

“Lovely,” Alcántara cooed. “Tell us how you orchestrated your execution.”

She nodded, and though her gaze was aimed straight ahead, I was sure she was focused on nothing but what she saw in her own head. “Marlin was going to, you know, force me.”

Jesus.
I stared. I might’ve even stopped breathing. What the hell had Frost gone through? What were we
all
going through? And why were so many of these girls set on going it alone? She hated me, but she could’ve trusted me. She could have told me all this stuff was going on for her.

“He kissed me,” she went on. “He told me if I let him…do things…he said it would only hurt a little bit. I let him kiss me while I slipped the knife from my coat pocket. And then I told him he was wrong. That it would hurt a lot. For him. And that’s when I did it. I stabbed him.”

You could’ve heard a pin drop. Nobody made a sound. Nobody, that is, until Alcántara broke the silence with a majestic slow-clap.

“Brilliant,” he said as a blissful smile spread across his face. “That was lovely. Thank you for sharing. Truly, that was a triumphant moment for you.” He turned to the rest of us. “Acari Frost has followed my instructions to the letter. Her assassination had meaning. It was clever and brave and, I daresay, poetic.”

Elbows on the desk, my chin was resting in my hands, and I curled my fingernails into my cheeks to keep myself from scowling.
Poetic.
Give me a break. Sociopathic, more like.

Alcántara’s eyes swept the room till they met mine. My breath caught at the intensity of his gaze, heavy on me. “Class is dismissed,” he said. But then he caught me, stopping me with a single finger crooked around my arm as I tried to breeze past. “I look forward to your contribution, Acari Drew. And,
querida
?”

I forced myself to breathe in and out. I didn’t know what power he was capable of, and I forced my mind to remain clear. “Yes, Master Alcántara?”

“I expect results.” He gave my arm a lingering, creepy squeeze, then let me walk out of the classroom.

I rubbed my arm where he’d touched me. I’d show him results. I’d show him poetic.

I’d need to be very careful as I formulated my plan. Very patient. I couldn’t raise suspicion. Which meant, even though I found this whole assassination thing repellent, I had to participate.

I’d have to deal with one Toby Engel.

How, though? How was I supposed to kill someone named
Trainee Toby
? I mean, even his name sounded like he belonged in an animated cartoon. But it was life or death, and I’d always fight for life—my own, at least.

And besides, the Trainees had their own assignments to
perform. Rob
would
attack me again—only this time, he wouldn’t just want to bite for class credit. He’d probably attempt to kill me, simple as that. There was also Yasuo to consider. It broke my heart to think my best buddy wanted me dead.

And where was Carden? It was long past time for him to show up. To steal a kiss, snug me close, and make me forget my troubles.

But then someone else appeared, bringing my thoughts to a whole other preoccupied place. “Annelise,” Ronan said, his long legs catching up to me easily.

“Uh, hi,” I said a bit awkwardly. Last term, I’d barely seen him, and now the guy was all over the place. It was unnerving. It didn’t matter, though. Our chat wouldn’t last long because now Carden really
would
appear any second—he always did when Ronan was around.

The path forked, and I stopped and pointed in the direction of the dining hall. “Well, I’m this way,” I said, kind of wanting to ditch him. Carden was out there somewhere, probably sensing even now how we were chatting, and a testosterone showdown was the last thing I felt like dealing with.

“You’re headed for dinner?” He turned down the path. “I’ll go with you.”

I cut him a look as he fell into step. “You will?”

“I’m a growing boy, aye?” He gave me a smile that cheered me despite myself. “And besides, you seem like you could use the company.”

Now I cut him a longer look. This was suspicious behavior.

“Fine,” he confessed. “I’ve spoken with Kenzie.”

I braced myself. “You did?”

“You should trust her,” he said mysteriously.

“What did she say?”

“She told me about Yasuo’s attack. I don’t like the danger you keep finding yourself in.”

“You don’t?” Now this really was weird, especially seeing as I’ve been facing danger since the first moment
he’d
brought me here. I stopped short when I realized he was making one of his ominous
thoughtful-Ronan
faces. “And?” I asked warily.

“She is disturbed that you might not be able to…”

“To fight back?” I shrugged, suddenly very depressed. “What’s your point?”

And where was Carden? He
always
came when I talked to Ronan—especially when I felt any sort of strong emotions.
Sort of like right now, Carden.
I concentrated very hard.
Earth to Carden, come in.

Had I done something to upset my vampire? He’d tucked me in so sweetly the last time I’d seen him. But he had said the word
good-bye
. What did it mean? Had it been
good-bye
good-bye? I tried to recall his exact words in my head, but I’d been so out of it when he left, practically drunk from the excessive feeding.

“You need to be ready to act against Trainee Yasuo with appropriate force,” Ronan said, and the preposterous notion drew me back into the conversation.

I huffed a cynical little laugh. “
Appropriate force.
Of course I don’t want to use
appropriate force
against Yasuo. Wasn’t fighting Emma enough? Just how many friends do I have to kill in this place?”

“Don’t be angry,” he said, his tone unexpectedly gentle.

“It’s not that I’m angry.” Between Carden’s unexplained absence, Alcántara’s unwanted interest, and Yasuo’s fury, anger wasn’t exactly what I felt. “I’m sad. Lonely, maybe. Confused and scared, definitely, for sure. But it’s not quite anger. I don’t
know…I’m worried about Yas. I mean, above and beyond the whole trying-to-kill-me thing. His eyes were all wonky, and he didn’t seem like himself…like,
at all
.”

Ronan’s expression shuttered, but he gave a slight nod that told me he knew a little something about loneliness and uncertainty. “It’s only out of concern that I…that Kenzie and I,” he quickly amended, “bring this up.”

I thanked him, but my throat grew tight.
Kenzie and I.
Did Ronan ever take any responsibility for his own actions or feelings?

“You must be prepared,” he warned. “Yasuo won’t be satisfied until he feels he’s exacted revenge.”

My mood spun on a dime. “Alcántara is the one who killed Emma, not me. Yasuo should get revenge on
him
. How is it I’m the only one who seems to want to know what happened to her? Because if she wasn’t dead when she was taken from the ring…” Emotion stabbed me like a stiletto in the chest, and I sucked in a breath, needing to gather the guts to finish the thought. “If she wasn’t dead,” I continued slowly, “he should want to know what happened to her. Hell, as a vampire Trainee, he’s the one with the ticket inside the bowels of that castle. He’s the one who can find out.”

“Maybe he knows already,” Ronan said evenly.

“Then maybe he should tell
me
.”

“Maybe
you
should forget this foolish idea,” he snapped.

“Foolish idea?”

“That there’s something in the castle for you to discover. There are all kinds of nightmares in that keep. And no,” he said, seeing my look, “I don’t know what they are. Certainly, you could break in and satisfy your curiosity, but you’d bring the
knowledge to your grave because we’d never see you again.” Something flickered across his face, something tight, like pain.