“What?”
"Don’t," he growls. “Enough.” He moves abruptly back to his cot, and I lower myself back onto mine.
What the fuck was that?
I stare at the stained ceiling, my heart racing. I don’t understand this place. I don’t understand him.
But mostly, I don’t understand why I’m already missing the feel of his thumb against my skin.
Fuck.
9. TALIESIN
Heinz and Gleb are back on the bleachers, which means Aurora is finally off the hook with the Guild.
Thank fuck.
Watching her endure that humiliation day after day, seeing the leers and hearing the filth they spewed at her, was eating me alive. A couple of those bastards had even jerked off while she was forced to kneel watching. They’d kept to the letter of the agreement; their jizz hadn’t touched her skin, but it was a technicality that made my blood boil. It took everything I had not to storm those bleachers and start breaking heads.
So, if that debt is paid, why is the air in the yard still vibrating like a live wire? The atmosphere feels even more charged today.
What is going on?
Leaning against the rusted supports of the bleachers, I watch the Guild members congregate near the north wall. They’re jumpy, looking over their shoulders.
Nervous.
Usually, the Guild moves with the entitled grace of people who know their place in the world is guaranteed. Sure, they’re in Quo now, but outside they’ll have money, and their magic, and some semblance of power waiting for them.
But today I see shoving and scuffling between the Guild witches.
“Why all the in-fighting?” Clay mutters, stepping up beside me.
My eyes track Dimitry. He’s jabbing a finger at Thad, looking far from the cool-headed King we’re used to seeing.
I think about what Hennessey told us. “The world outside is dead, Clay. If everyone has magic now, being ‘Elite’ is just a word. It doesn’t mean shit if your butler can suddenly turn into a manticore. Their daddies are probably being hunted through the streets. Fuck, for all we know, your old man is a cyclops.”
Clay frowns, then after a moment his face creases into a rare grin. “My dad a cyclops? A gnome is a shit-ton more likely. What about your mom, I can totally see her as a hydra. That’s probably how she managed to keep all us kids under control.” Mom’s clinic wasn’t just for health. It was a haven for Ashgrave children with nowhere else to go.
The image of her sprouting multiple heads to scold a room full of rowdy kids is too much.
I can’t help it, I just start laughing. Clay and I meet eyes, and crack up even further. When we get our shit together, half the yard is staring at us like we’ve lost the fucking plot.
Maybe we have.
It doesn’t escape me that Dimitry and Heinz are focused our way, looking furious. Do they think we’re laughing at them?
Maybe. Because their carefully honed self-image is crumbling around them.
“Look at them,” I nod toward the bleachers. “Their power was built on the promise of a future that doesn’t exist anymore.” I point to Julian, the sniveling brat who came in with Aurora. He’s currently being shoved into the dirt by one of his own. “Now they’re just rats in a cage. And rats start eating each other when they’re threatened.”
Clay blinks, his grin fading as he watches a Guild member shove a No-man. “They’re going to be looking to raise their status. Picking on the weakest first, overcompensating.”
“Yep. We need to keep things tight, Clay. This place feels like a ticking time bomb.”
My gaze drifts toward the girl sitting on her own, in the mid-section of the Digger bleachers.
If this place is a powder keg, why do I think Aurora could be the spark that’s going to make the whole Godsdamn shit show explode?
