Free Afterlife by Claudia Gray Page A

the ivy leaves around us, I could imagine that we’d gone back to
the beginning. The sunlight seemed to pass through me, warming me throughout.
Despite the wind, my own red hair hung long and motionless, untouched, unreal.
“Why aren ‘ t you in there?”
    “Mrs. Bethany gave me an exemption this go — round. Said she’d
try to find a way to explain to the vampire students and teachers to leave me
the hell alone without tipping off the humans. Me walking into a pack of
vampires before she gives the hands — off speech — no way am I doing that
unarmed.”
    “She handled it better than I would’ve thought,” I said. “I
guess Mrs. Bethany takes the sanctuary thing here seriously.”
    Lucas shrugged. “She claims she’s got my back, but all the
same, I’m glad Ranulf sneaked our weapons up here in his trunk.”
    “Why not yours?”
    “If Mrs. Bethany doesn’t search mine, she’s a fool. And that
lady’s no fool.”
    I studied his face, reading the emotions he was trying to
hide. “You’re not frightened of the vampires. You never have been. It’s being
around the human students that gets to you.”
    He grimaced. “I can’t look at Vic without thinking — Bianca,
I would’ve killed him. Vic. One of the best friends I’ve ever had. I’d have
slaughtered him just to eat.”
    “Is that why you won’t be alone with him?” When he shot me a
look, I added, “Yeah, I noticed.”
    “No, you didn’t,” Lucas said quietly. “It’s not just me. It’s
Vic, too. He finds ways to avoid being illone with me.” I could hear the
pain in his voice.
    I put my arms around him; maybe it Wasn’t a real embrace,
but I could feel him next to me and knew he’d take some comfort from it. “He’ll
trust you again. It’s just going to take some time.”
    “How long will it be before l trust myself?”
    There was no answer to that. I said the only thing I could:
“I love you.”
    “And I love you. That’s why I’m going to make this work. I
have to.”
     * * * just like Lucas was
learning to be a vampire for my sake, I was learning to be a ghost for his.
This meant I had to get the hang of this haunting thing.
    I had the basics down: going invisible, appearing in my mist
form and!, when I had my bracelet or my brooch, becoming solid and lifelike
once more. Moving from place to place required some concentration, but it could
be done.
    Haunting Evernight Academy, though — that was going to be a
lot tougher. I’d need to figure out where I could travel in the hallways and
where I couldn’t. Leaving trails of frost around wherever I went would tip off
the other students and teachers about a ghost, and while I wasn’t sure they
could do anything about it but scream. I didn’t intend to find out.
    It was scary, to think about the myriad ways this could go
wrong. But holding back meant leaving Lucas alone, and that was something I couldn’t
do.
    As he walked into the school I followed. The heavy wooden
doors were simple enough to slip through, maybe because they, like me, had once
been alive. Once again, I entered the Evernight Academy great hall. Dozens of
students milled around, each wearing the uniform sweater with the school crest:
a shield emblazoned with two ravens on either side of a sword. To my surprise,
a wave of nostalgia swept through me. Maybe I hadn ‘ t often been happy at Evernight — but sometimes I had. This was where I’d fallen
in love and made so many good friends. This was where I’d lived.
    My happiness lasted only a moment, though, as I focused once
more on Lucas. Nobody attacked him, or said anything to him, which had to count
as a positive sign; apparently Mrs. Bethany’s speech had done the trick. But if
nobody planned on killing Lucas, nobody planned on forgiving and forgetting
either. Every vampire student stared at him with undisguised loathing. Lucas
didn’t slow down — he wasn ‘ t a guy to crumple
because of a little glaring — but that didn’t mean he liked