Chapter 59

VALERIA.

Stefano steps in front of me, and for a whole moment, the world seems to stop spinning. I look at him, wondering where he came from and how he knew I was here. But most of all, I’m just wondering why he came to save me considering everything that happened between us.

I almost can’t believe he’s real. Yet here he is, pushing me behind him, shielding me as Professor Blossom turns to us again. He sneers, spitting on the ground, his eyes still fixed on me.

“Hand her over, and perhaps I will spare your life,” he commands.

For one scary second, I thought that this would translate into another round of control, with him making Stefano do his bidding. But to my surprise, Stefano doesn’t budge. They continue to circle each other, with Professor Blossom trying to find an opening to get to me. His shoulders are tense, his eyes flashing red. He doesn’t take his eyes off me, and when I step a little to further to my side, he lunges.

But Stefano is quick. Perhaps much quicker than he is. Just as Professor Blossom steps forward, Stefano immediately blasts his face with a pillar of fire so bright that it almost zaps the oxygen in the tunnel.

Professor Blossom screams, clutching his face as he falls to his knees. Stefano grabs my arm and carries my mother in his arms in one go, taking us to the mouth of the tunnel that leads above, where the entrance is.

“Shift into your wolf form,” he tells me urgently. “I will strap in your mother on your back, and if you go fast enough in the slope, you would make it out of here. Got it?”

“How about you?” I ask shakily. “You can’t stay here. He will kill you.”

A sad expression crosses his features, and my heart sinks when I realize that that was his intention all along.

“I will stop the monsters,” he tells me. “All the people in the School are on their way to Society. Just follow them there, okay? You will be safe there.”

I shake my head, a single tear escaping my eye. “Stefano. You can’t do that. Please…”

He holds my face in his hands. “I can, and I will. For you.”

I want to hold him in my arms and never let him go, but in the end, I know that he’s right. Perhaps the only way to stop the monsters and Professor Blossom entirely is to burn the school to the ground.

But I can’t live with myself knowing that he died for me.

“Go,” he urges me, pushing me towards the tunnel. “Now.”

This time, I don’t protest. A different plan is already in place in my mind, and that is to take my mother to safety and come back here to save him. I take a deep breath, ready to shift into my wolf form, but before I can complete the transformation, Professor Blossom starts to get up, wielding the knife again.

“Stefano!” I yell.

He turns around just in time to avoid the stab, firing another blast flame on the professor’s face. But this time, he manages to duck, and as he does so, he swerves and plants the blade directly in the middle of Stefano’s back, twisting it until I can hear a sick crunching sound.

Stefano falls on one knee, blood bubbling out of his mouth. He pushes out another cloud of fire at Professor Blossom, whose face is now pink and raw, but he just deflects it with an almost lazy flick of his wrist.

With that, he takes Stefano by the throat and lifts him into the air. Stefano ignites low flames on his palms and presses them onto Professor Blossom’s face, sending smoke and sizzles up into the air. The smell of burning skin invades the room, but he still doesn’t let go.

Instead, he slams Stefano on his back, lodging the knife deeper into his body.

Stefano rolls over, and as I meet his gaze, I only see one word: go.

“No,” I whisper.

My ears start to ring. Suddenly I don’t feel like I’m in my body. The whole world stops spinning, and I’m just stuck in the middle watching the pool of blood around Stefano spreading on the ground like a puddle. The smell of it is triggering something in me, but I shake my head and step back.

“You don’t need to fight it.”

Professor Blossom laughs under his breath, his eyelids scorched into nothing but flaps of muscle. He’s dripping blood, his hair completely burned off and his clothes nothing but singed black fabric clinging to his skinned chest. However, as he raises his hand to his face, I see that some of his scorched muscles are starting to reform.

He’s healing himself.

A switch flips inside of me. I can’t let him live. I would happily die right here if it means taking him down.

I lunge at him, summoning the sharp nails of my wolf form and feeling the razor-like nails flipping out of my human hand. I’m ready to swipe at his face, to reduce him to ribbons until it’s impossible for him to heal himself, but he raises his other hand and binds me to another controlling spell.

This time, I’m ready for it. I know that that is the only leverage he carries against me, so I brace myself against it, envisioning the spell as some kind of barrier I have to push through. I can still feel it gripping my muscles and struggling to take control, but I land in front of him anyway, slashing at his newly healed face.

Blood spurts out of him, splattering all over my face. I wipe it off fiercely, but some of it gets into my mouth. I expect the coppery taste to fill me with disgust, but the first drop of it is like nectar against my tongue, sweet and satisfying. I can feel my skin getting colder, and a different kind of energy starts to run in my veins.

And I hate it. I hate him for bringing it out of me.

I lunge at him again, going for another, but this time, he catches my wrist and breaks it with a single squeeze.

Pain attacks my entire body. My vision gets cloudy, but I fight to stay alert, kicking him squarely in the abdomen and sending him flying into the wall.

I don’t know if it’s my force or his weight, but the moment his body hits the wall, cracks start to spread all over the ceiling of the tunnel. Small debris and dust rains on my face and everyone on the ground like snow.

Meanwhile, the thunderous steps of the monsters are drawing nearer and nearer. I can see their eyes shining in the darkness beyond now, and I can almost smell the mustiness of their white skin. As their footsteps echo in the tunnels, more and more cracks start to appear. On the walls, on the floor. Everywhere.

The tunnels are about to collapse, and the only way out is up.

On and on the monsters start to march. More debris fall from the ceiling, big chunks of rock and soil and grime landing on the floor, which end up creating more cracks. I take a step back, and I realize that the ground behind me is not stable anymore.

My foot falls through.

I cry out, scrambling for balance. I gather my mother in my arms, reaching for Stefano who is now covered in blood. It sticks to me, filling me with that energy again. Then I suddenly know what to do. After all, I am a hybrid. The daughter of a Luna and the Vampire King.

Professor Blossom tries to stand up, but his face is oozing so much blood that he falls over, pushing a whole chunk of the floor into the chasm below.

I know that eventually, we will all be plunging into that gaping abyss.

So I take a deep breath and sink my mouth against the open wound on Stefano’s abdomen, letting his blood fill my mouth.

The thick liquid seeps into my throat, and I swallow it all with tears in my eyes. The sweet taste is overpowering now, but it’s doing its job. The energy in my body starts to pool at my gut, dragging my body temperature way below until my body is frozen. Then, bat-like wings start to spurt out of my back, tearing into my skin.

With that, I take off into the air just as the floor gives way, breaking into pieces and disappearing into the abyss.

As I go further up into the air, the last thing I see is the whole school crumbling.