by Eva Chase
Even though we were just getting started, it was already filling up. Victory and Cressida were sitting on one of the sofas kitty-corner from the Stormhurst scion, talking through something with him with intent tones. They glanced over at my entrance, Victory tipping her head in acknowledgement and Cressida offering me an actual if small smile.
My first two choices for the Guard probably would have looked strange to anyone who knew our history. But I owed Cressida this—and while she might not have held a lot of respect for Naries, she obviously didn’t see torturing them as fun either. Victory I’d asked because she’d trusted me enough to tip me off to the new Nary policy when it’d still been a partial secret, and because her family didn’t seem to be caught up in supporting the barons’ current moves. Whether she liked me or not, she knew I could get things done and that those things aligned with her goals better than anything the barons were up to right now.
They were both strong mages. Maybe more importantly, if I suggested anything they thought would turn the majority of fearmancers against any cause we stood up for, they wouldn’t hesitate to let me know in blatant terms.
If either of them thought it was odd that I hadn’t included the third member of their usual trio, they hadn’t mentioned it. I’d considered Sinclair, but only for a matter of seconds. She’d been in on the secret during its earliest stages and hadn’t shown any signs of unease about how she was bolstering her power. Malcolm had spotted her parents at the gala, fawning over ours.
Malcolm himself was standing at the edge of the mat with the one guy he’d picked out for his contingent so far, motioning with his hands as if demonstrating a casting. And Declan was in the corner in hushed conversation with a teenage boy who looked like a younger, slightly stockier version of himself—his brother Noah.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” the Ashgrave scion was saying when I came over.
His brother pulled a face and then looked hopefully toward me. “Maybe we need a second opinion. Do you think juniors should be excluded from the Guard?”
I glanced between the two of them. Declan’s stern expression told me exactly where he stood on the subject. “Shouldn’t you be one of the people being guarded?” I hedged. “You’re practically a scion yourself.”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to explain to him,” Declan said.
Noah rolled his eyes. “It doesn’t make any sense. I’m not the scion, and unless something happens to you, I never will be. And since I’m not a conniving jackass, I’d like to make sure nothing happens to you. I’ve been near the top of my classes since I started my official schooling. I’ve got three strengths just like you do. And I probably picked up at least a few techniques in Paris that they don’t focus on here. Who better to have on your Guard?”
He might have been more brash than I could imagine Declan ever having been, but he shared his older brother’s ability to make a determined appeal to logic.
“Okay,” I said, meeting Declan’s eyes. “I think he’s making a solid case.”
Declan let out an exasperated breath. “The barons have already targeted him once to get to me. He should be staying out of the way as much as possible, not going out of his way to put himself between me and them.”
“I haven’t fallen for any tricks since then, have I?” Noah pointed out. “And believe me, it’s not because no one’s tried to one-up me. I’ve stayed off on the sidelines for too long while you’ve had to do all the work. I’m practically an adult now. I can handle taking some of the blows so you don’t have to.”
“Noah… You don’t know just how bad things can get.”
My heart ached for Declan, knowing how hard he’d worked to protect his brother. But at the same time I could understand where the younger guy was coming from.
“Why don’t you take him on and see how it goes at first?” I suggested before the argument could go on. “Noah is obviously picking up on the political situation fast, and you’re not going to find anyone more loyal. We’re still deciding what the Guard does and who we ask to take on what tasks. It’s not like you’re sending him into battle or something. You might even be able to keep a closer eye on him.”
Noah flashed me a grin. “There! Thank you! Not that I need to be watched over.”
Declan sighed. He looked as if he might have been about to raise another complaint, but then he cuffed his brother lightly on the shoulder instead. “Let me think about it. I’m starting to wish stubbornness didn’t run in the family. Didn’t you have a class to get to?”
Noah checked the time on his phone and winced. “I can make it. I’ll be back later.” He shook his finger at Declan warningly and hightailed it out of the Guard room.
“Sorry,” I said to Declan. “I know that’s probably not what you’d have wanted me to say.”
“No, I’d have wanted you to say what you really think. Maybe I should give him a chance. It’s just hard not to feel like then I’m tossing away all the work I’ve done keeping him out of the politics and the rest.”
“Well, if he doesn’t want to be kept out… there’s only so much you’re going to be able to do. He’s his own person.”
Declan chuckled. “That he is.”
Just like Declan was his own person, separate from whatever legacy his family had left him, good or bad.
I wavered, but my mother’s revelation yesterday morning had been weighing on me ever since. I doubted the Ashgrave scion would enjoy hearing it any more than he’d liked me supporting Noah’s bid to join the Guard, but he needed to know what the other barons at least believed about his mother.
I motioned for him to follow me out of the room, away from the others. In the hall, I cast a quick spell to confirm no staff were in the supply rooms. Declan watched me with a frown.
“What’s wrong, Rory?”
I found I couldn’t jump straight into it. “The announcement in town yesterday—did you call out the other barons for going behind your back?”
His frown deepened. “They gave me the same bullshit answer about how this was all part of the original plan my aunt approved, so permission had already been given from the Ashgraves, and a bunch of other excuses. Unfortunately, now that your mother’s back, they feel even more secure in jerking me around, knowing I can’t easily push back when it’s four against one.”
“But if they’re breaking the rules of the pentacle…”
“If I can prove they’ve purposefully done that, you can be sure I’ll bring them to task. Although with the way things are going, I’m not sure they even care about official sanctions—they might bluster right through them.”
The speed with which the barons were moving forward with their plans was unsettling. And so were the other reasons they might be using to justify leaving Declan out.
I paused, grappling with the words, but there really was no pleasant way of saying it. “I thought you should know— My mother mentioned something yesterday after the announcement in town. According to her, the joymancer attack where they killed my father and your mother and those other fearmancers, and captured her and me… Your mother told them we’d be there.”
Declan’s gaze turned into a stare. “Why the hell would she have done that?”
I spread my hands. “I don’t know. My mother seems to think it was to get back at her and my father for something or other—that your mother thought they’d attack them and not her. I don’t even know if it’s true. But if my mother believes it enough to be telling me, there’s a pretty good chance the other barons think it’s at least possible.”
“I know my mother didn’t agree with a lot of their attitudes, but to give the joymancers an opening to launch an assault—to outright betray the pentacle…” Declan rubbed his forehead. “I don’t want to think she could have done that. But it’s not as if I even remember her all that well. I’ll have to—I’ll have to talk to my dad and see if he knows anything about it.”
“I’m sorry. I wish I hadn’t needed to tell you.”
; “But you did need to, just like you needed to be honest about Noah.” He touched my arm. “It’s okay, Rory. If that’s what they’re saying, I have to know so I can find out what’s true.”
As we went back into the room, Victory and Cressida were just leaving. “Let us know when you’ve got anything for us to take on,” Cressida said to me.
Connar had ambled over to see them out. “Your brother took off?” he said to Declan. “He seemed pretty keen.”
“He is,” Declan said. “He’s only gone temporarily. We’ll see how the rest goes.” His gaze traveled through the room, but I got the impression he wasn’t really seeing much of it. His attention was still on the revelation I’d just shared with him. “I think I’d better get going too. If any of you need anything, you know how to reach me.”
He ducked out without another word.
“Is he all right?” Connar asked.
I hoped so. I wasn’t going to spread around the story about the former Baron Ashgrave any farther. It was up to Declan when and what he told the other scions. “He’s just got a lot on his mind, I think.”
“Funny how much the same he and his brother are, isn’t it? Both of them working their asses off to try to protect the other.”
Connar smiled, but his tone was bittersweet. I studied him, remembering the other topic I’d meant to bring up with my guys.
“I’m sure you and Holden would have been the same way if your parents hadn’t forced you to fight.”
Connar’s face fell. “I’d like to think so.”
I dropped my voice even lower to make sure Malcolm’s friend wouldn’t overhear. “I’ve been thinking about what you told me—about what Declan found out about him. I know getting enough access to your brother without your parents knowing is a big part of the problem, and I’m not sure how to help with that, but for finding a doctor who might be able to do the work—I could ask Professor Viceport if she knows any Physicality specialists who went into the medical side. She’s said more than once that I should go to her if there’s something she can contribute.”
Connar brightened so eagerly I wished I’d thought to suggest the tactic when he’d first shared the news with me. “Do you think she’d come through?”
“I don’t know. It’d be a big ask, to go against a baron’s wishes for her own son, even if Viceport still feels really guilty about how she treated me… but it’s worth a try, right? She isn’t too fond of the barons anyway, so she’s probably got friends who aren’t either, who might be willing to pull one over on them.”
“See what she says, and let me know. I’m not sure when or how we’d be able to arrange the treatment, but just having someone ready to carry it out would make a big difference.”
I might have gone to call on my mentor right then, except my phone chimed. The last name I expected to see with the text was Baron Nightwood’s. My body had gone rigid before I’d read any farther.
Miss Bloodstone, your presence is requested at a meeting of barons in half an hour. To save you the trouble of coming out to the Fortress, we’ll convene near the university.
He sent a set of coordinates that showed a vacant area about a half a mile outside of town. A prickle ran down my back as I processed the message. He couldn’t mean all of the barons—if Declan had gotten the same call, I’d have been hearing from him about it already. What the hell was this about?
A half an hour didn’t give me much time to dawdle before heading over there. I bobbed up to give Connar a quick kiss and slipped out. On my way up the stairs, rather than replying to Malcolm’s dad, I sent a quick message to my mother. If there was a meeting, the weirdest thing was him telling me about it rather than her.
What’s this meeting about? I typed. Are you okay?
I’m perfectly fine, she wrote back. But what meeting are you talking about?
My gut knotted. She didn’t know about it? What was Baron Nightwood playing at?
I gave her the gist of his summons. I don’t know what he wants. I thought you’d be part of it.
I will be. Send me those coordinates. Tell him you’re coming, and drive nearby, but don’t arrive until I let you know I’m almost there.
I didn’t know whether to be relieved that she was coming or worried about what it meant that Baron Nightwood had tried to call me out behind her back. Both reactions seemed reasonable. The whole situation was unnerving.
Following her instructions, I drove most of the way to what appeared to be a stretch of abandoned farmland and parked by a rusted silo. Her next text came five minutes later. Go ahead. I’ll be right there.
With a stutter of my pulse, I drove the last short distance to a grassy laneway that ended by a partly collapsed wooden fence. The Barons Nightwood, Stormhurst, and Killbrook were waiting by their cars there. Nightwood straightened up as I got out, but before he could even start speaking, my mother’s Lexus rumbled over to join us. Nightwood’s jaw twitched.
My mother sprang out and crossed the grass to us in a few brisk strides. The cool wind tugged at her hair. She must have jumped in the car without worrying about the weather, because she had no jacket on over her sleeveless dress, but her glare gave no sign that she was fazed by the chill.
“A meeting of the barons involving my daughter, and I wasn’t looped in? Don’t tell me my invitation got lost in the mail.”
The vehemence in her voice surprised me. Yes, the whole set-up was weird, but these were her friends, her allies—and she sounded as if she were speaking to enemies.
It hadn’t been that hard to switch the way she thought about Lillian, though. The paranoia that had wormed through her thoughts since her rescue had made her suspicious of just about everyone. Maybe she’d had her anxieties about even the other barons.
“Althea,” Nightwood said in a cajoling voice. “We’d have spoken about this in just a little while. It simply seemed like a conflict of interest to address a concern that affects all of us when of course you’ll be inclined to take your daughter’s side.”
My mother folded her arms over her chest. “I won’t be if she’s wrong. I should have some say in that too. What’s the concern?”
“This ‘Scions’ Guard’ she’s spearheading,” Baron Stormhurst spat out. The look she gave me was just shy of a glower. “It’s above and beyond acceptable limits for the pentacle of scions to be arranging themselves a small army.”
Maybe my underlying intentions hadn’t been quite so hidden. Not that I was going to admit she was on the right track. “It’s not an army,” I said, with as much disdain for the idea as I could muster. “We’re ensuring our own security. I’m surprised it hasn’t been done before.”
“It was never necessary,” Baron Killbrook said with a hint of a sneer that I’d have liked to punch off his face, considering he was probably mostly worried about how he’d take another stab at Jude’s life while he was under extra guard. My hands clenched, but my mother spoke before I had to.
“You seem awfully blasé about your own heir’s safety when the menace that attacked him is still unaccounted for,” she said, giving Killbrook a sharp look. Her gaze snapped to Stormhurst. “And if our heirs decided they needed an army for their own purposes, what exactly would be the problem with that? They’re gathering formal support and establishing loyalty. Do you have some reason to think yours would use that loyalty toward ends you wouldn’t approve of?”
Stormhurst’s lips pursed as if she’d tasted something horribly sour. “Do you have a reason to think yours wouldn’t?”
“Marguerite,” Nightwood said, sounding taken aback, even though he’d probably been thinking along similar lines. He was just smart enough not to say it that baldly. “Surely there’s no need—"
“My daughter,” Baron Bloodstone cut in, “is the only scion who’s stood by us through everything we’ve done these past two weeks. If she causes a problem, I will deal with it—when that actually happens. I don’t appreciate your insinuations when your own heir couldn’t even make an appearance for a part
y at his home.”
A lump rose in my throat. She was so angry and insistent in my defense… and she was wrong. The other barons were right to distrust me, and they knew it after everything they’d seen of my behavior before she’d returned.
But when it came to them or me, she was putting her trust in me, whether I deserved it or not.
“Maybe the Guard isn’t a problem in itself,” Killbrook started. “If we could have a say in exactly how it’s carried out—”
“No.” My mother set her hand on my shoulder. “This meeting is over. Persephone came up with a sensible idea that should serve her and the other scions well, and she shouldn’t be interrogated over it just because you want to distract from how your heirs might be going astray. Don’t you dare summon her again without my knowledge.”
Her grip on my shoulder tightened just for a second, with a quiver I didn’t think anyone could see. Then she nudged me toward my car, her voice softening. “Go on back to school where you belong.”
I could hardly tell her I deserved an interrogation. I nodded to her and sank into the driver’s seat, with a sensation rippling through me as if my chest were slowly being torn in two.
Chapter Eighteen
Declan
Over the years, I’d gotten very good at concealing my feelings and intentions from just about everyone around me, but my father had been my sole parent since I was four. If anyone knew me, it was him. When I got to the house, I found him just finishing brewing coffee for both of us. He carried the mugs into the sitting room off the foyer where we’d had most of our serious talks, obviously having anticipated that I wasn’t making a simple social call.
