a hill at the edge of the

h coffee in their hands. By night it was something else entirely. The lamps along the quad glowed amber, the tall windows filled with c

er own heartbeat. Morning lectures. Lunch on the library steps. Afternoon seminars that dragged

the same moment the vampire students began to arrive, stepping out of cars and shadows and side doors, shaking sleep from their shoulders as though the evening were

ag in her lap, as she did most evenings, and

again," said a

in. He had his own lectures at the day school, though he was a year ahead of her, and he

aring. I'm

taring wi

m. Kieran had never been a loud person, but he had a way of saying the truest

nk about it?" sh

cho

girl with silver-streaked hair laughed at something her friend said, and the sound floated u

not an

re was something careful in his eyes. "I don't want yo

" Lyra said. "Not for a

a half-blood could stay fully human and live out a normal life under the sun. Or they could take the vampire blood into themselves, co

in quiet ways she could not explain, in the way she saw clearly in dim rooms, in the faint ache she felt when the sun climbed too high. And when she thought of the

her a hand. "Mother wants us home for dinner,

drifted across the quad toward the far side of the path, and she

his pockets and his head slightly tilted, watching the stream of students with an expression of calm, patient attention. He was older than most of the students, per

breath

earlier, on a stone porch at dusk, belonging to a so

en D

e had stood at the edge of the room with his mother and said a few quiet words about her father. But they had never really talked. He had alwa

he had felt her gaze, and t

her. Something moved behind his dark eyes, something she could not read, steady and careful and strangely tender. Then

at?" Kier

. "Madame Draven's son. W

fter him with a slight frown. "He

shook off the odd flutter in her chest. "Come on.

hate and secretly enjoyed. As Kieran drove, Lyra rested her head against the window and watched the amber lights slid

waiting a long time and

Mrs. Hale about the proper way to season a roast, and Damien was sprawled across the sofa with

f the stairs and followed the soun

the careful one he saved for guests, but a real one, head tilted back, shoulders loose. Camille sat on the ed

oice soft. "I put salt in the sugar bowl. Mama nearly cried. I

en it," Adrian sa

ee Mrs. Ha

would

ate an entire tray of her b

en, at fourteen, and Adrian had made him eat every one. She opened her mouth to say so,

familiar one. "There she is. Lyra, come and sit. Camille was

it," Lyra said, an

d up at her with wide, grateful eyes. "You're all so kind to let

to," Lyra said

t no one in the room would have noticed, her eyes flicked to Adrian, then to

of the night school across the city, a dark-haired young man sat alone at the edge of a quiet room, a

the others had gone to bed, Camille sat at the little