My new stepbrother smiled at breakfast like an honor-roll saint.
At midnight, I found him under the academy chapel with blood on his cuff and a crown of black fire above his head.
The students kneeling around him called him heir.
I took one step back.
The old floorboard betrayed me.
Every candle in the chamber blew out except the one in his hand.
Lucian looked up and smiled like he had been waiting all night.
"Mara," he said.
"Rule one of this school: never follow a boy you are not ready to belong to."