by Eva Chase
She came around the car and stopped by the hood, studying me with her chilly eyes. If she’d bothered to check, she’d be able to sense the protections I’d cast. Her mouth set in a thin line of displeasure. The sinewy muscles in her arms flexed as she set her hands on her hips.
“You seem to be expecting me,” she said.
I shrugged, much more casually than matched the tension churning inside me. “I had a hunch. What did you want?”
She looked a little taken aback at having her usual bluntness thrown back at her. Her jaw worked. “We clearly have a lot to discuss about your future and our family’s goals. Why don’t we find somewhere private to talk? None of this needs to be aired in public.”
She didn’t want it aired in public, she meant. That was my one point of leverage.
“No,” I said. “If there’s something you need to say to me, you can say it right here.”
I didn’t need to tell her why I wasn’t interested in going anywhere with her. She’d remember what had happened the last time I’d gotten into her car just as well as I did.
My mother let out a sigh. “Don’t be ridiculous, Connar. You’re wasting both of our time.”
“I’m just making sure I don’t lose even more of my time than before.”
“So, that’s your current stance? You’re simply detaching yourself from the family?”
I folded my arms over my chest. “I’m still just as much a Stormhurst as you are. I’m also old enough to make my own choices—and to decide that when it comes to personal matters, I’m not going to let anyone else control me. What good would I be as a scion if I wasn’t willing to defend myself?”
Her gaze turned into a glower, but she didn’t have a quick retort to that point. She didn’t want a weak heir, as much as she’d also have wanted me to fall in line with her intentions. I sure as hell wouldn’t have been worthy of becoming baron if I were willing to let anyone, even my parents, turn me into a virtual zombie.
“All I want to do is talk,” she said, in a tone I didn’t believe at all. For good reason, because an instant later, her lips moved with a subtle casting.
Subtle but not soft. It hit the barriers I’d cast around me with enough impact for the magic to fray and a jitter of energy to lash against me. I spoke the walls more solid as quickly as I could, but she was already casting again—
And a tickle of other magic brushed past me from behind, flowing into the shields and layering them twice as strong. I imagined I caught a hint of Rory’s sweetness in it.
Her support wasn’t blatant enough for my mother to catch on. The next spell the baron cast rattled the walls a little but didn’t come close to breaking them. My mother’s brow knit. She started to walk toward me instead, and I summoned even more of my magic into my casting.
“That’s close enough,” I said in warning. Much farther and she’d bump against the invisible but solid first line of defense. Another stream of what I assumed was Rory’s magic wafted past me to contribute—and another on top of that, from a slightly different direction. She must have called on additional reinforcements.
My mother spat out a few quick casting words, but even a baron couldn’t shatter the combined efforts of three scions. She scanned the area around me before returning her attention to me with a frown, obviously puzzled by the strength I was showing but uncertain of its source. She might have been able to guess I had help, but she couldn’t point to it.
“If you don’t stop this idiocy now, our next conversation is going to go much worse—for you,” she said.
“I’m willing to take that chance.”
And she wasn’t willing to risk embarrassing herself with any more failure. Her gaze flicked to the windows looking over the parking lot, and her jaw clenched tighter. With an icy flash of her eyes, she spun on her heel and stalked back to her car.
I stayed where I was, my heart thumping heavy in my chest, until well after her car had pulled out of sight. When I was sure she wasn’t going to return, I brought down the barriers around me and headed back to the green.
Rory came out one of the back doors of Killbrook Hall just as I walked around the corner of the building. Declan was right behind her. She hurried straight to me and threw her arms around me without a word.
I hugged her back, choking up at the tremor that ran through her shoulders. “Hey,” I said. “I’m okay. We held her off.”
“She tried to force you,” Rory said against my shirt. “Lord only knows what she was planning on doing if she’d managed to drag you out of view.”
“She didn’t manage, though. If she tries again, I’ll make sure she doesn’t.” I kissed the top of her head. “Thank you.”
“Of course.” She looked up at me, her eyes gone watery, and raised one of her hands to touch the side of my face. Her voice dipped low enough that only I and maybe Declan could have heard her. “I love you. I don’t want to lose you again.”
The emotion in my throat swelled. It took me a second to answer her. “I love you too.”
I kissed her on the lips then, gently but without hesitation, because I could. Because there wasn’t any reason to hide how I felt about this woman. If I could have kept kissing her for the rest of my life…
Thinking along that line didn’t do me any good. I was just more grateful than I could say that I’d get to spend the rest of my life ruling beside her in our own pentacle.
Beside her and the guy standing a little awkwardly off to the side. I eased back from Rory to give Declan his fair acknowledgement. “Thank you too. You could have gotten in a lot of trouble with the barons if she’d realized you were helping me.”
Declan waved that comment off. “I was careful. It was more important to make sure she didn’t manipulate you again.”
“I would have called everyone to lend a hand in case we needed it,” Rory said, “but Malcolm’s off dealing with some family business of his own, and Jude…” Her mouth slanted downward.
Jude didn’t need any more reminders of what he was lacking right now. I nodded. “The three of us together was more than enough.”
“If she comes back, let us know right away. We’re all in this with you.” She bobbed up on her toes to give me one last peck. “Now I’d better get back to my assignment for this afternoon.”
As she left, Declan caught my eyes. “There’s something I think we should talk about,” he said. “Do you have a few minutes—or better, more?”
Something about his tone made my body tense. “Sure. I don’t have my next class for a few hours. What’s up?”
He gestured for me to follow him. Rather than going into the scion lounge, he made for the Stormhurst Building. My stomach sank as we ducked into the stairwell that led to the boiler room. We’d only used this space before to talk during extremely dire and sensitive circumstances. Whatever Declan had to say, it was big—and potentially dangerous.
And he hadn’t looped Rory in on the conversation, so it wasn’t scion business but something specifically to do with me.
In the dim, warm space, Declan swiped his hand over his already slicked-back hair. The pipes around us hummed.
“Maybe I should have brought this to you as soon as it came up,” he said with a regretful twist of his mouth. “I was hoping I could find some kind of confirmation, to be sure of what I heard, but I’m pretty sure even as it is. And I think it’s important that you know now that your mother is starting to escalate her attempts to bring you in line.”
“You heard what?”
He looked at the floor and then back at me. “During the gala the other night at the Stormhurst residence—I was able to overhear your parents talking when they thought they were alone. They weren’t happy about your absence, and your mother indicated that if you continued to resist their influence… they could heal your brother and have him replace you as scion.”
What? I stared at him for several seconds before I found my voice. “That’s impossible. After… after the way I hurt him, the doctors said there was
no way he’d be able to recover enough to do any significant casting.”
“Did you see those doctors? Were you part of that conversation?”
I sucked in a breath and paused. I hadn’t, had I? The goading session our parents had put us through, ending with me attacking Holden, had left me so drained and ill that I’d been pretty out of it for days afterward. It was only when I was steady on my feet again that my mother had told me, with an edge of malicious glee, that I’d taken Holden completely out of the running as scion.
I’d just assumed—the idea that they wouldn’t even have tried to help him heal seemed so inconceivable—
A wrenching sensation tore through my chest. Fucking hell. All this time, he might have been walking again, talking properly again. Why had I ever trusted them on that when they’d proven the ruthless lengths they were willing to go to in order to get their way, over and over?
“No,” I said quietly. “They told me after the fact.”
“Then I think there’s a good chance they didn’t make much, if any attempt, at the time,” Declan said. “You could have your brother back. But I suspect your parents would find some way to put you out of commission if they decide that’s necessary.”
They’d destroy me before they saved him. Yeah, that sounded about right. A rough laugh escaped me. “Only if they can get to me.”
But how could I stand back and let my brother continue to live with the horrific injuries I’d dealt him if he could be healed? I owed him—so much. And now I finally had the chance to make up for my weakness back then.
Chapter Fifteen
Rory
As I stood alone in front of my wardrobe’s mirror, I was hit by a fresh pang of loss. My mother had called me yesterday telling me there was an official function she was going to pick me up to attend, and that I should dress to reflect my status. Now I was second-guessing every outfit I tried on.
A month ago, I could have asked my familiar’s opinion, or my Nary friend and dormmate’s. Now both Deborah and Shelby were out of reach. Not that either of them had been experts on fearmancer fashion standards, but I’d still have welcomed some sort of friendly outside input.
Shelby, at least, was only distant rather than gone completely. I could have sent her a barrage of selfies asking for her thoughts, but that seemed obnoxious, especially when she was probably busy rehearsing her prestigious orchestra pieces. If she could figure out how to play to their standard, I should be able to figure out the standards for a Bloodstone scion.
Finally, I settled on a knee-length silk dress with a subtle diamond pattern and a trim cardigan to make sure I didn’t completely freeze my ass off. The October day outside was sunny but crisp, my windowpane cold to my touch.
I slung my purse over my shoulder, took one last look at myself with a furtive pat of my hair, and headed out of the dorm. I had no idea what this “function” was even about—or for that matter, where it was happening. My mother had been very short on the details. The other scions hadn’t known anything about it, so apparently it wasn’t official in an entire pentacle sort of way.
That fact didn’t stop my pulse from kicking up a notch as I set off for the parking lot where I was supposed to meet her. I held my head high and touched my glass dragon charm on its chain where I’d tucked it under the neckline of my dress. The necklace might not contain any more magic after I’d used up the illusion-detecting spell on it to help break Connar out of his parents’ brainwashing, but it still offered a little comfort. Whatever happened with my birth mother, I’d still had a Mom and Dad who’d given their all to do right by me.
I reached the lot just as my mother’s gold Lexus was pulling to a stop in one of the spots. Maggie leapt out of the back seat to open the front passenger door for me, and my grip on my purse strap tightened instinctively. I managed to give her a tight smile and slipped in next to my mother.
Baron Bloodstone looked over my outfit and nodded with apparent approval. “I appreciate you joining me for this, Persephone,” she said as she swung the car around. “I think it’s especially important for people to see our solidarity today.”
“I want to be involved in the business as much as I can.” I peered out the window. “Where exactly are we going?”
“Just into town. A shift like this needs to be carried out step by step.”
Something in her tone made my skin prickle. “A shift?” I didn’t think she was talking about a physical transformation like Connar into his dragon form.
“Better if you see it as we move forward.”
More vagueness. I tamped down on the urge to squirm in my seat. “You didn’t need to pick me up, then. I could have walked it.”
“Not much solidarity in that,” Maggie piped up from behind me, making me want to strangle her.
My mother’s lips curled upward. “Yes. I think it’s best for us to arrive together. Especially since preparations may be a bit… chaotic.”
That didn’t sound ominous at all. I clasped my hands together in my lap, paying even closer attention to our surroundings now.
The forest that stretched along the road between campus and town tapered off. A couple of blacksuits were standing by the road at the edge of town, with a nod to our car as we passed them. Was this connected to the group of them I’d seen puttering around the outskirts before? The woman I’d talked to had only mentioned checking wards. That didn’t seem to warrant any kind of special appearance by the barons.
I’d expected that we’d park outside one of the fearmancer-owned establishments where most of the students came on their spare time. Instead, my mother pulled over to the curb just before the main square with its ring of benches and aged statue of the place’s first mayor.
A crowd was already gathering in the open space there, focused on a low stage that had been set up opposite the statue. I didn’t recognize most of them, but I spotted a few families from the gala the barons had hosted in the swarm. From their bearing and clothes, I suspected a lot of the others were fearmancers too. What the hell was going on?
A few blacksuits were standing on the stage. We got out of the car, and my mother motioned for me to walk next to her up to it. Maggie trailed behind us.
As we eased around the crowd, I spotted figures coming over to see what the commotion was about who definitely weren’t fearmancers. There was the couple who ran the restaurant I’d eaten at with Jude the other day, and a woman from the ice cream place Imogen, Shelby, and I had frequented during the summer, and a guy who was often on cash at the grocery store. They hung back at the fringes, craning their necks to see what the fuss was about.
It appeared to be about us. The low chatter carrying through the crowd faded as my mother and I climbed onto the stage. Baron Nightwood was just stepping up at the other end. Within a couple minutes, Barons Stormhurst and Killbrook had joined us too, the blacksuits flanking us.
No sign of Declan. They’d completely left him out of whatever this was. The other barons hadn’t brought their scions, but I guessed when it came to Connar and Jude, that wasn’t at all surprising. Maybe my mother had only asked me to come to make some sort of point about my loyalty to her or her control over me.
My stomach started to churn. Baron Bloodstone squeezed my shoulder and left me in the middle of the stage to step up to the microphone up front. Baron Nightwood moved to join her.
“It’s wonderful to see so many of you here to celebrate what I’d like to see as the dawning of a new era,” my mother said into the microphone, her voice pealing out clear and vibrant, no sign of the hesitation or the discomfort I’d seen in her just days ago. “What we’re about to do here today will allow us to step out of the shadows and take the role we deserve in this world.”
She stepped to the side to let Nightwood have a turn. He offered the audience a slow smile. “No longer are we going to hide from the feeble beings that surround us. We will own our magic. We will show them that we can take whatever we want. And today we take this town. From now on, we make the
rules here. Anyone who challenges those rules will face the consequences.” He snapped his fingers with a quick casting word, and flames shot up over his extended hand.
Applause burst out among the fearmancers with a few cries of support. It nearly drowned out the gasp of someone standing on the sidelines. A “What the hell are they talking about?” reached my ears.
My stomach had outright lurched with the announcement. Now it felt as if it’d plummeted right through the bottom of the stage. They’d just publicly acknowledged their magic to all the Naries who’d come over to watch—they were announcing it to the whole town. They were turning this place into a larger version of the horror my classmates were already enacting on campus.
As if to put proof to that thought, one of the fearmancers near the edge of the gathering turned to face a Nary man who was pushing toward the stage. “No one approved this event,” the guy was saying. “You need to—”
The fearmancer’s lips moved, and the man’s legs jerked out from under him. He fell flat on his ass. When he tried to speak again, a conjured toad leapt into his mouth. He shuddered.
“And so it begins,” my mother said, clapping her hands. A fresh wave of applause broke out. My legs locked in place.
I wanted to shout out a protest, to defend the townspeople from whatever else the mages were going to unleash on them now. But I didn’t have a hope in hell of stopping the developing chaos on my own. And if I embarrassed my mother in front of all these people, I could kiss any progress I’d made with her good-bye.
My teeth gritted. I had to see this through, as painful as it was. It didn’t do any good charging into a fight you couldn’t win yet. I’d be failing the people around me if I did that.
I just wished I could tell them that I’d fight for them as soon as I had the means to ensure victory.
My mother turned, beckoning me up to join her. I forced my feet to move. Nausea clutched me from throat to gut as I took my place beside her, the other two barons coming up to join their colleagues too. It took everything I had in me to push my mouth into a smile. The hollers of encouragement hit me like thrown knives.
