“I’m afraid.” The words spring out of me before I’ve truly let myself feel their weight. “I’m terrified, Seff. All my life I’ve been warned about the instability of the circle, of the dreadful consequences that binding it can have. Every piece of homework we’re given only reinforces that message.”
The world around me blurs until there’s only the intensity in Seff’s electric gaze. The complexity of everything I’ve felt today barely allows me to string the words together in a logical sequence.
“But I can’t help that I love the links. They’ve brought me closer to Jean, Vanessa, and Charity. Now that we’re linked, it’s like a piece of my soul comes alive with every member of the circle. For the first time, I know I’m not alone. But what if that’s only how it starts? What if it turns ugly and even more uncontrollable? What if someone gets hurt and I’m to blame?”
“I’ve seen your true self, Cami.” Seff shakes his head. “Every time we fight, you let her out, only to chain her into oblivion again once we’re done. Why? You don’t have to be a girl raised in fear. You conquered your legacy. You’re fulfilling it by binding the circle. You’re owed that power, and you can handle it.”
Dry weeds scratch my bare calves when I step back, but Seff doesn’t let go of me. He shortens the space I’d put between us.
“I’m afraid of who I’m becoming, Seff.” My eyes well with tears. I wish I’d told this to Mason, but how could I? It would come at the cost of revealing to him that I’ve broken the promise at the very foundation of our relationship.
“Why?” Seff’s eyes ground me.
My voice is shaky when I finally speak of the poison festering inside me, turning my heart black. “I look at that man, and I want him to suffer, like he made Mom suffer. And that terrifies me. The anger terrifies me.”
Every breath is a sharp hitch as Seff’s eyebrows pinch together. “Who do you mean?”
“Vaughn, the leader of the Hunter’s Guild.” The name burns my throat like bile. “Remember I told you about the vision from my Claiming? He was there. He killed Mom, and now I have to pretend to be at peace with him. I can’t go to the police or get any sort of justice for it. My hands are tied, and I’m so angry all the time. I’m terrified of what I might do to him if my abilities keep growing as the circle forms.”
Seff lets go of one of my elbows, his free hand rushing to cup my cheek. “Then, let me fight for you. You have my allegiance. Even when there’s no right path, I’ll be there to try to build one. If the circle grows unstable, I’ll be there to figure out why. When the hunters attack, I’ll guard your back. Loyalty is real. Let me prove you can trust me.”
My heart feels like it’s going to burst. Tears wet my face, rolling as my chest tightens and releases. I never knew just how much I needed to hear this. The link leaps out of me, not on command, but in a silent prayer to hold on to this moment.
A bubble of golden dust envelops the two of us as the link, like a rope of liquid gold, ties us together. Before the dust settles, Seff leans in. I know what he’s going to do, but his lips are on mine before I can make a sound.
It’s a chaste kiss—his full, smooth lips on mine, pressed to convey his dedication to me, but guilt sears inside me like acid. It seems to go much deeper than my feelings for Mason. My banshee’s intuition screams at me that this is wrong for reasons I don’t yet understand.
There’s the flash of a familiar face—Vanessa’s. With a gasp, I pull away from Seff, sobered by the premonition.
The golden dust dies off, last sparkles shimmering in the sunset. But my eyes don’t linger on the last of the glimmer.
I whirl around, ears trained on the crackle of sun-dried weeds under each footstep. I’m too confused to know if I’m glad for the new link or terrified of the consequences it might have, but I jump at the ready for a fight. The hunters will always be the enemy.
An enraged scream tears from my chest. I sweep it out into a wave strong enough to roll the hunters onto their backs.
With a thud, two bodies hit the ground. Seff and I dash between the trees before they’ve gotten up, but I’d know that groan anywhere.
One of them is Mason.
Chapter 28. Mason
I RISE TO MY FEET UNDER Cami’s incredulous look and Seff’s growls.
“What are you doing here?” Cami’s voice sounds dry. She moves her gaze from me to Zach, lips pinching into a frown.
But my gaze moves to Seff. I dive for him, fist clenched. My knuckles explode in pain when they contact his jaw. His chin flies off to the side. There’s a breathless moment before he lets out a low, menacing growl. When he looks back at me, his eyes shine in an electric shade of blue and his sharp canines poke out.
Zach pulls me back, just as Seff yawns his fanged mouth.
“Hey!” Cami snaps at him, one hand flung out to direct the sonic blast at his face.
Seff swerves out of the way just in time, but his features soften as he pants, controlling his nature. “Try that again, Mason, and you’ll be walking out of this with a bite mark.”
“That’s enough,” Cami warns. She peeks up at me, guilt swimming in her ocean-blue eyes. “Mason, it’s not—”
“What it looks like?” I snap, blood and adrenaline fueling my fiery temper. “I think it’s exactly what it looks like. The golden link... It’s you binding the circle, isn’t it?”
She stalls her reply, eyes finding Seff, but then swallows and replies with a quiet, “Yes.”
Even though I expected it, I huff and turn away from her. Cami pulls me with a hand on my shoulder until I spin around to her again. “I didn’t know I was doing it, not at first.”
“And now that you do, you just what? Wanted a romantic walk with Seff, a little smooch, and why not a dangerous new bond?”
She glares at me for the biting remark, refusing to cower or fall into the trap of offering more excuses. She knows no excuse will ever be good enough for me.
“I thought coming here with him was supposed to be a cover for us. Was I wrong?” My insides writhe as the second she takes to reply stretches, feeling like an eternity to me.
“I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
Zach laughs. “I thought you were the one meant to know what’s coming.”
She silences him with a sharp glare. “Look.” She softens when she regards me. “I know the old circle grew unstable, but mine has been exemplary so far.” She interlaces her fingers and kneads her hands together like she’s nervously giving a presentation in class. When she speaks again, her voice quivers. “I really think we ought to consider the possibility that a peaceful circle could exist.”
“Are you trying to convince me or yourself?”
Cami’s mouth falls slightly open.
To my utter surprise, Zach scratches an eyebrow, intrigued. “How many do you have in the circle so far?”
Cami jumps at the distraction. “Not all legacies, so it isn’t complete.”
I wish I could convey with a look that there’s no way she could convince Zach in her theory.
“Yet,” Zach adds. “Let me tell you what I think. You linked to Jean without meaning to, then she was banished, so you had to go get her back. Probably while you were doing that, you repeated the mistake with Vanessa, which was why she was a poorly chosen target for the hunters’ attempts to drive a wedge between you and the legacies. And now Seff has won you over with his dedication, treating you like a princess and promising you the world when your goofball of a boyfriend can’t even be seen in public with you.”
My fists clench again, although I sense Zach is building to a bigger point than his irritating phrasing suggests.
“Did I miss anything?” he asks Cami with a singsong voice that sounds strange compared to his usually deep rumble.
“What is your goal, exactly?” Cami measures him up. “You try and fail to prevent the circle from being bound, but when you find out it almost is, you just want to chat?”
“Is that so hard to believe?” Zach flash
es her a smile, but the attempted distraction is too obvious.
“Yes.” Cami and Seff reply at the same time.
“Give me your hand and a candle and we’ll straighten this all out.” Cami’s stare intensifies. “Or are you afraid of what I’ll see, hunter?”
“I’m afraid you wouldn’t handle it well.”
Cami shakes her head, as disdainful as me at those empty exchanges. “You’re a weasel. Get out of here and stop ambushing my circle. I know the wolfsbane at the fair was meant to antagonize Seff. It didn’t work, so let it go.”
“I’m just following orders,” Zach says.
“Then, tell your father to stop attacking my circle,” Cami says, exasperated. “Or next time he does, we’ll be ready.”
“Is that a threat?”
“It’s the truth.”
Zach lets out a breathy laugh. “Very well. Message received. Let’s go, mate.”
I glance from Cami to him and back. The last thing I want is to leave her with Seff after he’s just made a pass at her. I feel her slipping from me. She has been stomping all over the promise she made to me for weeks. And whether or not she believes the circle is harmless, she’s been lying to me.
I promised to help her keep the peace, and she’s been building up her army at the same time. When did the circle become more important than the trust between us?
“You should have told me,” I say at last, but my chest constricts before I let the rest of my thoughts out.
“I know. I’m sorry.”
Her eyes redden, but my blood seethes in my veins, not letting me see it as a sign of regret. I was stupid to think the two of us could be on our own team, not defending the legacies or the hunters, but mediating between the warring sides.
She’ll always choose the circle. And I’ll never be safe. Not with the legacies and not with the hunters.
After one final look at Cami, during which I ignore Seff, I turn to leave with Zach.
I could be blinded by rage, but at least he was upfront with me about the circle. And he hasn’t yet used that knowledge to harm the legacies. He’s even promised to hide my relationship with Cami.
The desperation to trust someone with the heavy secret Father and I share, pushes the words to the tip of my tongue. But it’s too risky. I’m alone in this. There’s nothing for me to do but buckle down and finally get to the bottom of the hunters’ plans.
Whether they’re plans for me or Cami, I have to know. And Zach is my way in.
ZACH DOESN’T SAY MUCH until we’re upstairs in his family’s suite at The Ravenna. I wait him out, even though my breath seems to turn to steam inside my lungs. We’re lucky his parents are out when we arrive. He dismisses the hunters hanging in the lobby—no doubt to guard Vaughn’s study after the breach.
As soon as we’re alone, I say, “I think we can trust each other after the past two weeks, don’t you?” It’s pushy, but my patience has run dry.
To my surprise, Zach smiles. “All right, mate.”
He takes out a key from the inner pocket of his jacket and dangles it in front of me. “Into the study we go.”
I gape, but then nod.
“My father says the banshee or someone in her circle tried to open his study. My money is on Charity, the charmer, if she’s linked to Cami. She could fool the hotel staff with her extended powers.”
Even though we’ve left Cami back at the spring fair, this feels like another blow she deals me. She’s one link away from going back on every promise she ever made me. No matter how much I want to make up an excuse for her, it hurts.
Zach beckons me to follow him to the study door. “Hunters or not, my parents are still parents, which means they keep their secrets. But I’m me, so I like finding them out, anyway.”
The lock clicks, and Zach pushes the door open with pursed lips. Nothing seems to dampen his cheerful mood. Not Cami’s circle. Not my sullen demeanor. Not even the prospect of getting busted as he sneaks into the study.
It’s a small room with windows facing The Ravenna’s gardens. The shelves and desk are made of dark cherry wood, polished to perfection. There are two padded chairs for guests. The study is easy to search. The hotel clearly placed more weight on the fine furnishings than on clever hiding spots.
Zach doesn’t waste time trying to break into the safe. Instead, he rummages through the drawers and finds an ancient booklet.
I reach for the familiar crinkled and stained pages at once, but Zach is quicker. He swerves out of my reach in time.
“Aha, I see I’ve captured your interest at last.”
“Where did you get that?”
From across the desk, he turns the booklet’s front page at me. It’s a drawing of red flames. That gives me pause. It couldn’t be the journal I found in our cellar. Father has that. Plus, it didn’t have any drawings, let alone flames.
“Seen one of these around? Stashed in a secret hideout, perhaps?”
I’m tired of his games and in dire need of answers. So, I opt for the truth. “I found an old journal at home, but it didn’t have that flame on the front page.”
Zach sinks into the desk chair and motions to invite me to take a seat across from him. Reluctantly, I do.
“Let me tell you what your girlfriend and the rest of the legacies do at Elmwick Academy.” He sounds relaxed, as if we have all the time in the world and not at all like we’re trespassing. “They read about a trillion of these types of journals, old stories and records, piecing together the history of the legacies. Now, as you’ve experienced yourself, we hunters have our own records, surviving here and there in hunter households.”
He takes a pen and spins it in his fingers as if it were a cigar he’s about to enjoy. “The hunters recorded as much as they knew about the legacies, but they also looked into themselves. This is where the story gets a little murky and complicated. Some records state that all hunters are a little more than just human. Humans with keen instincts, so to say.”
My jaw sets. I’m focused on every detail in Zach’s expression as he speaks.
“Others insist that to be a true hunter, one must be simply human, no additional skills, no special sixth sense.” He pauses as if to give me a chance to jump in, but I don’t. “Still others suggest that a hunter’s instinct to sniff out or counteract the legacies’ powers is an ability.”
I do my best to keep looking into his eyes with a blank expression fixed on my face like a mask, but a tick in my jaw betrays me.
Zach smiles widely. “I see you’re familiar with the particular dangers of that last theory, and by now, you’ve probably deduced my father is a firm believer in that logic.”
“And he suspects me of having that instinct,” I add.
“Is he wrong to?” Zach grins wider, but I grit my teeth, refusing to reply. “Now, I suspect my father is right about you, but I also suspect he doesn’t understand the full extent of the instincts hunters like you possess.”
“So, where does that leave us?”
“Simple,” Zach says. “I could make sure you come to no harm. I’ll even help you learn more about yourself, which I must assume you’re hoping to do.”
I nod, but my suspicions abound. “In exchange for what?”
Zach grins. “Nothing difficult. All you’ll need to do is fetch something for me.”
Tension whooshes out of my squared shoulders, and I tilt my head back. “You want me to steal something for you?”
Zach shrugs, unembarrassed. “It’s not as simple as it sounds. I suspect the very text we need is somewhere in the Elmwick Academy library. Your best bet would be to convince someone, like Cami, to find it for you.”
“If you haven’t noticed, she and I aren’t on the best of terms right now,” I say. “If I’m to do this, I’ll do it alone. What am I looking for?”
“An old story about a joint spell,” Zach says. “That’s all I can divulge.”
“And if I find this joint spell, would it get your Father off my trail?” I don’t know
why I’m asking. Hopelessness and anger blur inside me until I no longer care if I’m placing myself in danger.
“If you find it, you’ll finally understand yourself.” Zach drops the pen and returns the booklet to the drawer before standing up.
I’m not in a hurry to follow. “And what do you get out of all this?”
He’s by the door, signaling for me to stand up with an impatient hand whipping up. “If I’m lucky, one very elusive recipe.”
“For what?” I stand for emphasis.
“Freedom.”
Chapter 29. Cami
THE AFTERMATH OF THE spring fair leaves a sour taste behind, which dulls out the rest of the weekend. I’m drowning in misery. I failed to confide in Mason about the circle. I let Seff kiss me when his future belongs to another. And I let Mason leave with Zach before we’ve had a proper chance to talk.
Zach must know Mason’s loyalties are split. So why is Mason still trying to keep up the charade? Unless he’s so mad at me that I’ve finally pushed him over to the hunters’ side.
Sleep won’t come to me on Sunday night, even way past midnight. I shuffle out of bed. In the darkness, I find a candle and light it up. Like Mrs. Gianni said, my visions show me how to make the right choice when the time comes. And I don’t think I’ve ever needed guidance more.
I focus on the flame. Show me how to fix things with Mason.
Mason’s face swims up in front of my eyes at once, but flames burst and unfurl all around him. The sight strangles me. With a gasp, I’m out of the vision, choking for breath.
Of course, the vision wouldn’t show me how to fix things. No, the banshee only sees darkness and trouble.
But my heart hardens with resolve. I’m not losing Mason. That can’t be what the vision meant. And no matter if we make up or not, I’ll go down swinging to defend him, the same way I would for anyone in my circle.
I STUMBLE THROUGH A day of classes at Elmwick High, which isn’t great since the end-of-year exam period is upon us. It’s harder to remember regular historic events when I’m also supposed to recall every detail from the journals we read for our Elmwick Academy classes. My mind jumbles up the dates and names, but I have no energy to worry about schoolwork on top of everything else.
Suspension (Elmwick Academy Book 2) Page 19
