“You’re not my sister,” Szar popped off.
“Matter of opinion. I’d like to continue to think that you are my brother. At least I assume now you know you were not a mistake like you’ve always pinned against me. You will have your crown and I will let you.” Oops! Probably said that wrong.
“Let me?” Yep! I was right.
“Not what I meant. I mean I won’t stand in your way. I will encourage it. You have always been amazing at details and that makes you a better Val leader. I am too world minded and can’t narrow down my thinking to just one group of people. I know now why I think this way. I’m not happy with this, but do I really have a choice?”
“Why not?” Szar quipped.
“Would you have me give up?”
“No,” he said tersely. He was the bratty one now.
“Szar, I’m in this with you. Will you please just be my brother. That’s all I want.”
He stayed quiet for a long time. “Yes, I couldn’t say no to you. What’s the next move?”
“I was told to get all of us together, include the docs, and meet the Were leader. We will decide together from there. Our first steps will be to move the right leaders into action for each of the courts. The Hunter court is the only one in limbo at present. Will you call Cas and set up for tonight at nine o'clock on your turf wherever you deem appropriate.”
“Why are you not calling him?”
I huffed, “He is mad at me.”
Szar laughed, “Pray tell.”
“I asked to see the Were leader.”
“Oh, dear sister, you did more than that. You De-man-ded!”
“You talked to him?” Oh, I was fuming. My brother and boyfriend playing the besties texting game with me was outrageous. I’m so on to them.
“Sis, we’ve been best friends our entire lives. Yes, he told me,” he laughed into the phone.
“And?” I could use information like this for something important one day.
“He said you were playing high and mighty already,” Szar teased me with his same brotherly game he played.
“He said that exactly?” I huffed.
“Well not in so many words. I can’t repeat what he really said.”
So Mister Watch Your Language doesn’t play the same game with the guys. All chivalry in front of the woman. Well, I’ll show him. “You tell Mr. Smartass that he better—
“Sis, don’t go making promises you’ll never keep.”
I stewed, “Fine, tell him to meet me there.”
“How will you get here?” Szar mused.
“Calum will bring me,” I leered into the phone.
“Um, do you think that’s a good idea?”
“Don’t know. Don’t care. Gotta go.”
“Stace,” Szar lowered his voice, “Don’t bite my head off. And think about what you’re doing. You’re hurting the wrong people. If your dream was anything like ours, you’re gonna need your allies coherent and not fighting like dogs over you. And you haven’t even met Cord, the Were Lord yet. Formally.”
What did that mean? “Okay. But I will still ride with Calum. Forget what all I said to say. Just tell him to meet us there.”
“O-kay sis. You’re funeral.”
I hissed. Szar laughed. We hung up and I headed back to find my next class that I was now late for.
I walked into my afternoon World Histories class that now included Calum, the headmaster’s son who felt the need to be my protector in all my classes now. How he thought this would cause less attention I didn’t know. But what was more curious was the way he looked at me when I entered the room. I was late and all heads went to me. Since Calum was on his first day of this class, he was in my seat. I stared dumbfounded at him and turned my head to Mrs. Duke who nodded at me with her distinctly Amazon like features. What the heck did that mean for me to do?
I looked back to Calum who was visibly raking his eyes up and down the length of me without hiding it. I drew my eyes in feeling a little flushed at the sudden attention after being left standing alone. He stood and walked to the desk behind mine holding his hand out as he folded in his long, very strong Hunter legs under the side of my desk. I was forced to step over his legs as he intended. He watched my every move.
I sat, stone faced and waited for the class to turn their attention away from me. Didn’t I just go through their prying eyes two days ago? Yep!
Mrs. Duke cleared her throat and resumed her two-week long focus on the wards between mythological beginnings. Ironic. Did someone plant this?
I was finally involved in the lecture on European mythology and anticipating her moving on to the Egyptian section next when a note plopped down in front of me. As reluctant as I was, I peeked beside me to see Derrick, the yellow eyed almost six and half feet scary one, staring at me with a wicked grin on his face. Was the note from him? “Wanna be the one to tell teach the gods are dead?” he said just loud enough for the teacher to not hear. Ignoramus.
And why did he decide now to start talking to me?
I peeked back to my right knowing that evil spy dude Lee was there. He was smiling.
Something poked me in the back. I ignored it fidgeting in my seat. I gave up and opened the note.
I’m not giving up.
I froze. Calum.
I felt his feet move around and stir the air beneath me. No need to look left or right at where these three had cornered me in. I knew who was the culprit.
I forced my eyes back to the white board where Mrs. Duke was drawing a tree with the connections from European and now Egyptian mythology. I heard several times in my pop in and pop out listening that the Roman Empire had a festival of the Unconquered Sun that was considered a rebirth. I was born on the 29th of February, not during the winter solstice as it says. Was I the unconquered sun I wondered? The virgin princess that surely accounted for the same meaning. A good question for dear old daddy, not Cas, in all my extra free time.
Unfortunately, dear ole Lee clued into the same connection and snickered at the precise time Mrs. Duke repeated the word “unconquered” to the class. Calum was leaning forward and slamming the back of his head on the desk before anyone in the front of the room could see. But they all heard.
Mrs. Duke settled back to her lecture that was now on the Egyptian pharaohs and the personified god complex. I watched the clock.
The bell rang and I was out the door before anyone. Jumping halfway across the room I had every intention of skipping my last two classes and hiding in my dorm room. I couldn’t breathe.
“Wait.” He caught up to me as I was halfway across the lawn.
I stopped and turned. I left no room for thinking. In a blur of fast talking Speedy Gonzalez style I told him, “I need you to take me to my brother’s tonight.” Not a question or anything really.
“Okay. Is that an invite or a demand?” His goading smile wasn’t meant for me I decided.
Oh, not him too. “I...we need to meet together. All of us.”
Calum twisted his mouth up and gave me the open eye stare. “And all of us meaning Thorn included?”
He knows more too I’m betting. I have to know, but I am not asking him. “Yes. And I need all of you civilized. Working together. Forget me and think all of us for the time we need to move on. You are important to me Calum. I can’t do this without you.” My eyes teared. Crud.
That did it. I had boys....figured out. “Stace, you know I’ll do anything for you.”
I held my arms out, satiated with the knowledge of a few tears and a pouty lip. He was reluctant and I knew it’s because he wanted more.
He gave in and held me there in his arms. “I need you to help me Calum. I will admit to you and you only that I am not the Supergirl badA princess I pretend to be one hundred percent of the time. I need you. You need me. The goddess parental whoevers who did all this are right about that. But I’ll deny your every word if anything is ever said to any of the other male counterparts or anyone else. Do you hear me?”
“Loud
and clear. You intend to call us that. Your male counterparts.” He said this as if he had a bug in between his teeth.
“What else do I call this?” I dead-panned, waving my arms at him, me and the air.
“I don’t know. But none of us are going to be too happy with that sexist female derived name.”
Oh my! Hyde, Jekyll, or Green is stepping out? I giggled. Been a while.
He noticed. “Do that again?”
“What?”
“Laugh that way you do. The giggling.”
I pushed his chest, “Make me!”
He growled and turned me around encasing my arms crisscross across my chest and held me there. “You will do what I command oh high and mighty queen.”
I stiffened at hearing the phrase that Szar informed me passed to him by Cas. I needed to text him, but I wasn’t sure what to say. We were still so knew to each other. And we’d already had our first tiff.
“Um, please.”
“This is the goddess queen of her male counterparts? We are in trouble folks. The queen is meeting the demands of men. Womenfolk everywhere will crumble at her abrasive let down.”
I giggled. I couldn’t help it.
“That’s more like it. As I command.” He let me go and twirled me around to standing. I relished in his Calum fun side, but he needed to keep everything in perspective and apparently it was up to me to do that.
“I missed you,” I told him.
He frowned.
“NO! No frowning. We can’t go back Calum. But forward is a happy place where both of us can smile together. Please just try.”
He didn’t like it, but he would make the right decision in the end.
Chapter Ninteen
And in the end...
Calum pulled the car up to the entrance of the Val court. I felt familiar with it but felt right not calling it my home. He was silent on the drive, but happy he was driving me.
“Thank you for taking me.”
“Don’t thank me till we see how it fares.”
He still smelled wonderful. The dark spice, incidentally nothing like Cas, that I associated with Calum was surrounding me in the car that I’d never been in until tonight. A sleek shiny black mustang making its way into my father’s court with me in the front seat beside a Hunter. A thought I’d never have believed if told a year ago.
He was out of the car and opening mine before I could gather my things. He hung back and waited patiently. Now that I was here, I knew I was facing Cas. My nerves were all about that confrontation, not the meeting.
We walked into the back and through the hallways that led to Szar’s rooms. My father met us and shook Calum’s hand. My stomach was already signaling that Cas was near.
We all walked in silence. Upon entering the room to an already standing Szar and Cas, I forced my head to nod at my brother first before locking eyes with Cas. This was bad. He looked at Calum like the rat who’d stolen his cheese. Note. Doesn’t play well with friend or foe. Or exes.
What a tangled web I’ve weaved, but I so did not set this up in an attempt to deceive.
I walked and stood between the two of them allowing Calum to stay beside my father. Dr. Green was already here and seated on the sofa who stood now with the rest of us. I felt Cas’ eyes move over me more than once. He could command a room whether he entered first or not. I saw that he was looking at my wrist. I misread his intentions until I saw his eyes searching for the chain. His strong vein-lined arms were folded tight making his black t-shirt pull at the sleeves. Other than the lack of expression, he appeared calm to the rest. Not to me.
I was smart enough to throw on a hoodie, but I was not smart enough to keep my thought guard away just yet because I needed to focus right now. I slipped on the bracelet and let the ring fall against the inside of my cuffed sleeve touching my skin but the cupidity of his emotions didn’t escape me. And his body was screaming every bit of the possessive nature that Lord Cassius Cross was living up too.
“Shall we?” my father asked. Does he know he’s not my father?
He looked at me and all followed his lead. I guess they want me to start.
I didn’t want to DEMAND anything. “Should we lay the facts on the table?”
My father nodded. Alrighty then! No one speak at once. “I’ll go first.” I had to get one thing out there. "I am only agreeing to this because of the implications this goddess mother said would happen to the factions and our leaders. I don't believe in a monarchy for the factions or a tyrant like Borgon running it. If this is what it takes to take it back, then so be it. But let it be said that it can't be done alone.
"Everyone in the room is aware of the repercussions of not following through with what is before us. Why it is laid out that way is beyond discussion. For now, we back each other in our endeavors to bring the factions back together. Whether that includes the Elves at this point, we are not aware."
When no one added more I relayed what my “mother” said leaving nothing out. They were itchy when I announced that Lord Hathown was not my father. They were recrossing legs from where they stood or sat when I told them how she referred to each of them and how she perceived I should see them. I left out the “male counterparts” part but Calum threw it in for kicks. They all man puffed in their shoes. I was the only DANG girl in the room.
Cas zapped me with a solemn look telling me my thoughts were unguarded. I wanted I yell out to not listen if he doesn’t like what I say. I checked the ring that laid carefully against my wrist.
He narrowed his gaze at me. I ignored it and focused on my brother who cleared his throat. Szar went next proudly saying that he now knew he had a part in the puzzle and would uphold his heir to the throne assuming father approves. Father nodded and smiled. He never did that for me. Szar promised to do whatever I needed to back the order.
The order. What, the order of the marked ones? I guess that’s what were calling ourselves?
Calum went next trying to outdo Cas no doubt. He shared that he is expected to protect me at all costs and will not fail at doing so. He shared our similar marks and their origin though everyone in the room was already aware. No one interrupted his need for importance.
After he was quiet, I heard Cas’ deep voice sound off beside me. He shared that he is to be my guide. To not leave me unattended in any dealings with the other factions. To play ambassador. Hmm! He left this out earlier. I didn’t look his way. I sat oh so very still.
I waited till I knew he was safely done and announced with what I hoped sounded like confidence, “And when do we see the Were leader. I need to know his intentions.”
Szar felt the need to laugh to himself. All eyes fell to him.
“Yes, brother,” I sassed.
“Nothing, sis. Nothing. Focused on those intentions.” His eyes stayed on Cas the almighty again. What was with his unfurling power to this guy? He must be some case.
“This allusive Were leader I have yet to meet have a name?” I asked letting the words fall off my tongue sugar sweet.
Cas spoke to me, “Cord Ryan.”
Oh, I knew this.
“We will set a meet. I will let you know,” Cas said without feeling. Was he always like this at business talk time?
“I think we should address at a later date the fact that my powers have grown as well as I know Cas, Lord Cross’ powers have also.” I looked around at my male counterparts. No one else volunteered anything. I guess it wasn’t that important after all.
Dr. Green spoke. “For now I think we’ve done enough. The more time that passes, the more others will settle down. We need to watch Borgon and his cohorts. There is more than just the factions at risk. Gem City is being overrun with rogue Elves who will not be far away from Stace. Calum will keep her safe at school. Thorn will not be far.”
No one spoke so I clapped my hands, “Meeting adjourned.” I stood and made my way to the table where several cheese and meat items sat out. I plucked one of the triangles into my mouth to occupy myself while all t
he testosterone in the room filed out. I am not going to be able to do this. Run a group such as this! A man’s job.
Fingers wound around my neck and tugged the chain out and over my hoodie. His fingers dived down into the place where my zipper hung and I watched the ruby appear as well as the ring from my wrist. My hair reframed my face and I forced myself to continue chewing. Swallow.
You think I’m mad at you.
Aren’t you? No answer. He spun me around and look down into my eyes.
Tell Hunter boy you have a ride home.
I know how this will go. I set myself up for it though. I walked over to Calum who was forcing chitchat with my father to have a reason to be there still. Dr. Green had left. When I walked up to their little powwow he smiled, measured Cas’ shadow behind me and asked, “Are you ready?”
I looked at my father and waited. He took the hint and said, “If you’ll excuse me. I have business. Mr. Green. Lord Cross.” He bowed to both of them. Calum sure didn’t expect that.
After he left I faced Calum, “Thank you for bringing me here. I’m going to stay a while longer and Cas will take me back.”
His eyes darkened. Did anyone else but me ever catch this about men? “Thorn.” Calum bowed to Cas. He faced me and leaned in, “Text if you need me.” He kissed me on the cheek.
Yee gods. My cheek was hot to touch I was so red. The gods just want me to die now. Calum left and we were almost alone.
Szar walked over to the food, popped a triangle in his mouth, and leaned in to me, “Text me if you need me.” He winked and kissed my head. Ever redder was I with my adolescent brother making it worse.
Alone and scared to death, I resulted to eating a quick small bite and swallowed fast though I had absolutely no appetite left. My stomach had fallen to the bottom floor minutes ago. I waited for his wrath that didn't come.
His hand whipped around me and pulled me flush against him. His mouth found mine within seconds of the door shutting. No, not even a second passed. He was kissing me hard. Fast. I held back for the first pass of his mouth across my cheek and back to my mouth. My body relaxed into him on autopilot. Melted. I returned it full on pressing my fingers one at a time across the back of his neck. He broke off and kissed my neck, cheeks, jaw.
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