I'd only mentioned this to Eve a week ago.
How was this possible?
I knew things could travel across the ocean. Hadn't there been a shipment full of rubber ducks that had been on a ship that capsized? I knew they traveled across the ocean, finding a new home in the States somewhere. But a key ring?
It was too uncanny.
A too-impossible coincidence.
Sickness pulled on my stomach. And even though I was pathetically grateful to have the tatty memento back, memories of our peaceful time before my life had changed forever with my mum’s death, I felt a deep sense of unease.
I remembered exactly what I'd said to Eve.
How I'd phrased it.
“I wish...”
I'd wished for the key ring to be back in my possession.
I'd wished it, and here it was.
It wasn't as though it had appeared at the blink of an eye, and there was no sign of magic. But this? It was too surreal.
I hadn't thought of this key ring in over five years. There was something about Eve that made me think about the past, dredged it up in ways I'd been burying down for far too long.
She'd made me think of it, and the words had spilled from my lips almost as if I hadn't wanted them to, and now? The key ring was back in my possession. After I'd wished it back there.
Concern had me scrambling to my feet, and I slipped my finger through the rusted metal ring to clamp it in my grasp, then I grabbed my board and held it under my arm. The twenty-minute walk back to the Academy took place in ten. I ran at a steady pace, trying to use the motion and momentum to calm my thoughts, but there was no calming me down.
Was I scared? I didn't think I was, but I was definitely on edge. I felt like something momentous had just happened, and I wasn't capable of figuring out what it was.
As I ran through the secondary gate back into Caelum proper, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised to see Eve there.
She wasn't waiting for me. In fact, I wasn't sure what she was doing.
Many kids surfed and took advantage of the beaches while they were here, and there was a section close to the secondary gate where we could shower off and get clean. She was looking up at a tree on the path toward that area, staring up at it in a way that made me wonder what she was looking at.
Her intense focus meant she hadn't seen me arrive, and when I called out, “Eve?” she jerked in surprise.
Her beautiful eyes widened as she glanced over at me, her gaze drifting down over my wetsuit-clad form. I found myself smiling as she blushed, as usual, then she darted her attention back to the tree. “Hey, Reed.”
Her tone wasn't exactly welcoming, but I took no offense. She wasn't easy around any of us anymore. Not since she'd revealed several pertinent facts to us.
From the revelation that she was mated to more than one of us, as well as the news she'd done something to make Dre shift ahead of schedule and that she had access somehow to our feelings, she'd been quiet. But what had made her more reserved than before were the new marks she bore on her palms.
Quiet or not, she was ever curious, ever willing to learn, and I sensed that burning need was at play now—something had pricked her attention.
When I stared up at the squat tree, I saw it.
A parrot. As I squinted at it, remembered the classes from my first year here, I recognized it as a Senegal parrot from its fluffy gray head that morphed into a neon green throat and breastplate, before caving into neon yellow. Its bright green plumage gleamed in the hot sun. It made a few caws and then nestled under its green-gray wing in a way that was truly animal. It didn't give a damn that it had an audience, and that caw was a bird equivalent of “fuck off.” A thought that had me smirking in amusement.
“It’s a parrot,” I told her, unsure if she knew that.
Her knowledge banks were beyond peculiar. She knew words I didn't, yet the most random thing was new to her. That didn't make her an idiot, just inexperienced. Life hadn't been easy on Eve, and I had a feeling it wasn't about to get any easier either.
Not only was she in danger now, but she also had no real safe place. A thought that saddened me on her behalf.
It could be said that through our connection to her, we didn't have a haven either anymore. Caelum wasn't our safe place because of her, but at least we’d known the peace of the Academy for a long while. Eve hadn't had that, and she never would.
I tried to reassure myself that we would become that for her, that we would protect her against anything and anyone. But she didn't know that yet. She was understandably uncertain, and I wished I could change that for her. It didn't matter that my Hell Hound was unhappy with the change of status quo. It didn't matter that the uncertainty was making it freak out.
All that mattered was her.
My Chosen.
“I thought it was,” she mused. Her smile was small as she shot it my way. “I happened to see it from the window in the gym. I couldn't ignore the color. I've never seen anything like it.”
“You don't often see them here, to be honest. You were lucky.” I reached out and hesitantly pressed my hand to her shoulder. When she didn't flinch, I took that as a good sign, and squeezed her arm carefully. “Are you okay?”
“You all ask me that so often,” she said, after a long pause of thinking about it. Like I’d asked her about the reason for life on Earth.
My eyes softened. “That’s because we care.”
“I’m fortunate you do.” She turned her gaze back to the bird. “Especially when none of you had a choice in the matter.” Her mouth tightened. “First Stefan, then you, Frazer, and Dre. Now Nestor.” She shook her head. “I’m bad news, Reed. Trouble, just like Dre said.”
4
Eren
As I stared out the window of the common room and onto the yard, I kept an eye on Eve, who’d just been approached by Reed. They were talking about something that had him tensing up and her looking so unbearably sad I wanted to scream.
It felt like she’d been sad ever since we had returned from Aboh, and considering we’d experienced one mess after another since our return, I couldn’t exactly blame her.
Things were tough right now, and it didn’t seem as though they were going to let up anytime soon.
Our keeping her under the radar had just gotten a whole hell of a lot harder. She was going through foundation faster than a fashion model on the runway would as she used it liberally to cover her hands, and wearing gloves in eighty-degree weather just looked bizarre.
With Nestor still in bed recuperating, if shit hit the fan, we couldn’t exactly get off the island with ease.
That claustrophobic sensation, which had me feeling like I was choking, wasn’t something I was experiencing alone, I just knew it would be harder on me than most.
Dark spaces and I didn’t exactly get on well, after all.
Almost in response to the thought, I could feel the tiny muscles in my face freeze as my mind unwillingly took me back to that day. It was a long time ago now, but it might as well have been yesterday.
I forced myself not to remember the scent of my sweat, piss, and shit as I roasted alive in the rubble of my family home deep in Istanbul. I tried not to remember my mother’s screams before they faded into whimpers before she faded out of this world and into the next.
Clenching my jaw, I watched as Reed cupped Eve’s shoulder, but was surprised when she let him haul her into his embrace. The guy had evidently been surfing, but Eve didn’t seem to mind that he was clammy from the sea. He curved his arm around her and squeezed, his face intent as he spoke to her while Eve remained silent.
I’d admit to feeling protective of Eve. She was Pack, and that was all the excuse I needed, but equally, that wasn’t enough to explain the strange sentiments she inspired in me. And considering only Samuel and myself weren’t mated to her, it was either going to go down one of two ways.
Either we were the unlucky pricks who’d be without a mate in our Pack—even though that w
as normal, our Pack was turning out to be anything but—and Eve would still be ours regardless.
Or, we were just waiting on Eve’s eighth soul to pick us.
I wondered what triggered the selection process, but I wasn’t fretting about it too much. There was so much more to worry over. Dre could shift now, and considering what Eve could do, we were just waiting on Nestor and Reed’s souls to become dominant.
What Eve had done with Dre had changed everything for us. Everything. If she could force our souls into claiming dominance, then we didn’t have to wait here for the portal.
Didn’t have to stick around like sitting ducks just waiting to be shot at by the faculty.
The prospect of my Lorelei taking control of me a few years ahead of schedule didn’t perturb me. At eighteen, I’d been ready, but the way creatures developed had me stuck in this stasis, along with the other men in my class and the year above.
There were certain things nobody had an answer for, and while we were here, waiting, the unknown oddly enough gave me hope. No one knew why the portal existed. No one knew how a female picked her Chosen, and no one knew what the mark meant.
That language that appeared on a male’s back?
We knew it was tongues, the language we all spoke after we crossed the portal on our arrival at Caelum, but the words?
We had no idea what they meant.
No one recognized them, and as far as our records ran, we knew we’d been around since the beginning. Back when Noah had flooding issues and King David needed a haircut.
Some things, no matter how much time we put into research, could never be explained and in truth, that was what gave me hope.
If we couldn’t explain that stuff, things that were intrinsic to life here at Caelum, then why should we be able to explain Eve?
Maybe other creatures were like her, but they’d just never come to Caelum.
Maybe she wasn’t destined to become a Ghoul at twenty-one…
That, naturally, was my biggest fear.
“She’s safe with him.”
I jolted in response to the words, then turned to nod at Samuel in greeting. “Didn’t think she wasn’t,” I told him earnestly.
The other guy shrugged. “He’s Hell Hound. I know what their reps are. Damon is scared of him—”
Damon was one of the facility’s top Enforcers. Only the best could go out and recruit on Caelum’s behalf. Damon was one of them and Merry, another Enforcer, had been the one to bring Eve back to the nest.
“I’m sure he is, but he’s her Chosen. It’s different.”
“I’m glad you realize that,” he replied, and there was a stiffness to his tone that had nothing to do with the hint of the queen’s English accent that colored his words.
Samuel often came across as pompous. Not just because of his faint accent, which even years here hadn’t destroyed, but it was his manner too.
Dude could be an asshole.
“I do,” I assured him.
“Why are you watching them together then?” he asked quietly, cutting me a look that I sensed rather than saw. My attention was back on Eve.
“I’m not. I’m watching Eve. Reed just came back from surfing. Eve went out because she saw a parrot in that tree.”
“And you let her go out there alone?”
“She doesn’t realize it, but she’s got cabin fever.”
Sam grimaced. “Shit. Yeah. We’re keeping a tight lockdown on her.”
“It’s only going to get worse,” I murmured sadly, knowing that was the truth.
There was no way we couldn’t watch over Eve constantly. If we did, only the fuck knew what would happen.
Not only was she a loose cannon where we were concerned, but with the rest of the staff?
None of us knew how long she’d be able to keep this shit that was going on with her under wraps, and the extra pressure she was under? Creatures didn’t work well under that kind of thing. We had a tendency to blow up first, and then regret the aftermath later.
Knowing that, I’d let her go outside, let her feel some freedom. What harm could she do in the yard, I’d figured. And I hadn’t been wrong. She’d just been watching the bird until Reed had come along, and now he was caring for her.
“I think we need to bury the hatchet,” Samuel commented, breaking into my musings.
My top lip quirked up. “In each other’s skulls?”
Sam smirked. “We can go that route if you want, but we both know how this is going to go down.”
“You waiting on a mark too?”
He nodded. “Yeah. I’m thinking that’s how this is going to pan out.”
“Out of curiosity,” I asked, my voice quietening down to make sure no one could hear, “why do you think that?”
“Because it’s too uncanny that both of our Packs contain one of each soul.”
“That’s my logic as well.” I couldn’t deny that hearing Samuel confirm my belief buoyed my confidence.
There was nothing, I’d come to realize, that I wanted more than to be Eve’s Chosen. Even if she already had five of them.
Five.
God, who knew that was even possible?
“Do you think she’ll turn Ghoul?”
At his question, everything inside me tensed. “No. I don’t think so.”
“Maybe all Ghouls have this eighth soul—”
I shook my head. “No. No way. We’d have heard about that in Ghoul Theory.”
Yeah, that was one of the classes we had to take here at the Academy.
No one ever said the faculty was imaginative with their courses.
“Yeah, that’s true,” Samuel conceded, and I sensed his relief.
“This eighth thing, it’s too out there. If it was a regular thing, we’d know about it. Plus, there’s no way Nicholas wouldn’t have put a tighter watch on her when she admitted that she had eight to him—”
“Maybe he did. Maybe you four were his idea of guardians. Let’s face it, you’re loyal to the cause, and Stefan would lick Caelum’s boots if it had feet,” he countered. “Everyone knows how much he loves this place. He’s like the only dude who’s happy about having to pay a tithe when we graduate.”
To support the Academy for future generations, all soldiers had to pay a part of their salary to Caelum. Stefan, who’d been born and raised with nothing, whose first home had been here, had been beyond dedicated to the cause. Samuel was right.
The more I thought about it, the more his words made sense. “You’re not wrong.”
Sam snorted. “That’s just another way of saying I’m right.”
My lips curved, but I kept my focus on Eve, who Reed was dragging over to the outside shower area.
“Perhaps,” was all I said to Samuel.
“No perhaps about it. If Stefan hadn’t been her Chosen, and he’d found out about all this shit?”
Slowly, I nodded. “He’d have told the faculty.”
Samuel folded his arms across his chest, and now that Reed and Eve had disappeared together, he turned so he could lean against the wall to my right. I glanced his way and asked, “What do you want, Samuel?”
“Honestly?”
“Of course. No point in lying to me.”
“Peace.”
“You want peace?”
“Don’t you?”
“Don’t answer a question with a question,” I retorted waspishly.
“That’s the only answer I have. I want peace, but I’m not going to get it. Eve has proven that. However, that doesn’t mean our Packs have to remain at war.
“Things have been neck and neck between us for a long time, and I know we could carry on perpetuating the animosity between us, but for Eve’s sake, for all our sakes, I want to let things simmer down.”
“Why did you come to me about this? Why not Stefan?”
“Because he’s a hot head. It’s in his nature.” Samuel’s lips curved. “Loreleis and Vampires are far more sensible.”
Loreleis were cooler tempered
than Incubi and Succubi. It came as part of our talents—we were manipulators. You couldn’t do that if you weren’t, by nature, intrinsically apt at monitoring situations with a rationale that few of our kind possessed.
But just because he was right didn’t stop me from narrowing my eyes at him in consideration.
“I’ll bite,” I said, mocking his Vampiric soul. “What’s your game?”
Samuel shook his head. “No game. We have a mate now, and she comes with a war of her own. Fighting battles among ourselves will only weaken us in the long run.”
I frowned, knowing that was the truth. Eve brought with her a whole host of complications that I knew she didn’t even begin to comprehend. Christ, I didn’t understand it myself, and this was my world. Eve had been here for fewer weeks than I had fingers, dammit.
“Truce?” I stated, but it came out as more of a question.
“Truce.”
A thought popped up. “Since when are you so strategic?”
His lips tightened. “I always have been. Most things I do for a reason.”
“You like chess?” It was a random question, but I was curious.
He nodded.
“I do. Care for a match sometime? Dre is better at it than me though,” I said critically.
His brows rose. “The Were plays chess?”
“He’s not as stupid as he likes everyone to think he is,” was all I told him.
Samuel eyed me for a second, then dipped his chin. “I’d like that.” Then, he paused, hesitated some more, and asked, “In your Pack, who’s the strategist?”
My lips curved. “You were right on the money. Me.”
His arms tightened a second before they relaxed. “Speaking of… who deals with money?”
My brows rose. “Why?”
He snorted. “Don’t tell me you’ve all been wasting your allowance since you got here?”
The day we landed in Caelum, be it at thirteen or seventeen like Eve, we each were handed a credit card with funds we were allowed to spend on whatever the hell we wanted.
The funds weren’t limitless, but they were more than ample. And for kids like Stefan, Nestor, and Dre, who’d been raised without a pot to piss in—not literally, but still—the cards were hit hard when they were first received.
Eight Souls: The Caelum Academy Trilogy: Part TWO Page 10