by Ciara Graves
“You don’t think they’re behind it, do you?” Rori said worriedly. “That they’re fueling it somehow? Moran said it was an anti-magic group and there are quite a few politicians who are still against us.”
“I only know what I’ve been told, and sadly it isn’t much,” I said. “But I would like to know more about these new residences of ours.”
Moran exited the stage and strode our way. He motioned for us to follow him out of the auditorium. We didn’t go far, just down a side hall and away from the commotion.
Blade and Agnes followed, keeping a close eye out. Probably so that no recruits overheard our conversation.
“I know I mentioned before how important it was for the three of you to find a way to work together,” Moran said quietly. “Now it is even more dire that you increase your training together.”
“How many attacks have happened like the one in Wichita?” Brogan asked, crossing his arms.
I saw the urge in Moran’s eyes not to answer, but then he sighed. “Seven attacks. But this one has been the worst, with the most casualties.”
“How many are dead?” I asked.
“Twenty-two, at last count.”
“Twenty-two?” Rori snapped. “How is this not a bigger issue? Why isn’t the government doing anything to protect our people?”
“Because that’s not the way the world works. These attackers are only going after magic communities. Therefore, according to the law, it’s a problem for the Vanguard to deal with,” Moran explained quickly. “They won’t step in unless innocent non-users’ lives are at stake. And these bastards have been damned careful not to do so.”
“Well that’s just great,” Rori went on furiously. “What the hell do you expect us to do?”
“Train. Find your connection. Become what we all need you to be. I did not lie when I said the number of our Elite had been depleted. The current team has already been deployed to Wichita, though I doubt they will find a trail to follow.”
“So we’re at war then, is that it?” Rori muttered. “Or have we been at war, and you’re just now admitting it to the rest of the world?”
Moran said nothing.
Rori shook her head, then stormed away.
Brogan started to go after her, but Blade stopped him. “Let her have a moment before she loses control,” he said, nodding to the frozen trail she left in her wake.
I longed to follow her but remained where I was. Moran—and the others—who had been lying to the entire magical community were going to be facing a shitstorm of chaos for keeping them in the dark. For not warning them that there was a credible threat. I didn’t want to be a dramatic asshole, but the temptation to tell him the world as we knew it was about to change was strong.
“I expect you three to get settled into your new apartment at the outpost tonight,” Moran said. “Every day, you will be training with either myself, Agnes, or Blade. You are no longer recruits.”
“But we still haven’t fully realized if we’re compatible yet,” Brogan argued.
I waited for Moran to give him another bullshit answer, but instead, he hung his head. “Later this evening, I will meet with the three of you, and we will talk about what else I have kept secret.”
That surprised me, but at least now my suspicions would be addressed. I’d picked up a fair amount from eavesdropping on Agnes and Moran. For him to say that he was going to tell Brogan and Rori pissed me off though. He kept me in the dark for seventeen long years. I wanted to deck him for finally realizing how much of an idiot he’d been by keeping all this to himself.
From the way Agnes and Blade exchanged a worried glance, they’d known about it all, too.
Now, I could strangle all three of them.
Brogan and I watched as Moran nodded, as if confirming something to himself, then set off, leaving us alone.
“Guess we should go back,” Brogan mumbled, shoving his hands in his pockets. “Damn. This is just… are we really at war?”
“I don’t know anymore,” I said, not sure what else to say at that point.
Chapter 12
Chas
I packed up my things and left the dorm, without seeing Brogan. I’d considered knocking on his door, but figured he might need more time to get his head on straight.
Hell, I still had no idea what to think of all this, and I’d been in the thick of it for a while now. I made it all the way to the outpost and into what was to be our shared quarters, since we were already being considered an Elite Guard team. The notion secretly terrified and thrilled me, at the same time. After the oath I made to avenge my parents, this promotion brought me one step closer.
At the same time, so much was going to be expected of us now, and there’d be no going off on my own. Not that I wanted to drag the other two down with me, when I went about my business of taking out my parents’ murderers.
Rori hadn’t arrived yet, so I went looking for her, wanting mostly to make sure she was alright after the whole ordeal. I wasn’t sure where to even start looking and aimlessly wandered the grounds for any sign of her. I didn’t look long before I spotted Blade, hands clasped behind his back, standing outside one of the greenhouses.
I wondered what he was doing, was about to ask him—
I noticed the windows were completely frosted over. “She come out at all yet?” I approached Blade.
“No. And I wasn’t about to go in.”
“You’re not scared of her, are you?” I asked with a smirk, but when he didn’t smile, I frowned. “What’s got you all freaked out? She’s a first-year frost mage. She’s not that powerful.”
He tilted his head from side to side. “You’ll understand soon enough. You going in?”
I considered stepping back and going to find Brogan, but instead, I walked to the door and grabbed the frozen knob. A shiver rushed down my spine, but I gritted my teeth and stepped inside. “Rori?”
The air was frigid. My breath puffed out in front of my face. All the green leaves and brightly colored flowers were covered in a fine layer of frost, making them brittle, and giving the place an eerie, icy wonderland feel. The air was heavy with emotion.
I had to be careful with my steps, take my time, so I didn’t slip on the fine sheen of ice covering the floor.
“Rori, come on. You can’t say in here forever,” I called out.
“You sure about that?”
I followed the sound of her voice to the rear of the greenhouse.
She sat atop one of the work tables, her staff in her right hand, the stone pulsing, as if in time with her heartbeat. “You shouldn’t be in here, you’ll catch a cold.”
“I’ll be fine,” I assured her, taking in her all white hair and the icy blue of her eyes. “I’m starting to like that look on you.”
She pursed her lips. “Yeah well. Makes one of us, I guess.”
I leaned against one of the planters, trying to keep my teeth from chattering with the intense cold. She didn’t appear phased at all by it. I almost considered shifting into bear form, but it was a bit hard to communicate in garbled growls and grunts.
“You know, when I was little.” She spun her staff in her hand. “I knew exactly what I wanted to be. Anyone asked, I said I wanted to be just like Jodie Griffith. Be a baker. Work with her, help run the bakery.” She laughed bitterly, and her eyes flared blue. “I was such an idiot.”
“No, you weren’t. You couldn’t have known this would happen. None of us could,” I argued.
“Moran could,” she snapped. “He knew all along what was happening, that this group of bastards was going around hurting magic-users. And he and the others did nothing. Nothing. And now, I’m being turned into a damned soldier to go fight them! How is that fair?”
At her shout, more frost crept out of her body and covered the windows nearby. I doubted any of the plants would survive near her rage.
“It’s not, none of this is,” I agreed. “But this is the life we’ve fallen into.”
“Shoved into it
by an arrogant ass who didn’t try to take care of the problem soon enough.”
I bristled as she insulted Moran. “Look, I understand how you feel about him right now. I do, but he’s still a good man who is trying to do what’s right for everyone. He’s doing his best to keep us all safe.”
“By letting the magical communities walk around ignorant and blind,” she shot back.
“By not causing panic. By only alerting those who can do something about the attackers,” I said firmly. “You don’t know the whole situation. This group, these people… they’re not just humans with guns and bombs. Whatever they’re doing is damaging our kind at the DNA level. Messing us up, for good. We don’t have enough intel to know how they’re doing it. And there’s no way to stop it until we do. Announcing that we are at a complete loss would only make things worse.”
“You’re just saying that because he’s practically your dad,” she muttered furiously, hopping down from the table. “He should have told the truth!”
“You wouldn’t understand his reasoning.”
“Right, course not, since I didn’t grow up at an outpost. My apologies for having normal parents!”
“At least you had a mom,” I growled. “I lost my parents.”
“I know, you told me. But look where you ended up, trained by the best. And you just stand there and expect Brogan and I to magically be masters, to become soldiers? I don’t want this life of violence! I came here because I have to, not to be turned into some… some damned killer!”
The window behind her shattered as it failed to hold the weight of more frost. The glass shards flew everywhere.
I grabbed for Rori, tugging her out of the way as the window crashed to the floor.
“Get off me,” she snapped, shoving herself away from me. “Just leave me alone!”
“Not going to happen, not anymore. You and Brogan and I, as much as you’re going to hate to admit it, we’re in this together.”
She gripped her staff harder and the stone pulsed even brighter. She was on the verge of losing control, but another voice called her name, and she stilled.
Blade had come inside after all.
“Enough,” he commanded. “Get control of yourself now. Understand me?”
“What do you think I’ve been trying to do?”
“Failing to do, you mean,” he grunted. “This is not how one of the Elite Guard acts when the world is falling apart around her.”
“I am not an Elite Guard!”
“Not yet,” he corrected quietly. “You will get through this, Rori. You just have to have faith in yourself. In your companions.”
She scoffed at his words, but slowly the frost receded from the greenhouse, melting and bringing color back to the building. She was muttering under her breath as she snapped her fingers and her staff disappeared.
“Good, now get packed and get your ass over to the outpost. Moran will be with you shortly.”
I let Rori lead the way, but once we were outside, she stormed away from me, shooting a glare over her shoulder.
Fine. If she wanted to take her anger at Moran out on me, that was just freaking fine. She stalked away.
I spun around and marched my ass straight back to our new apartment to wait for Moran. I sat in one of the armchairs, barely nodding at Brogan when he finally arrived.
The door opened a few seconds after he came in. Rori didn’t even look at me, just went back to one of the bedrooms and slammed the door shut hard enough to shake the walls.
“Heard you two had a great talk,” Brogan commented as he sat down in another chair.
“Something like that,” I muttered.
“She needs time,” he said quietly. “She’s not used to this life.”
I frowned at him, wondering if he was about to confirm one of my suspicions. “And you are?”
He folded his hands on his knee and watched the door. “Yeah, I am.”
I waited for him to say more, but a knock came at the door. I went to answer it and found Moran and Agnes standing on the threshold. I stepped aside for them to enter.
Moran looked around the living room. “Where’s Griffith?”
“Right here,” Rori snapped as she exited the hall leading to the bedrooms. She crossed her arms tightly and refused to come any closer, choosing instead to stand at the back of the room.
Moran didn’t seem to be bothered by her reaction and took his place on the couch, Agnes right beside him. “Are your new accommodations acceptable?”
“Just get to the point,” Rori spat. “What’s going on? Why did you pick us?”
Moran leaned back against the couch. “Chas, would you like to explain your circumstances first? Or Brogan?”
I shot Brogan a sideways glance.
His face paled. “I will,” he uttered, voice raspy. “I’m a legacy, but you both know that already. What I did not tell you, and the only thing I can think of that Moran is referring to, is that my Uncle Greyson was one of the Elite Guard.”
“He was?” Rori asked.
Brogan glanced at her. “He was. Never told you because it’s a sore spot within my family.”
“They didn’t want him to be one?” I asked.
“No, he—uh… he disappeared about eighteen years ago,” he said slowly. “No one’s seen or heard from him since. Not a trace. No idea if he’s dead or alive.”
A hush fell over the apartment.
I’d assumed Brogan had someone he knew in the Vanguard, some high-ranking officer perhaps, but I had not expected a relative of his to be part of the Elite fighting force. No wonder he seemed so worried about doing his best all the time. He said eighteen years, though. I looked at Moran, but his face gave nothing away.
“Chas? Care to go next?” Moran asked.
I wasn’t sure I could handle telling them everything, but either it came from me, or it came from Moran. I’d rather they hear it from me. “My parents were both Elite Guards,” I started. “They were sent on a mission to investigate this group that’s attacking our people. Their team…” I cleared my throat. “Their team was overwhelmed, two of their members taken captive. Or killed.” I blew out a heavy breath, feeling Rori’s eyes on me. “The bastards figured out who my parents were and came after them and me. They were killed when the safe house was attacked.”
“You said that happened seventeen years ago,” Rori said quietly.
“I did.”
She was looking between Brogan and me, her brow furrowed. “Were they on the same team?”
Moran lowered his head slightly. “They were.”
“What?” Brogan blinked a few times as he struggled to take in the news. “His parents, my uncle—they knew each other?”
“That they did. They were part of one of the greatest fighting teams we’ve ever seen,” Agnes said this time. “It was a tragedy to lose them all in such a violent way.”
“Okay,” Rori said slowly. “I get why you picked Chas and Brogan. But why me? I shouldn’t be here.”
“You, of all of them, should be here,” Moran said.
The three of us stared at him intensely, waiting to finally understand what the big secret was linking us all together.
“Your father is Trevor Griffith, and he was by far one of the best Elite Guardsman I ever had the privilege of working with. That Brogan’s uncle and Chas’s parents had the honor of knowing.”
“They knew each other?” I did a doubletake. “Which means… we knew each other as kids?”
Moran nodded in confirmation. “Your parents and her father were very close. You two knew each other when you were very young.”
“I remember,” I whispered, studying Rori.
“But that’s not right,” she argued. “My mom, she never said anything about Dad being a… whatever he was. Not a damned word.”
“She never knew what he was,” Moran told her. “He wanted to keep you both as safe as possible. Your mother just assumed Chas’s parents were family friends.”
“And when he
disappeared…” Her gaze landed on me. “The team, they were all on a team together. So my dad and Brogan’s uncle… Are they dead?”
“We don’t know,” Moran answered honestly. “They didn’t make it out, that’s all we ever heard.”
Rori was bobbing her head, as though she’d heard him, but she seemed so lost all of a sudden.
Brogan rose to his feet, probably go to her.
She held up her hand, stopping him. “I need a minute. You mind?”
None of us said anything as she retreated to her bedroom and the door shut soundly behind her.
I sat in my chair. Every time I blinked, another sliver of a memory surfaced. Of Rori and me running through a backyard garden. Rori and her braided hair, the smell of fresh cakes her mom baked in the kitchen. And then it all came to an end when our parents and Brogan’s uncle walked into a trap.
“You think that we can work together because they did,” Brogan said after a while of silence.
“I do,” Moran agreed.
“But we’re still missing one member of a full team,” I pointed out. “Someone else’s kid we don’t know about?” I wanted him to admit the truth, but his eyes said he wasn’t going to.
Agnes opened her mouth as if to do it for him, but Moran talked over her.
“You will understand in time. Now, I will leave you three to rest for tomorrow, your full days of training will begin. I suggest you prepare yourselves for it however you must.” He glanced toward the hallway as if he wanted to speak with Rori again, but thought better of it.
He and Agnes left a moment later, leaving me and Brogan staring at each other. Of all the ways I saw today ending, this was not it.
I had answers, but there wasn’t a chance in hell the three of us were getting out of this alive now.
I willed for Rori to come out of her room so I could talk to her, but she stayed in there for the rest of the night.
I let her be, not wanting to be frozen solid when she lashed out in her anger and pain.
Chapter 13
Rori