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My gaze flickered around the quad. In the distance, I saw two of the nus, heads bowed as though they were discussing the outrage of the spectacle. But they wouldn’t come any closer.
Back when Saint Benedicts was going through its first expansion, two hundred and fifty-odd years ago, the alumni all agreed on one thing: if they were going to gift the school an unseemly amount of money, then their offspring were going to get perks they’d only dreamt of. And so, the new boys’ dorm was made the purview of the lay staff, to be ignored and unjudged by the nuns and clerical staff. They didn’t like it – never had, never would – but they abided by it. Thus, a fight on the quad outside the boys’ dorm was, much to their chagrin, not something the nuns could do anything about. It wouldn’t stop them gathering and gawking from afar, no doubt tittering to each other about the number of hail Mary’s the boys were going to owe.
As my gaze kept moving, it finally fell on Apollo, who was watching me like he was just waiting for me to notice him. It was nice to think he’d been the one waiting for once. He gave me a small nod, said something to Fender at his side, held a hand up to someone else, then made his way through the crowd to me.
“There you are, sweetheart,” he said, like hehadbeen waiting for me.
“Here I am.”
“You look nice.” He turned his gaze to Florence. “Florence.”
“Apollo,” she replied, equally as forcibly polite.
There was absolutely no point in trying to make my future husband and my best friend get along. Quite aside from the fact it was never going to happen, I wasn’t sure I wanted my two worlds – my two personalities – to collide.
“You ready?” Apollo asked me.
I nodded. “Sure.”
He smiled, then called over his shoulder, “Valk.”
My eyes slid to Valen. On his God’s command, he stopped toying with the poor idiot who’d challenged him. Fat lot of good that knife was going to do him. Two more hits were all it took to send him to the ground. And he wasn’t getting up by himself any time soon.
Without a second thought, Valen shook the sweat from his hair and grabbed the towel Fender was holding out to him. He wiped most of the blood off his hands, swapped the towel for a t-shirt and pulled it on. Then he was behind Apollo and bearing down on me like he hadn’t, moments before, been beating a guy to within an inch of his life.
“Ready?” Valen asked, barely even winded.
Apollo nodded, his smile for me warm and mirrored in his eyes. “It’s time to show my princess just what she means to me.”
Oh, this was going to be good.
Chapter Seven
While Saint Benedicts had been built to be as inaccessible as possible – or as inescapable as possible – the modernisation of the world had made it far easier for people to get to, and students to get away from. Whether they were being allowed to or not.
The school itself was built cascading gently down the side of a hill. It was picturesque and beautiful, with a road that wound down and around to the nearest town, which tumbled further down the hill slightly less elegantly. Bieityn was home to some few thousand people and paid homage to the Callahan Estate. As a family who enjoyed the finer things in life, the Callahans had been good to the people of Bieityn, helping them to create up-market restaurants and shops, all kept open by the thick wallets of the Saint Benedicts’ students’ parents.
While I hadn’t been told – I was never told – what the plans were for that night or where we were going, I had assumed that Apollo would take me to dinner atBieito, the town’s swankiest restaurant. A place where the Callahans were treated like the royalty they liked to think they were.
For as long as there had been crime, there were people trying to cash in on it. And the Callahans had been at it longer than most. Archer Callahan may not have had an official Title recognised by any country’s government, that he so desperately wished for, but among thieves he was a lord.
As Valen pulled the car to a stop in front of the brightly lit windows ofBieito, I knew I was right. One of the maître d’s strode towards the car and opened the door.
“Miss Vanguard,” he said with a warm smile. “Happy birthday.”
I nodded to him and forced a smile of my own. “Thank you.”
“Park the car. Do what you like. I’ll let you know when we’re done,” Apollo said to Valen before patting his shoulder, then getting out of the car.
Valen looked back to me. “Enjoy your dinner.”
Everything he said to me was disdainful. It came across like a threat. Though what he could possibly be threatening in a simple, ‘enjoy your dinner’, I wasn’t sure. Knowing Valk the way I did, he could make a threat out of nothing more than existing.
“Shall we?” Apollo pulled my focus and I looked out at him standing next to the maître d’.
Apollo looked fine in anything, but it never hurt when he made an effort. And I knew him well enough to know he’d made an effort. Just not the kind that would matter to anyone else but me.
He wore simple chinos and a button down shirt, top button undone. His hair was artfully messy and he wore brushed suede shoes. Nothing about him screamed money, nothing except the fact that he was eighteen and taking his girlfriend toBieitofor dinner on a school night.
