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“What are you—?” But he took my hand, chia pet in his other fist as he tugged me from the room. It was hard to keep my footing as he walked so quickly, but all of my omega hormones were on overdrive.
I didn’t care that it was late.
I didn’t care that he hadn’t said a word—or that he was dragging me outside—or that I had no idea why. We were in the garden and Ebony shoved a planter off a pillar and slammed the horrifying chia pet in its place.
I froze as he picked up a gun that had been waiting on a nearby day bed.
“Ebony—” I began, but he was ignoring me.
He ripped a fistful of its wheatgrass hair out, tucked it in his pocket, then pressed the gun right up to its gaping mouth.
“Wait—!”
But without a moment’s warning, he pulled the trigger.
I let out a squeak of shock as chia pet guts exploded everywhere.
FORTY-FIVE
ROOK
Vex couldn’t stop bursting into fits of manic giggles.
Ebony had swept her into his arms and carried her into the nest where he’d shooed out everyone but me. Then he’d sat her down on the couch and told us to wait before vanishing.
“It’s real?” she whispered to me, as she picked little pieces of soil from her hair.
“It’s real,” I said with a grin.
She narrowed her eyes at me like she was going to ask more, but then pursed her lips through a little smile.
Finally, Ebony was back, and in his fist he held a tall glass cup filled with a light green smoothie. In it was a straw and an umbrella.
He pressed it into her hand, sitting down on the couch and turning on the TV. From the drink, I caught the undeniable scent of wheatgrass.
“What uh…? What’s going on?” she asked.
“The fireworks,” he said, glancing between her and the TV. “For you.”
I frowned as he found a news station, and we were instantly met by breaking news read out by frantic reporters out in the New Oxford night.
Along the bottom was the line:“New Oxford in a state of chaos as police sirens are heard across the city.”
“There's been a leak,”the reporter was saying.“A major leak of information. This is big. Anonymous tips are one thing, but this isn’t just some nut job on the phone. From what I know, there’s evidence behind every claim, and there aremountainsof it.”
Vex could not take her eyes from the screen. The smoothie clutched in her fist like it was a lifeline.
Then we were shown clips of police raids. People being dragged from houses and arrests being made on drug charges: possession, trafficking, importing and exporting goods.Perhapsnot newsworthy, but for the fame of the people who were taken—and the sheer volume. It was, it seemed, never ending.
First, it was a bit repetitive as reporters across the city caught wind of celebrities being arrested in their homes.
Vex got to her feet, eyes wide as the Evening Star’s logo appeared. Her eyes shone, and she took a little sip of the smoothie, unable to look away.
Ebony had the Evening Stars symbol he’d gifted her in his hand already. When Dean’s name popped up on the screen, he dropped it into a wide basin and lit it on fire.
Vex looked over the moon as the edges of the picture curled with flames right as the TV showed a swearing Dean Trance in pyjamas being shoved into a police car.
When it had burned to cinders, Ebony funnelled the ashes into a tiny decorative glass jar and pressed a little cork cap on top before returning it to her window sill of doomed gifts.
