by Scott, Helen
Lee flinched, but quickly nodded.
“Darius Maximus is boasting of a new brotherhood.” He narrowed his eyes. “Three walkers, a shifter, and a druid cross.”
“Three walkers?” Lee gasped.
He nodded. “Yes. Three. Mind, time, and dream.”
“Maker mine.” Lee’s fists tightened around the armrest of the chair. “That’s highly unusual.”
“I know. I’m not happy about it. I didn’t realize Eastbrook’s Headmaster was an old friend of Maximus’s until recently. When I learned of this new brotherhood, I tried to poach them, but old Coltsen wouldn’t be swayed. Damn his hide.” He pulled a face. “The brotherhood will fall to the Maximus line, this I cannot resolve, but I want Lily on it.”
Lee shook his head. “You and I both know Lily is talented–”
“Indeed she is,” Julian retorted, cutting Lee off before he could finish his obviously negative response. “She’s a clever girl.”
“She’s not suited for a walker-strong unit, Julian. She’d do better with shifters. Even necromancers. But not walkers,” Lee countered, apparently growing enough balls to make such a comment, even though he instantly shrank in on himself.
“You will make her suitable,” Julian retorted.
“How can I do that? Her powers fall where they fall!”
“And you shall train her to make her fit for a walker-strong brotherhood.”
Lee’s nostrils flared. “That isn’t possible.”
“Then I have no reason to keep you alive.” Julian spoke so casually I had to shake my head. Enforcers were dicks, I’d known that already, but seeing truly was believing.
“I-I’ll do everything in my power to–”
“But you just said that isn’t possible.” Julian narrowed his eyes. “Are you lying to me?”
“No!” Lee cried, his voice shrill. “I’ve seen Lily at work. The reason I know she’d be good with shifters is because she has strong talents with animals—she can mold them to her will, heal them, kill them even.
“Walkers aren’t like other salsangs. They’re unique because of their human ancestry. She has no talents with humans. No abilities with telepathy or anything of that nature.”
Julian glowered at him. “I’m hearing a lot of negatives here, Marcus. Remind me again why I should keep you alive?”
Lee’s mouth quivered. “Patience, Julian. Please.” The fact they were on a first-name basis struck me as odd. My brotherhood and I called Darius by his given name only between us, but when we dealt with the man himself, we treated him with respect or paid the price.
Though Lee was terrified, that much was evident, there was a familiarity between the two males that was impossible to avoid.
Were they family? Not just part of the same line?
It made sense. Even if it stank.
“I’m listening,” Julian said coolly.
“For all her faults with a walker-strong brotherhood, she’s damn powerful. There’s no reason she shouldn’t be the top of her class. If that’s the case, then it’s likely she’ll have her pick of brotherhoods.”
“And if she isn’t the top of her year?”
“Surely, you can’t think . . .?”
Julian merely shrugged. “I would be a fool if I did not account for every possibility. Am I a fool, Marcus?”
Lee’s head swung from side to side so quickly I knew he rattled his brains with that move. The man’s terror surged in waves that reminded me of the tide. Julian kept him on edge, purposely, to make him do his bidding. And with his life on the line, was it any wonder that Julian’s bidding was all that mattered here?
“Though, I highly doubt Lily will be beaten, if that is the case, or is a possibility, I will see to it that no one challenges her.”
Julian tapped his chin. “Pray tell, how can you make this happen?”
“I am the master of the final year. There is no reason I shouldn’t be able to control the outcome.”
“Have you done this before?” The Enforcer sat straighter in his chair, waiting for Marcus’s response.
The other male swallowed so thickly I could hear it. “Perhaps.”
“With a girl who graced your bed?” Lee’s nod was hesitant, but it was confirmation, nonetheless. Julian hissed. “How many times?”
He gulped. “Several times.”
For a second, Julian appeared floored, then he rubbed his hand over his face—the gesture loaded with a genuine fatigue. The man wasn’t faking it. I knew that like I knew my hair was prematurely silver. And who could blame him for being stunned? By doing what he was doing, Marcus was sending Sixths out into brotherhoods who weren’t apt for the role.
Being good in bed did not a Sixth make.
I wasn’t being naïve, either. There were a lot of political machinations behind brotherhoods and Sixths. That was why Julian was pissed about our brotherhood being snapped up by Darius, our Enforcer. But that was a matter for those with a higher pay grade than Lee.
How many brotherhoods had been compromised this way?
How many brothers were in danger because Lee had placed a weak Sixth as their link?
From the look on Julian’s face, I could tell without having to wander through his mind, that we were thinking the same shit.
Brotherhoods were, after all, the first line of our society’s defense. Lee had compromised us all with his idiocy.
“I’m going to need to know which brotherhoods you’ve infected.”
Lee’s eyes widened. “But why? There’s nothing to be done. Once a Sixth has linked with her brotherhood, there is no changing that.”
Julian hissed. “You think I’m not aware of that, cretin? Of course, I am. They are not only proof of a LeFauvre conspiracy, even if no other LeFauvre than yourself was aware of it—others won’t believe that—but they’re also a weakness that needs monitoring.”
The way the Enforcer said ‘monitoring’ sent chills down my spine. Like that, with barely any passing of time, only the Maker knew how many brotherhoods had been sent to their deaths.
The knowledge was a burden. It was dangerous information to possess, and I could understand now why Lee’s mind was scarred. Julian, or a mind-walker he’d hired, had attempted to protect this conversation from someone like me tampering with it. Unfortunately for them, I was one of the strongest mind-walkers of my generation. Hell, several generations.
As I pondered this, and the ramifications of the conversation I had just witnessed, Lee whispered, “I’ll get the information to you tonight.”
“You’d better,” Julian snarled. He rubbed the back of his neck. “Marcus Lee, you owe this line a blood debt. You will ensure Lily makes it onto that brotherhood on pain of death. You will heed my call whenever I summon you, and will submit to any task I require of you. Do you understand me?”
Though Marcus nodded, I could see the unease on his face. He’d managed to spare his life for the moment, but he was a ticking time bomb. Though the man was an idiot, I realized even he knew that Julian hadn’t given him much of a boon.
“Be gone from me,” the Enforcer snarled, and Marcus, showing some of the brains that had made him rise to a master of his ranking, scurried away like the vermin he was.
* * *
Slipping free from Lee’s memory, I returned to the training room. I hadn’t physically moved, but my body wasn’t in sync with my mind.
I felt like a diver who’d returned too quickly to the surface. It was a sensation I was accustomed to feeling, but I didn’t appreciate it any. Why would I? It was a weakness I needed to terminate, but the mind-walkers I’d spoken with had assured me only practice would combat this frailty.
Barclay, for all Cade mocked him, was usually the first to realize I’d gone walking. And now was no different. Even though all eyes were still on Marcella, he sidled up next to me. As we usually did, I rested my arm on his shoulder and let him support me through the waves of dizziness that battered my body’s equilibrium.
“Lee?” he ask
ed quietly, not taking his gaze from a sobbing Marcella who was picking up the shards of her focus.
I nodded, unable to speak just yet.
“Find anything good?”
Another nod.
He hummed under his breath, and I knew he was satisfied. Apparently, we were all on the same side where Marcella was concerned.
Part of me wondered why. What was it about her that attracted us where Lily, a beautiful girl, just didn’t?
Sure, Marcella lacked the arrogance pureblood princesses seemed to exude from their very pores, but we were all guys. We didn’t always think with our brains. And Lily? She was hot. Definitely fuckable. Of course, Lily did make my skin crawl with how revolting she was inside . . . that sure as fuck didn’t help the bitch’s cause with us.
The thought stirred me into action. This situation needed fixing, and sooner rather than later.
“Gideon?” I called out, my voice huskier than I’d have liked.
He kept his focus on Marcella, but asked, “What, Raven?”
“Can you piece the focus back together?”
Gideon shrugged. “I can try.”
Cade hissed. “The drain on your resources. . . .”
“If you can repair this, I will owe you a blood debt,” Marcella whispered, and the plea struck me as odd considering the focus wasn’t expensive, but also, seconds before, I’d heard the Enforcer in Lee’s memory demand the same.
Blood debts weren’t handed out like candy at Halloween.
They were rare. Powerful things. Yet Marcella offered one so freely?
Something didn’t make sense here.
Hellfire, who was I kidding? A lot of things didn’t make sense here.
Thankfully, Gideon shook his head. “A blood debt isn’t necessary, Marcella.”
“It is. This focus is very important to me.”
Despite myself, I had to snort. Anyone with eyes could see how important her focus was to her, it was why I had made the suggestion in the first place. Druids had the power to connect with anything natural. Though Lily had declared it otherwise, I knew every single part of the focus was organic, and therefore, Gideon could salvage it.
Guilt consumed me at the fact that the shard of agony I’d sent slicing through Lee’s psyche was responsible for the breakage. But after what I’d seen in the master’s memory, I realized the focus hadn’t had a chance in hell of surviving anyway.
“I need to go over there, Barclay,” I whispered, my voice still irritatingly weak.
Together, we walked over to Cade, Gideon, and Marcella. Barclay half dragged me there, and at the sound, Keiran stopped sitting on the damn fence and came to my other side to help me.
Nudging Gideon with my knee, I murmured, “Repair it, but Marcella, you can’t keep it.”
Her eyes widened, at first with distress, then irritation. “What the hell are you talking about? Why can’t I keep it? It’s mine!”
“I know it is,” I murmured, trying to keep my voice as even as my body’s weakness allowed. “But we all know Lee wanted your focus for a reason, because it is organic. Lily was bullshitting, yet Lee listened to her, anyway.
“If we tell him we threw it away, disposed of it, then he’ll have no reason to investigate it.”
“Investigate?” Marcella raged, sounding more furious now than she had before, but the truth was, I preferred to see her like this, all riled up, than so heartsick I felt it in my very soul. “What is there to investigate?”
“Exactly,” I reasoned. “He wants that focus away from you for a reason. Gideon can fix it, but if you use it again, he’ll just demand it from you. Surely, you can see that?”
She closed her eyes, then released a growl that sent shockwaves through my body. “Dammit, it isn’t fair!”
She clenched her fists, the injustice of her situation obviously infuriating her, and the sudden scent of blood spilled through the air. In my debilitated state, it was both the worst and the best thing I could have perceived. A moan escaped me, and Barclay and Keiran, obviously realizing what was happening, dragged me away from her.
“Ouch,” she whispered, raising her hands and peeling her fingers from her palms. The shattered pieces of amethyst she’d been collecting clung to the cuts in her skin. The bright purple crystals seemed to shine brighter for being intermingled with the scarlet drops of her blood.
Each of us groaned at the sight. Our senses bombarded with a visceral battle we fought on a genetic level.
“Maker, she’s potent,” Keiran whispered, a ragged sigh escaping his lips.
My brother wasn’t wrong. Hellfire, if anything, he was under-exaggerating.
I clenched my eyes shut, the need to sup from her filled me with an exquisite agony that urged me to realize one thing and one thing only.
This woman was ours.
She just didn’t know it yet.
And I had to make sure that the LeFauvre line’s conspiracy to shaft us by making Lily our Sixth came to nothing. If I didn’t, I’d be signing my brothers’ death warrants and shoving Marcella into a brotherhood that could, ultimately, get her killed.
6
Marcella
When I crawled into bed that night I was exhausted, not just physically from all the magic usage, but emotionally as well. My focus wasn't anything special in anyone else's eyes, but to me, it was the only thing of value I owned.
I pulled the covers up and curled onto my side, trying not to let my mind wander down memory lane.
The copper wire alone had taken every ounce of bartering skill I had, never mind the amethyst stone. The fact that I had made it myself was something I kept hidden from everyone at school, for if they knew, then they wouldn't let me live it down.
The poor girl, daughter of a thrall, couldn't even afford her own focus let alone new robes when they were torn and burned.
I sighed and rolled over. There was no way I would make it onto the brotherhood now, not after they'd seen me almost cry, like a baby, over a broken rock.
With a grunt, I punched my pillow into a different shape, letting out some of my frustrations and hoping to find some comfort, so I could rest. As I put my head back down, I couldn't help but wonder what it would actually be like fighting with a brotherhood, being their link between one another, the central hub of the group.
In our world, they were basically considered an all around law-enforcement type agency.
Each family had one, just like each state had state troopers, some even had multiples, but they were different levels, an alpha unit, bravo unit, and so on. Becoming a member of a brotherhood was one of the few ways to get out of the Academy, or else a student could wind up living out her days here as a spinster, like this was Edwardian England or something ridiculous like that.
Meditation came in handy during times like this. When both my brain and body wanted to fight to stay awake, it allowed me to lull them into relaxation. I wouldn't say it allowed me to drift off to sleep like I wanted to, but as I focused on my belly breathing, I tried to keep my mind clear of distractions, but those damn brothers kept worming their way back in.
Before I knew it I was dreaming, or at least I thought I was.
The five of them sat around a large coffee table, and none of them looked happy. It was silent for a moment before Cade spit, “If you expect me to apologize for kissing her, you're going to be waiting a fucking long time.”
“Maker, do you even hear yourself?” Keiran said, his normally low, smooth voice was harsh as he exploded up out of his seat and paced to the window.
My gaze followed him, and found that whatever this dream—vision or illusion—was, it was taking place at the Academy.
I could see the way the building curved around in the distance and that their room was facing the fields and gardens in front of the building, whereas my room faced the back, with the woods and scrubby grasslands they couldn't be bothered to keep up.
Turning, I looked around the room, feeling oddly present since it was a dream, and waved my
hand in front of Gideon's face as he sat in an armchair with his fingers steepled under his chin. When I got no reaction, I began to wander around.
It was clearly a room designed for brotherhoods, as there were five, no, six doors coming off the main living area, plus a bathroom.
Jealousy flared within me, I wanted my own bathroom, dammit. Instead I had to share one with all the girls on the floor, which was no fun when they treated you like you had a contagious disease. Usually, as soon as I entered, the other occupants would scatter and leave as quickly as possible. I'd even seen a girl leave with shampoo in her hair once, she was that desperate to get away from me. It had also made me the butt of many practical jokes over the years, although they were the only ones laughing.
My clothes had been taken multiple times, my shampoo and soap would go missing if I didn't keep them in my room, or, even worse, would be replaced with something else, like mayonnaise, which is hell to get out of your hair when you don’t have any shampoo to help with the process.
“Look, I'm just saying I think she'd be a good match as our Sixth,” Cade said with a shrug, but his tone and body language didn’t match up.
Considering how controlled he was, that was saying something, and it further piqued my curiosity.
“Weren't you the one preaching about how hopeless it is to think we have a choice in the matter?” Barclay stated, raising an eyebrow.
“I guess we'll find out soon enough, huh?” Cade muttered, clearly unhappy with having his words thrown back in his face.
“Are you suggesting we ask for Marcella to be our Sixth?” Gideon queried, his voice hushed as though he was worried the very walls themselves were listening in.
“What could it hurt? We like her, and she clearly likes us, offering us blood and blood debts. She should know by now that those kinds of things aren't done lightly, I don't care how sheltered she is,” Cade responded.
“Her mother was a thrall. I think she's been neglected most of her life. I don't know what she saw growing up, but it wouldn't surprise me if she grew up with blood and blood debts being used as a currency,” Barclay clarified.