Beastward Academy: Reborn, I Claimed My Sister's Serpent novel · Chapter 9 of 32

Chapter 9: Eighty Crowns

I knew exactly where she was.

Only one Warden in the academy would take blood from a girl whose contract I'd just torn up.

"Stay here," I told Morvran.

"No," he said, and followed me down the stairs sideways with his casts on.

Leofric's tower had a gold roof and a red door and a porter who tried to stop me.

I walked past him.

The top room was a long, warm hall full of carpets and candles. A dozen of Leofric's house students were lounging on cushions with wine.

Leofric sat in a chair by the fire.

Kerensa sat on a stool at his feet.

Her sleeve was rolled up. There was a silver cup in her lap with a dark red line at the bottom.

She was white as paper.

"Elowen," Leofric said pleasantly. "We weren't expecting you."

Kerensa saw me and looked away.

"Get up," I said to her. Gently. "We're going home."

"She came to me," Leofric said. "Of her own free will. She asked for a private arrangement. Twenty crowns a cup."

"I'm not talking to you."

"You're in my tower."

"Then I'll be out of it in a minute." I knelt down by the stool. "Can you stand?"

Kerensa's eyes filled up. "El, I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For being stupid. My mother's boat. They'll take it in a month. I thought four cups and I'd have it."

"You're not stupid."

Behind me, one of Leofric's students laughed. "She's a feeder. It's what they're for."

The room went quiet.

Morvran turned and looked at the student who'd said it.

He didn't say anything. He just looked, with his green eyes very flat.

The student put down his wine and found something interesting on the carpet.

I got Kerensa's arm over my shoulders and lifted her.

She weighed less than she should.

At the door, Leofric said, "She'll be back, Elowen. They always come back. Hunger is honest."

I turned around.

"You're living on a girl who's paying off a fishing boat," I said, so the whole room could hear. "Four hundred years old, and that's the best you can do."

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