The last thing I was expecting to find at school after the party was Athanasios talking to Minx and Mira.

I was still in my PJs, and I hid quickly behind a column when I saw him from afar. I felt cold chills all over my body. There was no question why he was here.

He must have heard about the punch Roman had given Jason, and he must have thought I had something to do with it.

And I did have something to do with it, I guess. At least that's what Penelope would have said if she was there. She would have wrinkled her nose, and she would have said, 'well, perhaps if you hadn't insisted on wearing that cheap make-up all over your face...'

I decided I did not need a Penelope inside my head to ruin my day, when her husband was a few feet away from me talking to my teachers.

I imagined Athanasios trying to swing a punch at me, taunting me, to use my powers. Matias, let's see how courageous you are now...

Before I could lose myself in distracting thoughts about my family, a voice brought me back to Earth.

"Isn't that your adoptive father?" Jonathan was asking me.

I nodded slowly. I didn't want Athanasios to hear us. And Jonathan looked like someone who had a good heart, but he was reckless and he didn't think things through, and I didn't know if he was someone I wanted to have on my side in that exact moment.

"Don't worry," Jonathan commented naively, crossing his arms and leaning against the column. "He's surely not here for you. He must be here for Jason, because of the way he behaved."

"You know very little of Athanasios, then," I said, my heart skipping a beat, because I wasn't used to talking about him in that tone.

Other kids had been sold to houses or working places far worse than mine. I had to remind myself that I was grateful that, after all, it was only Athanasios and Penelope who had brought me in. I never had to live in the streets, well, not anymore, I never had to fight for food, join a criminal organization or sell my body.

There were things that were far, far worse. Then why wasn't I feeling exactly grateful in that moment?

"Like his paintings," I blurted out, to amend what I'd done. "You know nothing of Athanasios' paintings."

Jonathan's teal eyes were looking into mine in a way that made me ask whether he really spoke Megleni after all. He seemed one hundred percent confused.

He tilted his head. "Does Athanasios paint?"

"Ah, I wish," I joked. "He poses for portraits. He has one for every time he's changed style or haircut. He also has portraits that represent him surrounded by things he doesn't have anymore. Sometimes he'll be like, when I was five years old I only had a wooden soldier, I did not have as many toys as you have, Jason. And next thing you know, he's taking some portrait off the wall and showing you an oil painting of a chubby five-year-old with a wooden soldier in his hands, who's eating from the three-legged-table he's always telling us about."

Jonathan raised an eyebrow, then thought better of it and started chuckling, unsure.

I know what he must have thought. It did not sound too far off from the stories I made up about my father. My entire face became red.

"I swear I'm not making it up!" I pleaded. "Not this time. Athanasios' paintings are one of the worst things in this world."

Jonathan seemed convinced. "I believe you," he said. "And good luck with Athanasios, whatever he wants from you or Jason. Yesterday... you looked pretty cool."

"Really?" I asked.

"Yeah, sure... you're... pretty," Jonathan winced, like he wasn't convinced it was the best word to describe a boy. "What I mean is, you have a nice composure around people."

I wasn't sure Jonathan knew how much those things didn't sound exactly like compliments, so I didn't tell him. I valued his opinion, but there were other students that I hoped I impressed more.

"Anyway, see you," he added, waving his hand as if he still had his feather hat and he was paying me his respects. "I need to talk to Cypress about today's lesson. He tutors me, you know?"

I didn't know, and I was wondering what one of them could possibly enjoy about the other, since they were both good people but very different from one another. For example, I talked to Jonathan to have fun, and I talked to Cypress to become better at school.

I waddled shyly in the aisle, hoping not to draw any attention to me, but obviously I had to catch Athanasios' attention. Of course, it couldn't be helped.

"Matias," he snapped his fingers. "Come here."

I bowed my head, and joined him in what I hoped was a respectful enough manner. Mira's eyes were wide, as if she could feel how uneasy I felt.

"Now," Athanasios looked me in the eyes. I was half a head shorter than him. "Tell me exactly what happened yesterday. And don't give me none of your lies. I'd loathe to think I hadn't been able to teach you how to be honest. Remember that you're out of the gutters because of me."

He almost spat on the word 'gutters'. Athanasios hated the lifestyle poor people and orphans had to live, since he was rich, and he had culture, and he loved travelling. He was convinced that, even without resources, a man could make himself. He thought he'd had it bad, when he was a kid, because his rich mother married a poor father and lost her family's money. He had become a Blood Drinker mostly out of wish other people would respect him, if they couldn't respect his father's name.

"Yesterday," I swallowed. "There was the Ball, and the teachers told us to find a partner. You even mentioned it, in your letters. So Jason got stuck with Roman, but he really didn't want to dance with a boy..."

"Stop right there," Athanasios had a terrifying expression behind his glasses. "Who's Roman? Why was Jason dancing with a boy?"

"Because you said to find a partner and the girls were already paired off," I said nervously. "Roman is the Speaker. They went as friends. Well, really, they loathe each other, but still... And I was at the ball too, and my partner was an older classmate, Carmela..."

"Why would a grown woman be interested in you?" Athanasios asked. "Have you showed off enough for the whole year in those first months?"

I winced. It was not like that. Carmela didn't like me that way and I didn't like her. We went together because none of us could go with the people we really wanted to go with.

"She's not a grown woman," I said. "She's fifteen..."

"I don't care!" Athanasios snapped. "You should have acted like the person you are, someone below Jason in the gerarchy of this family. When the older girl asked you to the Ball, you should have told her to go with Jason."

I bit my lip. I really didn't know what to reply.

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"But," Athanasios added. "This is not why I've come here at school. I wanted to discuss something with Mister Morris."

Mira flinched. I sadly, wasn't expecting anything less from Athanasios than to leave her out the conversation just because she was a woman.

"Yes, you were telling me something about... the Court, right?" Minx asked, like one who didn't like to discuss politics.

"Bertha Collins asked me to do something for her," Athanasios said. "As you know, Matthias, I've never liked the Court much. I'm still undecided."

For the second time, I did not know what to say. The reason why Athanasios had never liked the Court was that, at first, he was pretty bummed up that a hundreds of people were working for them and nobody ever asked him to. Athanasios fancied himself one of the best Blood Drinkers around, and certainly the best in Ichor.

Then, when the members of the Court became from hundreds to less than ten, my adoptive father became somewhat even more furious. He kept saying that it was impossible that they could handle things like before, and that they weren't hiring. If they'd been hiring, he felt confident he'd get a role.

However, through the years, he remained friends with the more prominent members of the Court, the ones that were still alive today, since they never got sent to the suicidal missions. And Bertha Collins was one of them.

I'd met her only once when I was a kid and I did not like her. She always dressed in black and white linen and she had no fantasy. At the time, those were the only things I noticed about her. She didn't want to play with me or listen to my stories, and her outfit was incredibly boring.

But now, as a teenager, I couldn't help but wonder whether Bertha hid more behind her demure appearance. Perhaps she wasn't even that good of a person. After all, most of Athanasios' friends weren't good people.

Minx smiled tightly. "And you needed my opinion... because?"

"Oh well, you're a famous Blood Drinker I really admire," Athanasios said, smiling even more falsely. "And this project... is really top secret, I don't know if I should take it. Besides, Mrs Collins told me that, if it works, the two of you might need to be contacted. You see, this will have something to do with your teachings as well."

"But we can't help you if you don't tell us what it is," Mira blurted, probably annoyed to be left on the sidelines.

Minx seemed to recognize her mistake in talking to my adoptive father that way. "Well, it's not that we don't trust your judgement, Mister Ducas, we don't suppose you're doing anything foolish or possibly dangerous..."

It came off as a half-compliment, which were, because of his difficult personality, the compliments Athanasios enjoyed best. He loved the flattery but hated the flatterers. His smile stretched, his face more at ease.

"Maybe," Athanasios looked at me with eyes that could kill. I shivered. I'd always been afraid of that gaze. "Maybe, we should talk about it in private when the kid is not around."

"That seems sensible, yes," Mira said, still a little flushed and pissed off, by the look of her face.

They joined in an office, and left me alone. I wasn't really sure what to do -- I didn't feel like eating breakfast with the others, when I saw Roman in the distance.

"Hey Rome!" I greeted him.

He scrunched his eyebrows. "Don't you dare call me that."

"Oh. Sorry. I heard Aurora and Atticus doing that," I said, a little embarrassed.

"There are some things only Atticus can get away with," Roman said and it didn't look very much like he was joking. "Aurora can get away with some things because I'm used to her, but she's walking on thin ice."

I nodded. "I understand. I really do. Hey, do you know Athanasios is here at school today? I figured it was because of the whole Jason thing, but he wants an opinion from Minx Morris about whether he should help the Court or not."

"It won't be an honest, heartfelt opinion," Roman pointed out. "Isn't it illegal to say no to the Court or something?"

I shrugged. "Athanasios has been their friend for a long time. I figure he can say whatever he wants to them, as long as he makes it sound polite."

"And do you know what is this favor the Court wants of Athanasios?" Roman scratched his wild curls.

"That's the problem," I said. "Top secret. He won't say it in front of me. That's why he left me alone to walk around the school while he's in another room with our teachers."

"You don't think it's something to uh... defeat dybbuks, right?" Roman looked at me uneasily.

"Shit," I replied. "I mean... it's not like I'd forgotten. But still..."

"Yeah, we didn't have much time to meet up to discuss it lately," he replied, and was it only my impression, or he sounded a little hurt?

"Well," I felt compelled to say. "It's not only our fault, you know? The lessons have been hard, and then there was the Ball to organize... and can I say something? I don't know why, but I feel like I need to say it. Carmela and I went to the Ball as just friends."

Roman blinked at me. I couldn't tell if he was disinterested or if he wanted to appear that way.

"You know, it's not my style," I added after a while. "To go out with an older girl. I just thought I'd say that. Before you started making jokes about us, or things like that."

"Matias," Roman said, and it sounded oddly affectionate. "I don't care about things like that. I don't care who Carmela dates or who... you date."

"Ah. Of course," I replied. "And anyway, thank you for sticking up to Jason for me. It meant a lot, that you didn't think me stupid."

He opened his eyes wide. "I would never think you were a freak, Matias. Never! Besides I was hating dancing with Jason and I was looking for the right occasion to hit him either way. He's such a jerk."

Strangely, that didn't make me feel better. I usually liked knowing there were people who despised Jason as much as I did... but I was under the impression Roman had punched him specifically for what he'd said to me. Not because of how he behaved in general.

But Roman seemed to understand my expression, which was a huge step forward in our friendship. "Hey..." he added unsure. "He shouldn't have said that thing to you anyway. I told you. You... the make-up was nice."

He was oddly tongue-tied but I didn't pry.

"About our friend," I said. "Because I'm still not using the D word. Not either one of them. I won't say neither demon nor dybbuk. About our friend, perhaps we should join forces and defeat him as soon as the lessons start again, right?"

In fact, after the Ball, the lessons were suspended for a week, just to give the students a little holiday. It was not a lot of time, and I hoped it was enough for Roman.

"Besides," I asked. "You haven't seen it anywhere else, have you? After it possessed Atticus?"

He shook his head no. "I'd been hoping you'd seen it, actually," he said. "I don't like the idea that we're not tracking it down. It could be anywhere."

I tried not to think about that. "We will surely find a way to defeat it soon. In the meantime, let's look for it. Do you still remember our plan?"

His mouth stretched into a grin. "Find it, make it possess a good-looking host where it will want to stay, ask it to tell its story, pretend we're listening to it and say a phrase in Enochian that will send it back to where it was from."

"That's good, that's good," I replied. "We should upgrade. We should become fifth-years, and they should give us a certificate that says we passed our Blood Tasks..."

"Your Blood Tasks," Roman said, and I realized the mistake too late. "I will never be a Blood Drinker."

"So what?" I couldn't help but bite back. "You're a Speaker, which is much better. And why do you even want to become a Blood Drinker in the first place? To live mostly during the night? To drink blood? To some people it's not a big deal. It is to me. I was bought and sold specifically for this, and I never had any choice in the matter. At least you were born and you will die a Speaker. I will have to become something I've never been."

"At least you've been warned, many times," Roman replied, with fury in his eyes. "You think I had a say when I was young, and I started hearing the voices? It was difficult, Matias. Fucking difficult. Thankfully I had already found Mira and Minx. I had no idea what my father would have made of that. And you asked me why I want to be a Blood Drinker. Because the only people I consider my family are. And I'll always be different from them, whatever I do. And don't tell me you know how that feels, because at least everyone in your family is concerned with your becoming a Blood Drinker as well. And why would you want to be something different? You've been raised all your whole life for this."

I realized it would be no use explaining it to him. I didn't want to be a Blood Drinker, and I would have given it up even if it meant I wouldn't become anything. I was trying to act like I belonged at the school, but I was more distracted than others and it often showed.

I couldn't bring myself to care. I wasn't looking forward the day Minx and Mira told us we would need to slay a Leviathan or a Lilim all by ourselves. I wasn't excited at the idea of trying to fight as a team, trying to remember not to get in the way of Cypress' graceful agility moves and Jonathan's amazing fencing. I was more ready than them, but it didn't mean I had my heart in it.

And most of all, I was not ready to graduate in a six years time just to find myself doing what? Being Athanasios' valet all his life? What if he was going to keep me around as some sort of sidekick? I was from Ichor. I would have to come back home and patrol the streets at night with Athanasios, Penelope, Jason and maybe Evangeline and Cora, who were a little better, but not ideal company.

"Matias?" Roman shook me from my thoughts. "Matias? What are you thinking about? I didn't want to startle you."

He wasn't saying he was sorry, but that was okay. I wasn't expecting him to.

"I have Atticus," Roman added then. "But maybe you've been feeling this way because you don't have anyone you like amongst the Blood Drinkers. But don't worry. Speakers are often required on missions, and even though you'll live in Ichor, I can perform a few exorcisms if you call on me."

He winced, either because he didn't like the idea to grow up to be a Speaker, or because it sounded a promise too final for someone like him.

However, I accepted.

Then, I realized something.

"Speaking of working in teams," I said. "I have an idea of who the Dybbuk could be haunting right now."