Chapter 18

Leaving the bonfire, Medra meets Vaughn Sabino on the beach and learns Theo invited him to the party. She warns him it is mostly highbloods and sellbloods, but Vaughn, charmed by Theo, goes anyway. Medra continues alone, restless and drawn to the surf.

In the moonlight she encounters a young vampire girl from a great house with blood on her chin and an unsettling smile. After the child passes, Medra hears a whimper and discovers a tiny, bloodied fluffin pup on the sand. Assuming the girl fed on it, Medra rushes the creature back to the First Year common room.

There, Florence identifies the animal as a very young male fluffin and uses limited healing to stabilize it, noting both blood loss and a deep gash likely inflicted by a highblood. She stitches and bandages the wound but warns the fever may worsen and that they may need a house healer by morning.

As the pup rests, Medra tells Florence that Blake killed Kiernan in the bonfire after a threat, with Kage present. Florence, rattled by her own thrallweave ordeal, grapples with guilt, fear, and relief, and wonders if highbloods follow any rules at all. They consider whether Kiernan was expendable in a rivalry test.

The friends discuss sellbloods and the dangerous hierarchies around highblood feeding. Florence questions the ideals she was raised with and admits she once longed to be a highblood; Medra counters by affirming Florence’s goodness. Florence points to Medra’s rescue of the fluffin as proof of Medra’s own compassion. They decide to rest and seek better healing if needed.

That night, Medra dreams not of friends or the pup but of Blake before the bonfire, hinting at unresolved tension and growing stakes within the highblood world.