Chapter 1

When Seraphina was being bullied, everyone at the academy just stood there and watched.

Sure, she was the undisputed campus queen—but her bloodline was low, her status worthless.

Some people poured rotting blood on her. Others spread rumors that she was whoring herself out in the human world.

After she killed herself, not a single person showed up to her memorial.

"Just some lowblood vampire. She's dead. So what."

The night before it happened, Seraphina had been locked in the abandoned chapel.

By the time I broke the blood seal on the door, she was curled up beneath the MoonSilver altar, an iron collar—the kind worn by blood servants—clamped around her neck.

She grabbed my hand.

"Mira, if your bloodline is low, are you just supposed to take it? Let anyone degrade you?"

I told her no. Over and over. I told her I'd stay by her side and fight back with her.

But the next morning, she drove a MoonSilver spike through her own heart.

And now, the blood ledger she left behind is granting wishes to every single person who humiliated her.

How could I possibly believe that's forgiveness?

So when Nora tried to leave her blood print on the ledger, I clamped down on her wrist and wouldn't let go.

"Mira, let me go."

Nora's fingers were shaking.

"The physician said my brother's bloodline is already drying up. He won't survive the next full moon."

I shook my head. "This blood ledger isn't a blessing. It's a curse."

"A curse?" Nora's head snapped up. "Vivian got her beauty. Dorian got his recommendation. Everyone else is fine."

She wrenched her hand free. "What makes you so sure it'll hurt me?"

"Nora, none of this adds up! Just wait—"

"Easy for you to say!" Nora cut me off, her voice rising. "But I can't afford to wait!"

The room went dead quiet.

Only the blood ledger kept throbbing, slow and steady, like an exposed heart.

Vivian was the first to laugh.

"Mira, you don't have a brother. How could you possibly understand what Nora's going through?"

"Yeah—her brother's life or death? Obviously that matters way less than you proving you're the only one here with a brain."

My fingers curled tighter. "I just want Nora to wait."

"Wait?" Vivian shot me a look. "For what? A front-row seat at her brother's funeral?"

A few low laughs rippled through the crowd.

Dorian leaned against the wall, hands in his pockets, and drawled, "Mira, give it a rest."

His tone was calm, but it carried that familiar top-student arrogance.

"Everyone who left a blood print proved the ledger works."

I looked at him and said, word by word:

"Don't forget—the one who started this blood ledger was Seraphina."