The Golden Lily Read Online Free PDF Page A

your charms.”
    This earned me one of Dimitri’s rare, genuine laughs. “I think so. If you ask her, she’ll claim it was the staking and decapitation. But I’m sure it was the Zen wisdom that won her in the end.”
    My answering smile immediately melted into a yawn. It was amazing that I could joke with a dhampir. I used to have panic attacks being in the same room with them or Moroi. Slowly, over the last six months, my anxiety had begun to ease up. I’d never shake the feeling of “otherness” I got from all of them, but I’d come a long way. Part of me knew it was a good thing that I still drew that line between them and humans, but it was also good to be flexible in order to make my job smoother. Not too flexible, that inner Alchemist voice warned.
    “Here we are,” said Dimitri, puling up in front of my dorm at Amberwood Prep. If he’d noticed my shift in mood, he didn’t say so. “You should get some rest.”
    “I’ll try,” I said. “But I need to find out what’s going on with
    “I’ll try,” I said. “But I need to find out what’s going on with Eddie first.”
    Dimitri’s face turned al-business. “If you can find him, you should bring him over tonight, and we can see about getting a little work done. Sonya would love it. She has some new ideas.” I nodded, reminding myself that that was the kind of standard we needed to adhere to. Work, work, work. We had to remember our higher goals. “I’ll see what I can do.” I thanked him again and then headed inside, filed with resolve to carry out my mission. So, it was a bit disappointing when my lofty goals were shattered so quickly.
    “Miss Melrose?”
    I turned immediately at the sound of the last name I’d assumed here at Amberwood. Mrs. Weathers, our plump, elderly dorm matron, was hurrying over to me. Her face was lined with worry, which couldn’t bode wel.
    “I’m so glad you’re back,” she said. “I trust you had a good family visit?”
    “Yes, ma’am.” If by “good,” she meant “terrifying and unsettling.”
    Mrs. Weathers beckoned me over to her desk. “I need to talk to you about your cousin.” I held back a grimace as I recaled Jil’s e-mail. Cousin Angeline. All of us attending Amberwood were doing so under fake family connections. Jill and Eddie were my siblings.
    Angeline was our cousin. It helped explain why we were always together and getting involved with each other’s business.
    I sat down with Mrs. Weathers and thought longingly of my I sat down with Mrs. Weathers and thought longingly of my bed. “What’s happened?” I asked.
    Mrs. Weathers sighed. “Your cousin is having trouble with our dress code.”
    That was a surprise. “But we have uniforms, ma’am.”
    “Of course,” she said. “But not outside of classes.” That was true. I was in khaki dress pants and a green short-sleeved blouse, along with a small gold cross I always wore. I did a mental rundown of Angeline’s wardrobe, trying to recall if I’d ever seen anything concerning about it. Probably the most appaling part was its quality.
    Angeline had come from the Keepers, a mixed community of humans, Moroi, and dhampirs who lived in the Appalachian Mountains. Along with a lack of electricity and plumbing, the Keepers chose to make a lot of their clothing or at least wear it into threads.
    “Friday night, I saw her wearing the most appalingly short jean shorts,” continued Mrs. Weathers with a shudder. “I immediately chastised her, and she told me they were the only way she could be comfortable in the heat outside. I gave her a warning and advised she find more appropriate attire. Saturday, she appeared in the same shorts and a tank top that was totaly indecent. That was when I suspended her to the dorm for the rest of the weekend.”
    “I’m sorry, ma’am,” I said. Realy, I had no idea what else to say. I’d spent the weekend caught up in the epic battle to save humanity, and now … jean shorts?
    Mrs. Weathers grew