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“But—”
“If it makes you feel better,” Hunter cut off the underboss before he could continue, “consider my options. Isa will kill me on sight. Odin is keeping me alive. Not really rocket science at this point which side I choose, now is it?”
“Not to mention,” Odin added, “That Isa murdered his sister.”
Vetle grew quiet a moment. “I remember her. Megan, right? She had a loud voice and a fearless nature.”
That actually sounded like respect in his tone, and Hunter straightened. When he saw that he was being serious and not about to launch into insults, he bowed his head once in silent thanks.
“Hunter was Brumal ten years ago,” Odin announced, “and that never stopped. He’s part of the Snow Family. Everyone here, including him, wants to see Isa dethroned.”
That was an altogether odd thing to hear spoken out loud, but Hunter was smart enough not to question it at the moment, in front of the others. He and Odin hadn’t specifically spoken about that yet, and he wasn’t sure if it was something they’d need to know or if he should just except and roll with it.
He’d been in training when his father had been around, but only for a short while, less than six months by that point. It’d been a formality mostly, meant to help his dad prove his loyalties to the Brumal. Hunter had been promised that it’d be for a year, max, and that he could still continue with his studies. That afterward, he’d be free to move on with his life with the Snow family paying a full ride to the top school in the city. Even then, he’d known that last part wasn’t going to happen.
Meg had always been the smart one in the family. He’d switched the deal so that it’d be her school that would get paid off. But then their dad had up and vanished one day out of the blue, and Hunter needed to step up. More and more of his time had been spent at the Faraway Mansion, watching Odin from the sidelines, a bodyguard that was more meant to act as a sacrifice than anything else.
If anyone needed protection when one of the Shouts was involved, it wasn’t them. It was everyone else who was unlucky enough to be around them at the time. If someone had come after any of the young Brumal princes, the princes would have dealt with them on their own.
To say Hunter had been a part of the organization was almost laughable when he thought back on it now. He’d been window trapping, nothing more. The second his father’s cold corpse had been discovered, he’d been given a permanent place amongst their ranks and that had been that.
“He’s fucking him,” Odin’s harsh words pulled him out of his thoughts and he glanced over at him with a slight frown, unsure of what they were talking about.
“No way,” Vetle rested his arms on the table, “did he tell you that?”
“Yes,” he said. “And I believe him.”
“Shit.” The underboss sat back, shoulders drooping a bit. “If Isa is sleeping with the Emperor, we’re screwed.”
“There’s word on the streets that he’s considering outlawing prostitution,” Corbi told them. “And gambling.”
Odin snorted. “Good luck to him.”
Hunter had to agree. Sanctum wasn’t like other planets. Speaking of window trappings. They had an operating government, but the whole universe knew it was a smokescreen. The Brumal were the true rulers here, and the people, though afraid of them, didn’t mind so much as long as it meant they could always find a warm body or a place to blow off some steam at night.
Liaand Norra wasn’t the only Red Light District on the globe that was always bustling and alive. That was the major reason Hunter had always avoided those areas of any town or city he’d hidden in. The same could be said about Yellow Brick Road. Wren’s gambling sector was the largest, sure, but he had branches run by different underlings throughout, the same as Snow.
If the Emperor tried to make any of their business illegal, he’d get a fight, and not from the Brumal itself but from the citizens of Sanctum. Isa was no idiot. He had to know that fact already.
“It’s a stall tactic,” Hunter surmised. “If he goes through with it, it’s not because he thinks it’ll pass. He wants you and Wren on your toes. Wants to shake you up. Wants to make a point.”
“What if he decides to have the Emperor order you to return all of the business in his territory?” Vetle asked.
The Brumal ran the show, but so long as Isa Frost sat in Faraway Mansion and continued to lead that section of the organization, he was the one in total control. If he sided with the Emperor, he could move mountains. Which almost begged the question, why hadn’t he already? The second Odin had reappeared he could have done something if he’d had that type of governmental power. Which meant…
“It’s new.” Hunter crossed his arms and rested back against the windowsill once more. “Whatever he has going with the Emperor, it started recently, at least, it can’t be longer than a year, two at most.”
“You think that’s why he’s choosing now to strike?” Vetle turned to him, and any animosity or suspicion that had been on his face prior was gone. He looked like he was taking Hunter seriously.
All that did was remind Hunter of the type of power Odin held. Aside from a couple hundred or so members who’d been loyal to the Frost family since before the merger between Isabel and Ander, many of those who were now under Isa’s rule had been poached from the Snow Family after Ander’s “accident” and Odin’s disappearance. While many had returned to Odin’s side when he’d come back, others had decided to stick by Isa, either due to their oaths or out of fear.
Sanctum wasn’t a very large planet in the grand scheme of things. That, and their sheer lack of material wealth was what kept the rest of the galaxy from bothering with them. Hell, they’d given the middle finger to the Intergalactic Space Treaty and no one had batted an eyelash their way, even knowing they were unprotected. The Brumal, as a whole, made up a little over a fourth of the population, spread out across the entire planet, with smaller pockets put in charge of other men here and there.
Within the city, which was the largest in the world and held a population of only six thousand something, a thousand of that were members of the Brumal.
Isa could have chosen to attack and risked an all-out bloodbath in the streets. He most likely would have won, though there was no real way to be sure since Odin and Wren would surely join forces. It would have been a massive waste, however, and the end results, even if he was successful, wouldn’t have been what he truly wanted.
“He doesn’t care about merging the Snow and Frost families again,” Hunter said. “That’s never been a real interest of his. Not even when the families were playing house and faking smiles.”
