With a modest bow, he swept his arm toward the target, ending our moment. “But I have interrupted your training.”

I blinked, gathering my thoughts. “No interruption. I was just finishing up.”

He strolled to the tree, fingering the holes in the bull’s-eye I’d hung there. “Might I watch you?”

“Certainly.” Not. Performing under Alcántara’s scrutiny was the last thing I wanted. This was my own damned fault, though—I’d been the one who wanted to show off, practicing in public for all and sundry to see.

He still held my stars and studied them. “Such lovely craftsmanship. Did you know shuriken are illegal in many countries? England, for example. They are so small and so lovely, and yet so lethal.” He brought one to his face and kept it still as he looked through the points, meeting and holding my gaze. “Much like you, no? Small, lovely, lethal.”

What on earth to say to that? “I…I try.”

“Do not forget, I have seen you fight, Acarita. You do more than try. You succeed.” He tilted the star, and despite the gray skies, the flawless steel glimmered. When he handed them back to me, our fingers touched, and his skin was nearly as cool as the steel.

“Watcher Priti tells me you have a proclivity for such things,” he continued. “More than strength, more than talent, I believe you possess great focus. This is the hardest of all skills, I think.”

He looked as if he expected me to say something, but should it be modest or confident? I said carefully, “I imagine it’s a lot like meditation.”

“Show me.” He nodded toward the target. “Show me how focused you can be, practicing before me. Most humans become so discomposed in our presence.”

Contrary to what Ronan thought, I wasn’t a dumb bunny. I knew there was more going on here than Alcántara simply wanting to check out my skills.

I gathered every nerve I possessed. “Not discomposed at all, I assure you.”

I breathed slowly.…I am roots in the earth. I breathed deeper, and a hot spike of pain impaled me. I gritted my teeth, keeping my expression blank, and made myself hold still as I tried again. I relaxed my diaphragm and exhaled, and it was a struggle not to lean into my cracked rib. I concentrated, using every meditative trick in the book, until finally my mind found a shimmering patch of clarity above the pain.

I connected mentally with the target.…I am grounded. My surroundings narrowed to the black and white of those concentric circles. I focused on the sound of my blood pumping in my ears, and my world constricted further, till there was nothing left but a fine, black point—the target’s center, my only goal. I threw.

Bull’s-eye.

The urge to laugh broke my concentration, and pain exploded back to the forefront. I gritted myself on the inside, but couldn’t stop my hand from holding my right side. I pretended I was just catching my breath rather than cradling my agonized little rib cage.

When I faced him again I was serene and composed, even though what I really wanted to do was jump up and down, clapping giddily. “Shall I throw another?”

He laughed then, and I puffed at the sound. “No, that was quite sufficient, Acarita. Watcher Priti was right. You are grace under pressure.”

He crossed his arms at his chest, studying me. “I understand certain aspects of the physical training have not been easy for you…swimming, calisthenics. And yet you have been dauntless. Bringing a discipline to your studies the other girls envy.”

I was envied? The praise made my heart soar, and for a moment I forgot who he was, and that I should be nervous. I forgot, too, that I didn’t want to be there. It was such a minor success, but for the flicker of a moment, I felt I’d found my place. That I’d slipped into my groove, discovered my life’s meaning. “I enjoy working hard.”

He gave me a gratified nod. “It pleases me how thoroughly you’ve prepared for our mission. And now there is one final subject in which I’d like you to become proficient.”

A dumb grin kept trying to plaster itself across my face, but I didn’t allow it. Instead, I hung, waiting for his next words. Maybe the ludicrous things I’d been forced to study—the dancing, the etiquette—had been a test of my dedication, and the real learning was about to begin. We were going on a mission—did that mean I’d learn about bomb detonation, or wire tapping, or—

“You need to learn table manners,” he said.

“I need— Excuse me?” My voice warbled in half laughter, half confusion.

But the look on Alcántara’s face told me he wasn’t joking. “I’m aware of your…impoverished background. But where we are going, you will need to be familiar with habits of the elite. Would you recognize a fish knife from a butter knife? Do you know that a charger is not merely a plate? Or where to place water and where to place wine at the table?”

I spoke out of turn, but I couldn’t help it. We’d gone from throwing stars to talk of table settings—it was too random and baffling. “If we’re going out to dinner, can’t I just follow everyone else’s lead? It’s not as if I’ll have to waitress or anything.”

“On the contrary, Acari Drew. Waitressing is precisely what you will do.”

He did not just say that. “Wait…I’ll…be a waitress? We’re talking about our mission, right?”

His eyes hardened. “You will spend the following week focused only on manners in an intensive decorum session.”

More etiquette. I wanted to laugh, or cry, or something. I would have bet the Trainees weren’t made to take a rigorous course in table manners. It was frustrating and preposterous. But I kept my expression blank. A girl had to do what a girl had to do, and this girl had to stay alive. “I’ll begin today.”

He smiled again and touched a cool finger to my chin. “Grace, strength, and now humility, too. You have proven yourself.”

I frowned, trying to understand. Had I been right? Had all this bizarre subject matter just been a test?

“So perplexed you are.” He patted my chin as he gave a patronizing little chuckle. “I am many hundreds of years old, Acari Drew. Do not think yourself the first girl to receive such a command. Many react poorly to such news, while you have proven dependable, with a maturity beyond the others.”

Take that, Ronan. Alcántara thought I was mature.

But still, his instructions rankled. With nothing better to say, I said the lamest thing ever. “I’ll be eighteen on my next birthday.”

He laughed outright. “You are ready, I think.”

“Ready?” What now, I wanted to moan. Housekeeping? Talking to this guy was like riding a roller coaster.

“To hear about our mission. Because I will tell you a secret, querida. There are other vampires out there. And they are bad ones.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

There were bad vampires out there? Like, worse than kidnapping unsuspecting young girls and forcing them to kill one another? Whaaat the—?

I was reeling from the bomb he’d just dropped, and I didn’t pay attention as Trinity and a couple of her pals passed by, headed into the gym.

Alcántara had noticed them, however, and called, “Guidon Trinity.”

Trinity gave me the evil eye, taking in the cozy tête-à-tête between Alcántara and me, and I imagined it was only a matter of time before Masha got the full report. But she was all deference when she jogged back down the stairs to answer him. “Yes, Master Alcántara?”

“Clean this up.” He waved a dismissive hand to the target I’d hung on the tree. “I have other uses for Acari Drew just now.”

I’d have laughed at the expression on her face if inwardly I hadn’t been cringing so badly, because Trinity might as well have moved that target to my back. Her pale eyes crackled with cold fury. Having Alcántara by my side was the only reason I felt safe—in fact, his favor would be the thing that kept me alive…if it didn’t kill me first.

“Walk with me.” He linked his arm with mine in a very old-world-gentleman sort of way.

I’d just inched up the totem pole, and I felt the other girls’ eyes boring into me. I forced the thought from my head. I was above them—he’d said so himself.

Etiquette classes aside, it felt good to be treated like an adult—to be trusted, and with such astounding news. Other vampires? Bad ones? How could it get worse than this lot? The thought chilled me.

Did that mean there was some greater conflict happening in the world, between good vampire and bad? Suddenly, our mission took on a whole other aspect.

Good versus evil…It was all so superhero Justice League sort of stuff. A tiny part of me regretted I’d be escaping, turning my back on such a life.

But then I remembered the Draug. I was excited for the mission, but I was even more excited to hightail it off the island. It was only a matter of time before I became someone—or something’s—lunch.

I whispered low, so the Guidons wouldn’t overhear, “Where are the other vampires? Who are they?”

“We must distance ourselves,” he said quietly. “What I have to say is not for curious ears.”

We walked to the far end of the quad, to a bench near the old chapel. The silence wasn’t easy as I’d known in the past with Ronan. Rather, there was an energy, a chemistry between Alcántara and me, and it made the silence charged and uncomfortable.

We settled on the bench, and I noted how closely he sat—with the vampires, everything meant something. There were no accidents, and even how and where one sat was rife with meaning.

“What I am about to say to you, what you will see on our mission—these things must remain between us.” His intense gaze locked with mine as though he might bond me to this pledge with his eyes alone. “I am confident you will not betray this trust.”

“I won’t,” I said gravely, even though Ronan and Amanda didn’t seem to believe it. Unlike them, Alcántara was beginning to trust me. “I can keep secrets.”