by Maya Daniels
“Good thing he portals himself then.” I haven’t finished the sentence when Zoltan yanks me to him, clamping on my upper arm in case I’m planning to bolt.
Greater males have shrunk from the death glare I give him, but he only narrows his eyes as if daring me to try. Okay, so I a, ready to bolt but the Daywalker doesn’t need to know that. I’m still pissed he can read me so easily until I remember the link that opened between us when we exchanged blood in the shower. I’ve been broadcasting like a freaking radio station blaring every intention loud and clear to him. How did I forget that?
Kill me now. I’m so stupid.
“Well mage?” Fenrir hasn’t looked away from Daren, but a muscle jumps in his jaw.
“Well this in unexpected.” Hearing Silas speak from the entrance of the dining hall is like listening to someone scraping nails on a chalkboard. All three of the old jerks stand with various expressions on their faces. From disgust on Silas, disbelief on the shifter, to utter bewilderment on the mage.
“Daren?” The mage Board member steps forward, his chin hitting his chest in a comical fish out of water style.
“Father.” Daren jerks his chin up as he glares at the mage.
My own chin hits the floor at my feet.
Chapter 9
All sorts of things go through my head. Betrayal is loudest among them and it squeezes my heart like a fist. Zoltan turns into granite at my back when he hears the exchange, but I can’t look away from Daren to placate the Daywalker. Instead of watching his father, my friend is keeping his eyes steady on my face as if waiting for my judgment.
No, not waiting for it. Expecting it.
The same way I always expect to be shunned or ostracized for being a half blood.
Despite knowing all this, I still lift my hand and reach for his arm. Dubiousness is like a living thing in the room with us, everyone’s thoughts drowning in doubts and implications of being blindsided like this. From what I know of the mage Board member, I can’t say I blame Daren for not advertising his bloodline. The same way he never held it against me when I shied away from speaking about mine.
He searches my eyes for a long moment before clenching his jaw and stepping closer, tugging the shirt up his forearm so I can touch him skin on skin. Tears prickle the corners of my eyes that I blink away, hoping beyond hope that he will not be just another person in a pile of others I’ve known most of my life that has manipulated me. Even while thinking it, deep down I don’t believe it. At the moment, though, uncertainty is a luxury I can’t afford. I need to be one-hundred percent certain he isn’t a traitor. Everything he told me couldn’t be a made-up fairytale just to get closer to me and for me to trust him, could it?
The grief hits me first, buckling my knees the second I touch him as his emotions pull inside of me. Zoltan snarls but doesn’t move away from me, his arms the only thing keeping me standing. In an attempt to respect Daren’s privacy, I do my best to block the blood connection between me and the Daywalker, but I know a lot of it passes through. The deep heavy breaths coming from Zoltan tell me as much. Maybe that’s the only reason he doesn’t attack the mage.
There is a mixture of everything, including fear, but no sign of manipulation or malice no matter how hard I pull, dragging everything he is hiding inside him into myself. A person with better morals than myself would’ve released him when they didn’t find anything that would implicate him as a traitor. Convincing myself that I’m only doing it to be sure I can trust him, I dig inside the fear he feels. Daren’s muscles twitch under my fingers, his hand clenching at my prodding even though he doesn’t pull away. Not at first.
With a gasp, I jerk away from him and cradle my hand to my chest. Zoltan tilts his body and hides me from Daren, but I can’t look away from my friend. I think he fears the Daywalkers, or even me to some degree maybe. But the unease eating a hole inside him comes from his father. The problem is I can’t be sure if it’s because he suspects the mage Board member of betraying us or if he is afraid that his father will give away his own secrets. I glance at Zoltan to see if he got a feel of any of it, but his intent gaze is burning with concern and something I’m too chicken shit to name right now.
“Can we hear what is going on, or are you planning to leave us in the dark?” Azgor tugs on the collar of his shirt, turning at each of us one at a time.
I don’t want to share anything in front of the old jerks, so I reach for my friend. Daren’s shoulders visibly slump, and he takes my fingers in a bruising grip to allow me to pull him closer to me and Zoltan. That is enough for the rest of our group to move in and form a tightly-knit circle facing the Board, while Azgor shifts restlessly between us.
“What is the meaning of this charade?” Silas glowers at us, gulping and taking a step back when the panther growls deep and low in his chest.
“What are you doing here Daren?” The mage is over his shock, the electricity swirling around his long, bony fingers again.
“I’m visiting a friend. Last time I checked that wasn’t against the rules.” Daren throws his shoulders back, looking like the badass mage I’ve always known him to be.
“A friend.” Silas looks at me with his mouth twisted in disgust.
“Yes, me,” Fenrir chirps from behind me and I get whiplash from how fast my head snaps in his direction.
“No one saw him go through the gates.” The shifter tucks his chin to his chest, puffing up his chest in aggression and ignoring Silas and his remarks. “We have hunters congregating around us like flees. How did you get here?”
“He used the portal,” Daren’s father says dismissively like it’s a common thing for people to open gateways wherever they like. “He’s been doing that since he started walking.”
Daren gives him a wide smile, more a baring of teeth than anything else.
“Why are you here?” Zoltan obviously had enough of watching things unfold because he steps away from me to square off with the old jerks. I grab the back of his shirt, fisting it as if that will hold him back if he decides to attack the idiots glaring at us.
Leo coughs, and Astara snickers next to him.
“We need to know what transpired in the human realm to bring them nipping at our heels.” Silas sneers, but he doesn’t look at Zoltan.
“You should’ve asked that first instead of creating chaos when we returned.” To anyone else, it’ll sound like Zoltan is having a reasonable discussion. The short hairs on my neck and arms lift at attention at the undercurrent of power punching each of his words.
“Zoltan, we can discuss this in a calm manner …” Azgor gulps, taking a few steps back and staggering when Zoltan turns his head very slowly to look at him. “We need to work together,” the ghoul whispers miserably under his breath.
Zoltan watches Azgor, his eyes unblinking.
It’s unnerving.
“Never mind.” Throwing his arms in the air, Azgor shuffles out of the dining hall giving a wide berth to the Board members.
One down, three to go.
“None of this was a problem—” Silas starts but I’ve had enough of his shit.
“Yeah, yeah we know. None of it was until I got here. We heard you the first hundred times. Come up with something new because this is getting old.” Releasing Zoltan’s shirt, I step next to him with my hands propped on my hips. “The fact that you had Cassius his daughter, and Alexius working with Roberti behind your back is a minor detail, right? We should also ignore all the deaths in Sienna too because those are irrelevant. Everything that matters to you is between these walls, so here we are. Maybe now we will matter enough for you to pull your heads out of your assess and find a solution to the problem.” Silas scrunches up his face in rage, so I grin at him. “It’s uncomfortable when the fire is under your ass instead of someone else’s, isn’t it?”
I can feel Zoltan’s gaze on the side of my head, so I turn to him. My heart skips a beat at the potency in the blue orbs glued to my face. The slight twitch of the corner of his mouth sends my insi
des somersaulting before butterflies erupt in my belly. Everything around me fades away, leaving me snarled in the fervency of the Daywalker. My body sways towards him like a moon in orbit of a planet. I’m unable to pull away. Astara stabs a finger between my ribs, jerking me out of the trance. Silas is talking but I missed half of it.
“Say what now?” I blink fast to clear the cotton that replaced my brain when I catch the words “tricking Soren” and “Roberti’s pawn.”
“You infiltrated this Academy and turned everything on its head, Ms. Drake. You can’t tell me your appearance here when the portals are failing or being breached is a coincidence.” The shifter huffs indignantly at me. “You may use you willies on a younger males so they can’t see through your deceit, but we are members of the Board for good reason. You cannot fool us.”
“By that account, you shouldn’t want her as part of the guild.” Fenrir is practically gloating right now. “We wouldn’t want someone using their willies in our inner circle. Too many younger males to corrupt.”
I believe Leo is about to cough out a lung.
“Now wait a minute.” The shifter Board member shrivels under Silas’s menace. “What we are saying is that was our main concern and will stay as such until the oath is given.” Daren grabs my arm in a tight grip, and I have to bite the inside of my mouth so I don’t scream in pain. “The sooner that is done and we know we have nothing to worry about, the sooner we can put our efforts in ridding ourselves of the vermin. The Academy is first and foremost, and everything else comes second.”
“Including waking—” I yelp, clamping my mouth shut when Astara tears out a handful of my hair.
“Waking what, Ms. Drake.” The savagery brightening Silas’s gaze douses the anger that almost makes me blurt out that we know Roberti is planning on waking up the Titans.
“Soren.” Schooling my face to look as clueless as I can, I blink stupidly at his glower.
“I’m tired of this useless conversation.” Turning his back to the old jerks, Zoltan dismisses them like they are some regular nobodies. “I got hungry from all the stupidity I heard.” His eyes flick to my neck and I clamp my thighs in reaction. The perpetual smirk makes an appearance on his handsome face. “Unless you have some useful information to share, I suggest you go deal with your hunter problem. We as younger males will make sure Ms. Drake doesn’t leave the Academy or wander around unescorted.”
With a hand on my lower back, he guides me to the table that looks like toddlers had a temper tantrum around it. There are broken dishes and shattered glasses all around it with food half stomped on and half whole sprinkled in the mess. Tenebris leads the way, nudging the vegetables away but chomping down whatever meat is in front of his face. Skirting a puddle of what looks like juice, Zoltan lowers on the sofa and pulls me down with him.
Daren debates for just a second before coming to sit on my other side. Puffing my cheeks, I release a long, deep breath bumping my shoulder on his in gratitude that he doesn’t hold my mistrust against me. Pretending we don’t see the old jerks still lingering at the doorway, Leo and Fenrir drag in some untouched plates set on the other tables. Zoltan starts eating like he’s been starving for weeks, which in reality he might’ve been apart from the blood he took from me. I’m pretty sure Roberti didn’t have catering set up for his prisoners.
Not daring to look directly at the Board members, I steal glances through my lashes while I pretend I’m listening to the meaningless chatter between Fenrir and Daren. The two of them are acting like BFFs, the lie thick enough you can cut it with a blade. When they slap each other’s shoulders, I roll my eyes at how fake it looks. Thankfully the old jerks get tired of staring at the idiocy, so they spin on their heels and leave the dining hall.
We all deflate the second they vacate the space.
“You are not taking any oaths.” Daren turns on me, making me jump off the sofa.
“I like him already.” Astara gives the mage a smile to keep him awake for a month.
Leo snarls something under his breath but pretends it isn’t him when we all look at him in surprise. I flick between the two of them, not for the first time wondering if there is something going on I’m not aware off. I’m oblivious to things like that, so I won’t be surprised if I miss it. I let Fenrir explain everything that happened after we returned with Zoltan to Daren, watching my friend’s reaction closely. He hears it all, leaning back and staring at his hands. I look at them too, at the black ink displayed so proudly where the pure bloods have marked him as a traitor for daring to love a half blood, and it tightens my chest.
“You see why I have to do it, don’t you?” I search his face, not knowing what I’m looking for. “I can’t stop thinking about what Roberti said when they breached the portals. Everyone is loathing the vampires because they feel like they are below them. I didn’t do anything on purpose, but my actions gave them hope. If I take that away, I won’t be able to live with it.”
“No matter the consequences?” Daren’s question has Zoltan pausing with a fork full of food mid-air.
“It can’t be worse than what I’ve had to deal with up to this point.”
I wish I knew how wrong I was.
Chapter 10
“I should’ve known you had something to do with all the insanity happening in Sienna lately.” Shaking his head, Daren rubs a hand over his face before ruffling his hair with short, agitated moves.
“Excuse me?” Acid burns my mouth from his accusation. I want to speak with him because I think I’ll get information, but that’s not all. I want the support as well. My hopes go down the drain with his clenched jaw and flaring nostrils.
“Take it easy there, Franky.” With a heavy sigh, he reaches for my upper arm, hesitating an inch from touching me. “I’m not blaming you for anything. It’s been long overdue, but if anyone was going to turn everything on its nose, I should’ve known it’d be you.” His hand falls limply on his thigh but a fond smile tilts the corners of his mouth. “You never were one to do things in a subtle way. More like an elephant dashing through a house of glass.”
“He does have a point, Hellion.” Fenrir chuckles but Zoltan’s snort is what irks me more.
“Whatever.” Huffing, I slump back on the sofa, gnawing on my mouth. “As glad as I am to see you, Daren, I wanted to talk away from this place.” Zoltan rumbles deep in his chest, but I shut him up with a sharp look turned his way. “The old jerks just proved my point that you can’t say anything around here without someone overhearing it. It’ll be nice for a change to figure shit out without everyone going for our heads, don’t you think?”
“She does have a point, Zoltan.” Gathering his hair and tying it back with a sharp snap of the elastic band, Fenrir’s lips form a tight white line. “Roberti pushed the first piece by sending her inside our gates. It’s a domino effect we are dealing with and it’s going down faster than we can keep up. The only question is: who will reach the end before the last piece drops.”
“What is it with you and board games, Fae?” Frowning at him, I brush my sweaty palms on my pants because, as infuriating as he is, he does make a good argument.
“Strategy.” When my eyebrows crawl up my forehead, Leo gives Fenrir a smartass smirk. “Every Fae I’ve ever known loves their strategy. It’s what draws them to board games to fill their time.” The Alpha looks as smug as ever.
“Francesca is not going anywhere with the mage, alone or otherwise, until we address the problem all of you are willing to ignore.” Pushing the now empty plate away with a cluttering of porcelain on wood, Zoltan turns his intense gaze on Daren. “You are Solomon’s son.”
“And?” I flinch away when Daren’s face scrunches in anger, his magic sparking like fireworks.
“Too convenient at times like this if you ask me.”
Throwing an arm over the back of the sofa, Zoltan angles his body to face my friend, curling around me in the process. All my nerve endings tingle from his nearness and I catch myself leaning into his che
st. Straightening up with a jerk, I pretend I don’t see his lips twitch even when his focus is entirely on Daren. The vampire is seriously too cunning for his own good while accusing me of the same thing. No one misses the possessive way Zoltan places a hand on my thigh, his fingers tracing patterns absentmindedly and sending my insides into a frenzy.
Although nothing he does is absentminded.
“I haven’t seen or spoken to my father in a very long time. When I found out Francesca’s mother was taken, I feared she would do something rash so I came to stop her. I wouldn’t have come face to face with him anytime soon otherwise.” Daren is watching Zoltan’s hand with a slight crease between his eyebrows. His eyes move slowly up until they lock on mine. “I think Franky is right. A conversation is long overdue.”
“We should trust your word for it, I take it.” The Sahara has nothing on the dryness of Zoltan’s words. I can’t think straight from his touch, so I slap his hand away.
“We need to talk outside of this place. Are you all deaf?” Wiggling away from the two males, I jump to my feet. “We are wasting time bickering here when everyone can say what they think outside of the Academy.”
“Hunters are clustered at each portal, Franky.” Astara climbs to her feet as well. “It’ll be interesting going through them just to talk with Fenrir being able to ward us here.”
“Daren can open portals.” Flicking a hand at the mage, I squeeze my way past Zoltan’s long legs just to get away from him.
“Convenient,” the Daywalker says nonchalantly, lifting to his over six-feet height and following behind me like a shadow.
Spinning on my heel, I throw both hands in front of me and halt his progress. Zoltan stops with a glare. “Stop. See this?” Turning in a circle with both arms stretched out in front of me, I do my best not to scream. “It’s called a personal bubble. Respect that, you … you … argh!” I’m vibrating in frustration and can’t think of what to call him, so I end up growling like an idiot. There is a lot of choking, coughing, and snorting from the others, but I don’t look away from him.