I pulled my pillow over my head. “Too early.”

“Just taking my vitamins,” she said.

“You don’t take vitamins.”

“I do now. Mom gave them to me after my last report card. And these gross protein shakes, which I conveniently forgot to pack.” She slurped more root beer. Loudly.

“Don’t make me stake you.” I revealed just enough of one eyeball to glare at her menacingly.

She grinned. “Morning to you too, sunshine. Want a vitamin?”

“Who are you, evil pod person, and what have you done with Chloe?” I was too tired even to yawn. My eyes felt glued shut. I snuggled deeper into my warm blankets. Chloe finally finished her root beer and went back to her computers. The tapping of the keyboard lulled me to sleep.

For about five minutes. Until the phone rang.

I threw a stake at it.

The receiver clattered to the ground and Chloe jumped, knocking her chair over. She whirled around, pointing at me accusingly. “You scared the crap out of me.”

I wasn’t too tired to grin. “Sorry.”

“You will be, Wild.” She tossed the receiver back into the cradle. The academy was too cheap to spring for cordless phones like every other modern facility on the face of the planet. My cell phone trilled, vibrating across the surface of my night table. I grabbed it, frowning at the display.

I sat straight up in my bed, swearing.

“Who is it?” Chloe asked.

“Bellwood.”

Chloe’s eyes widened. “About last night? York already nailed you for being a good person.”

I swallowed, flicking my phone on.

“Hello?” I sounded hesitant, even to my own ears.

“Ms. Wild?”

“Yes.”

“This is Headmistress Bellwood. You will come to my office, please.”

“I … what’s this about?”

“Don’t play games, Miss Wild, I haven’t the time. You left school property last night, after the drill.”

“Uh …” I just stared helplessly at Chloe while the headmistress continued to lecture me in that stern, dry voice of hers.

“I will expect you in five minutes.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

I hung up and closed my eyes briefly. Grandpa was going to kill me.

“What happened?” Chloe asked.

“She wants to see me.”

“That’s never good.”

“Tell me about it.” I kicked free of my blankets, grabbing for my cargos and a T-shirt with the Helios-Ra High School logo printed on the front.

“You can’t be getting busted that hard for helping a Niner? Before school even starts?”

“No. For sneaking off campus last night.”

“For sneaking—what? Hunter Wild, you went and had fun without me?” She sounded both stunned and hurt.

“Of course not.” I hastily tied my hair back. “I’ll tell you all about it later. I gotta go.”

“You snuck out.” She shook her head as I hurried out the door. “And I’m the pod person?”

I ran all the way to the main building where classes were held. Headmistress Bellwood’s office was on the ground floor overlooking a rose garden she rarely stopped to enjoy. The school felt hollow and eerie without the usual scuffle of shoes or locker doors slamming.

And almost as creepy was the headmistress, who belonged in a Victorian gothic novel, scaring the children in an orphanage. Her hair was pulled back tightly, without a single strand daring to escape. She wore the same black suit she always wore and the same pearl earrings. If she’d had glasses, she would have been glaring at me over their rims. At least I was in proper school attire, but I hadn’t had time to brush my teeth or wash my face.

“Ms. Wild, have a seat,” she said when she saw me hovering in the doorway.

I swallowed and stepped inside her office, which was scrupulously neat, as expected. There were no mementos on her oak desk, no family photographs—even though I knew she had two daughters.

But she did have York cluttering up her office.

He’d been standing in the corner by the window and file cabinet, no doubt hiding to take me by surprise. I stopped in the middle of the room, standing at attention. Mostly so I wouldn’t give in to the temptation to throw something at his head.

“The headmistress asked you to sit down,” he said.

I sat down.

She put her pen down and looked at me, abandoning her paperwork. “I should tell you, Ms. Wild, that we installed new surveillance cameras on campus over the summer.”

I was so totally busted.

And it was worth it. I’d been to a vampire coronation. Surely that was worth a lecture and some detention. I schooled my expression so that I looked properly chastised. If York thought for one second that I wasn’t suffering enough, he’d try harder to have me punished.

“You were caught on video sneaking off school property in the middle of the night. I hardly need to tell you this kind of behavior is inappropriate. What do you have to say for yourself?”

“Uh …” Hart, who is technically your boss, invited me to see Helena Drake get crowned in the woods? Headmistress Bellwood would never believe me. And I wasn’t entirely sure if it had been a clandestine assignment. I hadn’t thought to ask, and no one had said. I’d have to call Kieran. “I—”

“You’re not going to tell me that you were running laps or practicing drills, are you?” she interrupted drily. “Because I can assure you, there isn’t a single excuse you could give me that I haven’t heard before or that would exonerate you.”