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Fucking finally.
“Rise.”
Panting and sweating, I let the whip drop to the floor and hunch over, arching my back.
Damien is on his feet and crouching next to me in an instant, stroking my hair. “You are amazing,” he murmurs.
“Thanks.” Lifting my head, I catch his eye, and he takes my hand, helping me to my feet.
Ben holds up my tee and helps me back into it, glad he wasn’t standing there expecting me to put my bra back on so soon. I hunch my shoulders again, and then I let it go.
My voice is steady, a calm before the storm of plans I’m about to unleash. “We’re setting up a new order of things,” I say. “Strength, unity, loyalty – these are our pillars. Without them, we crumble. KnightsGate has always been ours, but now, we solidify that claim. No more questions, no more challenges to our authority.” I let those words hang in the air, heavy with promise and threat. “We need to be one step ahead, always.”
“Agreed,” Alistair says. “Control is everything.”
“Exactly,” I affirm. “And it starts with us, here, tonight. We set the example. Our actions reflect who we are and what we stand for.”
“Secrets stay buried,” Damien adds, his tone as cold as his pale skin under the flickering light.
“Knew you’d kick the shit out of this,” Charlie says, his eyes flashing with delight. “The Elders are going to wet themselves when they hear what you’re doing.”
I give him a sassy grin. “Good. We operate in the shadows, but our influence will be felt in every corner of this university. Roles,” I state, my eyes scanning the faces of the Four Cardinals. “Alistair, you’re the leader, where you say, we follow.” I put my hand up to stop what I know he’s going to say about me and my lead. “You know this better than anyone. You’re our shield.”
Alistair nods once, a tight smile on his lips, as he accepts what I’m saying.
“Ben. You have a way with words and theories that can bend minds. Your job is to craft our narrative, to teach the Freshmen our ways subtly, shape their thinking from day one. You’re the pen.”
He nods, also not needing to respond with words. They’ve got this. I know it, and so do they.
“Charlie, you’re the heart. Yes, even in this cold game, we need one. Your spirit, your energy—it draws people in. Use that. Keep morale high, make sure everyone feels part of something bigger.”
His grin spreads wide. “I’m all over it.”
“Oh, God,” Ben groans, dropping his face into his hand. “You’ve let the crazy out.”
“Fuck off,” Charlie says with a manic laugh. “She loves the crazy.”
“I do,” I reply with a smile. “Damien, you’re our sword. Observe, protect, keep us in line. You see things we miss, hear whispers we don’t. Make sure nothing comes back to bite us.”
“Understood,” he replies, his tone so low it nearly blends into the shadows he prefers.
“Good.” I take a deep breath. “We can’t do this alone. We need each other, open lines all the time. If something goes sideways, we talk. No secrets among us, got it?”
“Got it.”
“Questions?” I glance around the dark chamber, my gaze piercing each of them in turn. “Concerns?”
Alistair hoists himself up onto the altar. “None from me.”
The rest of the guys don’t seem to be concerned either, but I have something that is weighing heavily on my mind, and I’m new to all this shite, so I have to ask because who the fuck knows how this works.
“Okay, I’ll voice mine. What about the big elephant in the room?” I count them off on my fingers. “Stanley, Robbie, Eric, Crystal, and all the rest. Gone, vanished. That stirs up trouble, brings heat.”
Alistair leans forward on the altar, his eyes sharp as razors. “The narrative has already been set. Stanley, Robbie, Eric, Crystal and whoever else has gone underground. They took off. A whirlwind adventure vanished into thin air together. The rumours are already spreading.”
“Are you sure it’ll hold up?” I press, my fingers tapping a silent rhythm on my thigh.
“Trust how the system works,” Alistair says with that unnerving certainty of his. “People love a good story over an ugly truth. They’ll eat it up. Look at how everyone bought that you burned your own student house down.”
