DIRTY BLOOD | TR ✔︎

TWENTY THREE ➢ RIDDLE

I slipped my ring onto Kaeda's finger.

That way, when they asked me, I could get access to her by saying she's my fiancé.

I'm sitting in her hospital room now, the events of today playing out in my mind.

Kaeda splitting her head open on the cement walls. The doctors said a part of her brain is damaged, but might be repaired over time. They said its a fifty-fifty chance.

Novaline is dead. Her funeral is in the next few days. The Wrath's are holding a life celebration party in recognition to Novaline's passing.

Mona almost died. I managed to grab her while she was on the bridge. She and Kaeda are under private protections, their rooms under maximum surveillance.

Even though Regulus isn't a threat, I know the other Death Eaters will come hunting for the both of them. Mona is the Dark Lord's puppet, a powerful weapon designed to fit him perfectly. And Kaeda? She's the muggleborn who managed to catch the attention of the Dark Lord's oldest son.

No one knows of their location except for Coraline Malfoy. I didn't even have to tell her, she showed up in the lobby of the hospital. That's how I finally realized why she'd always known what was going on around her, major or minor. That's how I figured out she was a sight-seer.

Coraline told me Kaeda will pull through. She's the one who told me not to stress and that she'll be fine given time.

I believe her. After all, she can see into the future.

A hand lands on my head and I'm immediately tensing up, subtly reaching for the wand that half dangles from my pocket.

"Don't bother." Mattheo says, fluffing my hair.

It's something he's done when we were younger, specifically  to annoy me.

But my hair isn't soft anymore.

It's crunchy and layered with dust from the fallen rubble of Hogwarts. Blood sticks to my hand in a way that almost feels like dried glue, pulling my skin tighter with every passing second. My clothes are ripped and bloody, shredded from fights and gashes still in my skin.

But I refused the nurses who wanted to fix me up. They'd said that some of the wounds I had needed tending to. Stitches.

Kaeda and Mona lost a lot of blood.

The nurses were scrambling around like headless chickens, trying and failing to find files that would say their blood types. I'd gotten fed up by the time Kaeda started seizing.

I'm a universal donor. They took a lot of blood from me.

A lot.

Mattheo stands in front of me, waving his hand close to my face. "Hello, Casper? Anyone in there?"

I smack his hand away, rolling my eyes. "Fuck off."

Mattheo pulls up a chair beside me.

I know he's hurting a lot. He barely spoke when I got him away from the castle. The love of his life is dead.

He was silent with Theo.

That's how I knew it broke him.

When Gryphon saw him, she pulled him into a hug and he stayed still for a moment before wrapping his arms around her. He cried into her shoulder for as long as he needed to. She never stopped him, never pushed him away, never told him it's okay and that he'll be okay.

Because he won't be. Not for a very long time.

He blames himself, I know he does. I can see the guilt in his eyes.