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“Everything okay?” I keep my voice even, but I can feel Ben’s grip on my hand tighten. He’s here, even though I can tell by the look on his face he agrees with whatever is about to go down.
Damien leans against the mantelpiece, his slate eyes scanning me like he’s trying to read a page that keeps blurring, but he doesn’t meet my gaze. Something I’m becoming all too familiar with.
“What is this?” I ask, sitting down in the straight-backed chair, looking between them. A tension curls around my throat, and it’s hard to breathe for a moment. Whatever it is they’re about to say, I know it won’t be good.
“Ever, we need to have a talk,” Alistair starts, his voice gruff with worry. “You’ve got to stop sneaking out of this goddamn house.”
I frown, crossing my arms defensively. “Sneaking is such a strong word.”
“Is it?” The two words are clipped, and it makes me hide my smile from that aristocratic accent that always grows stronger when he is being serious. It warms me that I know this about him. It’s something familiar, something I can hold on to.
“This morning, you dodged us by making us think you were getting coffee in the kitchen. Then you slipped out the back door and through the side gate. Not on, angel. We are not your jailers, and you won’t treat us that way.”
Pressing my lips together, I give him a contrite stare. “Sorry. It wasn’t intentional.”Liar, liar pants on fire.
His eyes narrow. “This isn’t the first time. Know that this entire premises has CCTV. We may not be on your case twenty-four seven, which, to my grave annoyance, is why you keep slipping out of our grasp, but trust me, Ever. Keep pushing me,and you willneverbe alone again. Am I making myself perfectly clear?”
Glaring at him as he makes it sound like Iamin jail, I swallow back my anger. He’s only trying to help, and to be honest, every time I step out of here without a chaperone, things go sideways. Fast.
“I can see you aren’t convinced,” Alistair states, his gaze locked onto mine, his eyes like chips of ice. “They’re baiting you, Ever. The new faction, they want a rise out of you—or possibly, they’re gunning for us through you.”
“Me?” I scoff, but my heart races at the thought. These games were never just games. They’re chess moves in a twisted power play.
“By sneaking out, you’re handing yourself to them on a silver platter,” Alistair continues, his tone sharp.
The realisation settles like lead in my stomach. My stubborn, independent streak could end up costing more than just my pride.
“Ever, you get it, don’t you?” Ben says softly. It’s not a question so much as a plea.
Flicking my gaze back to Alistair as he is the one leading this charge against my self-reliance, I say, “Yes, Your Grace.”
He growls softly, his eyes two slits as I give him exactly what he wants, even though my independence screams against the concession.
“Good,” Alistair says, his shoulders relaxing slightly. “It’s settled then.”
I glance at each of them, seeing the harsh lines of worry soften. In this dangerous game, I can’t afford to be the weakest link—not when the stakes are this high. Alistair is right. I’ve been a fool, handing these people the opportunity to come at me. But what he says makes sense. If this is the new faction, then I’m their prime target. It means they don’t give too much of a shitabout the guy’s influence if they aren’t there to witness it. But they must be pretty fucking stupid to keep trying, is all I can say.
Look at what happened to Stanley, Robbie and Eric.
My stomach churns, but I swallow and push it down. I’m not thinking about that. It’s on my ‘thanks, but no thanks’ list.
“If that’s all, I need to get back to class,” I say, my words cutting through the tension in the room. “My academic record means something to me. Now more than ever.”
Damien nods, detaching himself from the wall—his preferred place. I wonder if it’s because then no one can sneak up on him. Maybe I should try that. He moves in next to me, his presence is both comforting and unnerving—like a storm cloud promising rain but holding back the deluge. The distance in his eyes contradicts the proximity of his body. It’s unsettling.
“Let’s go then,” he says, voice flat, yet the undercurrents ripple with something unspoken.
He doesn’t give me a chance to have a lingering goodbye with the guys, which I find unsettles me more, especially after what Ben and I shared. It was beyond how I imagined our talk would go, but it was perfect. It definitely goes some way to erasing the claiming from the ritual.
Damien and I walk side by side, our shoulders nearly touching. The silence hangs heavy between us, a curtain I can’t seem to draw back. I steal a glance at him, trying to decipher the riddles etched in the tight lines of his jaw, the furrowed brow. My heart twists with confusion. Why is he pulling away just as Alistair, Ben, and Charlie grow closer?
I feel like I’m balancing on a knife-edge, my emotions for each of them sharp and dangerous. The thought of choosing is impossible—how can I pick a single star when the whole constellation beckons? Is that even what they want? They all seem to want me, but is it a competition to see who gets me forthe long haul, or are they expecting me to take all of them at the same time? I guess that is something only they can answer.
Once I get up the guts to ask, of course.
As we step onto the quad, whispers slither like serpents, each hiss laced with venom behind hands meant to disguise the hate. My former friends, Lila, Crystal, Cass, and Sasha, stand huddled together, their eyes flicking to me before skittering away, guilty and accusing all at once. The chill of isolation wraps around me even tighter. I have no one but these guys. I can’t speak to my parents. Not yet. I need to figure out how I feel about them lying to me all my life first.
As we walk past them, Lila’s voice carries in the wind, edged with cruelty. “Sneaking around with the Cardinals now. Desperate much?”
