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He stumbles to the side, and I’m up on my feet, running past him.
Then just as suddenly, I’m not.
My body is jerked backwards as Declan grabs my hoodie.
Pain once again rips down my arm as I try to pull my arms free of the sleeves, but as my bare skin meets the air, Declan somehow manages to grab hold of the collar. Flinging the hoodie to the side, he pulls hard.
The force sends me straight back into the glass, which somehow doesn’t break as the air is once again, forced from my lungs.
Without letting go of the collar, Declan kicks the box he’d carried outside with him, so it slams into the wall beside me. Before I can work out what he’s doing, he stands on it, heaving me up. When he steps back, he’s not holding onto me, but I’m just hanging in the air.
This is how it’s going to end?
My arms and legs flail in the air, sliding helplessly against the glass windows, and then my toes find a grip.
I manage to get the toes of one foot onto the box Declan used, and the moment I do, the chain around my neck loosens just enough to suck in air. My whole body is trembling, but I use my other foot to find a grip against the windowpane to steady me.
All this takes seconds, but by the time I’ve found a position to be able to regain my balance, I realize Declan is gone.
Snow swirls around me like I’m stuck in the middle of a snow globe. At the moment, adrenaline is surging through me, but with bare feet and arms, and wet clothes, I’m not sure how long I can keep my balance like this.
Who would come to look for me anyway?
XXXXIV
Royal
When I was six or seven, I asked my oldest brother, Wesley, if he wanted to play with me. Being the youngest of four, there’s nearly nine years between me and Wes, so we didn’t play together very often anyway. I remember Wes turning to me and telling me that when I finally understood the concept of money and how much we had, the most valuable thing in the world was time. And he had zero to give to me.
It had taken a few more years to understand what he meant, and that him not spending time with me had little to do with the age gap.
The members of the Elite come from some of the wealthiest and most powerful families in the country, but it’s easy to see who has generational wealth and who was brought up by a parent or grandparent who made it lucky, just by how they act when summoned at such short notice.
Punctuality is a sign of respect.
But how early you are is a clue to how long your family has had money.
Generational wealth members arrive no more than ten minutes early, and no later than five minutes early. Anyone else will be there either side of that.
Most meetings are attended by the executive committee, and any which require the whole society are usually planned with a little more notice—unless it’s during the initiation. Regardless of how much time or information anyone gets, no one is ever late.
As unforgiving as Syn is, it’s been this way since I was an initiate, and even back when my grandfather was one. Syn, Preston, Garret, William—all the Elite presidents from when I started—are the most powerful people in the room, and even if you can’t stand them, you don’t be late.
Syn makes us walk straight to the church, calling Gemini and telling him to meet us there. The first people arrive a few minutes after us. All of them, as expected, are those new-rich students.
Syn’s already standing at the front of the room, arms folded as he glares at them. I can sense their nerves as they keep shooting furtive glances over at their president, but I doubt they can tell Syn’s ready for a massacre. In their eyes, that’s how he normally acts, and to the untrained eye, it would be hard to tell otherwise.
But I’ve known Syn all my life, and I can tell.
There’s a single finger tapping his arm.
Considering the cold, disapproval on his face, that won’t stand out to anyone else, but to me, it’s like he’s holding a banner. My problem is that I’m not sure what underlying emotion is poking at the surface.
Someone’s gone directly against him, so anger makes sense, but I don’t think that’s it. Or, at least, I don’t think that’s just it. Despite being a starring member of the video, I know it’s not embarrassment. When Syn announced to the Elite that Tori was to take part in the initiation, he told everyone then that we had been the ones to take care of that part of the ceremony, so it’s not like there’s a person in this room that doesn’t know it’s us, even if you can’t tell from the video.
It's certainly not a concern—for Tori, at least. The last person he cares about is her. Maybe it’s the fact that this is now out on the internet, and someone might link it back to him, and therefore his father might find out.
But I’m sure there’s something else.
