I turned to the weavers. “What the fuck?”
It was the tall, dark-skinned Adonis at Fiona’s side that answered. “Fiona wishes to examine you.”
“I’m sorry, did you say examine me?”
He shrugged and ran his tongue across his even white teeth, his honey eyes glittering almost menacingly.
“Riiight, whatever.” I turned away, but an invisible force grabbed me and spun me back to face them.
Bands wrapped around my torso and head, holding me immobile. It happened so fast there was no time to fight it, not that I’d have been able to. This was weaver magic.
Fiona dimpled at the Adonis. “Thank you, Kash.” She took a step toward me.
I tried to move but couldn’t.
“She doesn’t look like a shadow knight,” Fiona said in a saccharine voice.
She giggled and looked back at her group of friends for confirmation of her assessment.
They laughed on cue, all except a slender female with inky, heavy bangs. She rolled her eyes as if this whole situation bored her.
“Let me go.” I bit out the words, fists clenched, panic warring with fury.
“In due course,” Fiona said. “I’ve never seen a female shadow cadet before.” She leaned in slightly, and if I could have moved, I’d have head-butted her. “Are you female? I mean …” She placed an index finger to her dainty chin and looked to her friends. “Does she have the requisite parts?”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “I can categorically confirm I have bigger balls than you. I don’t need to use weaver magic to incapacitate someone.” I bared my teeth. “Want me to show you how?”
She took a step back before checking herself. “I suppose being feral comes with the job.” Her gaze traveled down to my crotch. “But I wonder … Kash, would you be a darling and check for me?” She pouted prettily and then smiled, flashing cute dimples.
I looked to the guy. Seriously? Was he going to—
Kash’s expression was impassive, but I caught the flex of his jaw before he raised a hand toward me.
The zipper on my pants began to inch down. A shot of rage burst out from my solar plexus.
“Stop it!” The girl with the heavy bangs stepped forward. “Kash, you know you’re not supposed to use weaver magic on other students. It’s forbidden.” She tugged on his arm. “Please.”
He looked torn.
“Kash, baby,” Fiona crooned. “You wouldn’t want to disappoint me, would you?”
He exhaled, his gaze flicking upward. “Of course not.”
The zipper came all the way down, and the top button of my pants popped open. This could not be fucking happening. This was some next-level, surreal shit. Was she really going to stand here and get her boyfriend to expose my hooha to satisfy her curiosity? But this wasn’t about curiosity. It was about power. I was a tool for her to use to reaffirm her status in her posse.
Thing was, there was nothing I could do about it. Yet.
The second button popped.
Oh, I was going to make her pay for this.
“What is going on here?” Master Payne appeared in my line of sight. He took in the scene, and his face clouded with rage. “Cut it. Now,” he barked.
The invisible restraints holding me were suddenly gone. I sagged, free, and then I lunged for Fiona, grabbing her by her silken locks and twisting for maximum effect. She fell to her knees with a yelp of pain.
“Now that’s how you incapacitate someone without magic.” I made sure a little spittle hit her in the face, and I reveled in her flinch.
“Justice!” Master Payne approached. “Let her go.”
“Uncle Carter, thank God you’re here.” Fiona’s bottom lip trembled.
“Cut the crap, Fiona,” Payne snapped. “I should choose this moment to turn a blind eye, but I’d rather not have Indigo sully herself with your blood.”
The urge to punch the bitch in the face was a palpable force thrumming in my fist, but Payne’s words went a little way to assuaging that itch.
“Indigo?” Payne’s hand fell on my shoulder and squeezed reassuringly. “Brunner’s waiting.”
I leaned in so my breath wafted over her skin. “You are sooo fucking lucky.” I released her, abruptly sending her sprawling on the marble floor. Fucking bitch even sprawled daintily.
Her evil Adonis was by her side instantly, gathering her into his arms and whispering sweet nothings into her ears. I memorized their faces, stopping at the girl with the bangs. She was smiling, her eyes alight with satisfaction as she looked down at Fiona.
Looked like the bitch wasn’t adored by everyone then.
Payne steered me away from the group and toward the admin wing. “Madam Latrou will be hearing about this,” he said over his shoulder.
I glanced back just before we ducked into the corridor and caught the flash of hatred in Fiona’s eyes.
I returned the look with a curl of my lip. Thank God, I’d probably never have to see her again.
* * *
“Don’t worry,” Master Payne said. “I’ll be reporting the unauthorized use of magic to their head of year.”
It was a sweet gesture, but these were legacy family brats, and I was under no illusion that his reporting them would achieve anything but a slap on the wrist.
I had to ask anyway, just in case. “And what will that do?”
He sighed as he led me down the corridor. “Probably not much.” There was an uneasy tone to his voice. “Fiona and her group of friends are members of the advanced weaver class. Most likely to be drafted into headquarters to work under the head weaver.”
Yeah, figured.
He looked down at me. “But you’re all right? They didn’t hurt you?” There was a tumult of emotion in his eyes I didn’t understand.
He was freaking me out. “Master Payne, what’s going on? Why do we have to see Brunner?”
He turned onto the short flight of steps which led up to Brunner’s office. “Everything will be explained in a moment. Trust me.”
He knocked and then pushed the door open, ushering me ahead of him.
Brunner was seated behind her desk, but she wasn’t alone. The back of a blonde head greeted me, stiff shoulders and a robin’s egg blue blouse. I knew the back of that head.
“Mother?”
My mother turned in her chair to peer at me from puffy, red eyes. “Indigo. There you are.” She sniffed and held a handkerchief to her nose. “You look well.”
“What are you doing here?” I looked to Brunner. “What is she doing here?”
It was Payne that answered. “I called her in.”
“Carter, please,” my mother said. “We don’t have to do this.”
“Yes, Lea,” Payne said. “This is way overdue, don’t you think?” There was suppressed anger in his tone.
My mother sucked in a sharp breath and then buried her face in her hands and began to sob.
Brunner shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “Carter, maybe you should explain the situation to Miss Justice.”
Payne tore his gaze from my mother’s sobbing frame and fixed it on me. The anger that etched his features immediately melted and something akin to a mixture of awe and confusion took its place.
“I spoke to the head weaver about your ability. It turned out there was no need to do any further research. He knew exactly what it was. In fact, he was extremely excited by it.”
“Carter …” my mother pleaded.
Payne ignored her and continued. “Your ability is called shadow casting, and it hasn’t manifested in any weaver in over a century.”
“Wait … did you just say weaver?” I looked from my mother to Brunner to Payne.
“That is correct,” Brunner said.
“That makes no sense. I’m not a weaver, so how could I have this shadow casting power?”
“I asked the same question,” Payne said. “It turns out you couldn’t. You would have to be a weaver. Specifically, from the Payne weaver line.” His jaw ticked.
I was so con
fused.
“Carter … please.” My mother reached for Payne’s hand, but he pulled away.
Suddenly, the confusion was gone. Because the reality of the how and why was crystal clear.
“You two …” My eyes grew wide. “Am I …?”
“Yes,” Payne said. “You’re my daughter.”
Four
“It was a fling,” my mother said. “A mistake. I love your father. I do. I just … Carter was so kind to me, and then when I found out I was pregnant, I realized what a mistake I’d made. I had to make things right.”
“You realized you could be tried for treason.” Payne looked disgusted.
Of course. It was against the law for a nightblood to procreate outside our race. Nightbloods prided themselves on the purity of their race. Oh, God. I wasn’t meant to exist. I was literally against the law. Panic gripped me. What did that mean? What would they do to me? I’d heard the rumors, horror stories that said that the council killed infants found not to be pure blood. If that was true, then what would my fate be?
“It’s all right, Indigo,” Brunner said kindly. “You’re safe. I’ve spoken to the council, and your unique attributes have been taken into consideration, and you have been pardoned. You will remain here and complete your training.”
“Just like that?”
She sighed. “Master Payne pleaded your case quite vehemently.”
I glanced across at him, but he had his head bowed. He’d fought for me, and he barely knew me, and the woman I called mother, the woman who’d given birth to me, had done nothing but turn her back on me all my life.
I looked at my mother now but addressed Brunner. “What about her?”
It was Payne who replied. “Your mother has claimed ignorance to the council. Ignorance that you were mine.”
My mother stiffened. “I didn’t know.”
“Bullshit,” Carter said. “You knew. It’s why you cut ties with me and agreed to marry Baron. You let him believe my child was his. You lied to us both.”
“I didn’t lie. I didn’t know. Not for sure …”
Heat stole up my neck as the full extent of this revelation finally sank in. Payne was my father, not Baron. I wasn’t connected to that hateful man biologically. I was … free.
A small, shrill laugh fell from my lips, then another, until I was full-on belly laughing, tears streaming down my face.
“Miss Justice?” Brunner’s voice penetrated the fog of mirth. “I understand that this may have come as a shock.”
Shock? It was hilarious. I’d spent my life trying to be loved and love a man who was nothing to me. A man who’d been duped into calling me his daughter. A man who’d been mourning a son that had never been his.
“I’m sorry,” my mother said. “So sorry.”
The mirth snapped off as if someone had flipped a switch, and rage blurred my vision as I turned on her.
“Sorry? Yes, you are sorry. You’re a sorry piece of work who doesn’t deserve to be a parent.”
“Indigo.” She stood and took a step toward me.
I lashed out, pushing her away. “Don’t fucking touch me. Get out. Just go. You’re dead to me, you understand me? Dead.”
“I wanted to love you,” she said. “I wanted to, but Baron … He was so overpowering and—”
“Enough!” Payne grabbed her elbow and steered her toward the door. “You had nineteen years to love her. Now, it’s my turn.” He opened the door and gently propelled her through it. “Go back to Baron and get on with your life.”
Her eyes grew round. “Oh, God. What am I going to do? He’ll know by now. The news would have reached him by now.”
Payne’s smile was a jagged, wicked thing. “Yes, news has a way of finding its way to the rich and powerful. If I were you, I’d make sure this news comes from you.”
He shut the door in her face and stood for a moment with his back to the room.
“Carter?” Brunner prodded. “Are you all right?”
He nodded. “I’m … I’m fine.” He turned to me, his gaze scanning my face as if seeing it for the first time, and that look he’d given me earlier in the corridor made sense now.
He was in shock, just like me. Processing just like me.
“Hi,” he said with a small smile. “I’m your father.”
A lump formed in my throat and speech was momentarily impossible. Another father, a different father, but that didn’t mean anything. Baron had known me and failed to love me. I couldn’t expect anything from this man. I swallowed the ball of emotion and took a shuddering breath.
“Nice to meet you.”
Brunner cleared her throat. “I understand that you both have a lot of catching up to do, but we must address the issue of the fact that you are a weaver.”
I blinked, breaking eye contact with Payne, and focused on Brunner. “What do you mean, address it?”
“Please sit, Miss Justice.”
I slipped into the seat my mother had vacated. It was still warm with her body heat; heat I’d longed for and rarely received. No. Don’t think about her. She was a closed chapter now.
Brunner steepled her fingers. “As a weaver, training in the use of your weaver power is compulsory.”
“But I’m a shadow cadet. I have the gene.”
“Yes. You do. Which puts us in an unprecedented position. Weavers with the shadow gene do not have an active weaver gene. And they are never nightbloods.” She peered at Payne, who tucked in his chin.
He’d broken legacy family law by siring a child outside of the weaver bloodlines, heck, by siring one at all. He had the shadow knight gene and so was forbidden from any procreation. What would the consequences of his actions be?
“I have consulted with the head weaver,” Brunner said, “who has suggested you be trained in both applications—shadow knight and weaver—and be allowed to choose which path to commit to once your training is over.”
“I choose cadet.” I held up my hands. “I don’t want to be a weaver.”
“Maybe not right now,” Brunner said. “But you may change your mind. Regardless, you must be trained in the use of your weaver power. The shadow casting power is rare, and if you have it, then you may also have other abilities that are untapped.”
What she was suggesting finally clicked. “Hold up. Are you saying I have to go to weaver classes?”
“No,” Payne said with a tight smile. “Not all weaver classes. Just one. Advanced Weaving.”
Advanced … “As in Fiona Payne?” My voice went up an octave before I could check myself. I looked to Payne. “You know that’s a bad idea. If she comes at me again, I will break her face.”
“Excuse me?” Brunner said. “Is there something I need to know?”
Payne ran a hand over his face. “Fiona Payne and her… friends accosted Indigo in the foyer. They used weaver magic on her.”
Brunner sat up straighter, her eyes chips of ice. “I see. I’ll speak to Madam Latrou.”
“Which won’t do anything.” I held up my hands. “You said so yourself.” I threw Payne’s words back at him.
Brunner’s smile was small and smug. “Maybe not coming from Payne. But it will if it comes from me. Leave it to me, dear.”
“Seriously? Why can’t I just practice with Master Payne?”
A dark look clouded Payne’s face. “To teach you, I need to feel the magic, and … I can’t.”
“But you could teach me the theory, right?”
He shook his head. “I have no experience. I do know that the shadow casting ability is a difficult one to master. Weavers can tap into the magic in the air, draw from it, and manipulate it, but each interaction takes energy. That’s where the amulets come in. The most promising weavers are given an amulet at the end of their training, which allows them to create a circuit with the magic in the air, to refuel as they need. The amulet is a controlled channel to the magic and prevents overload.”
“Okay …”
“Vinod explained that shadow casters are
different. Amulets don’t work for them. They are an open channel to the powers, which makes them vulnerable to magic addiction. They need to actively learn to refuel, and to shut off the channel. Without an amulet to regulate the circuit … well, most shadow casters don’t live long.”
It sounded ominous. Dangerous. Difficult. A tingle ran through my limbs as if the power was agreeing with me. “So, if I don’t master it, then what?”
“You die,” Brunner said simply. “But that won’t happen. We won’t let it. You will train with Madam Latrou, and you will become proficient.”
Her confidence in my abilities was reassuring, but I’d barely mastered shadow cadet duties, how the heck would I factor in weaving?
“I’ll have a schedule sent to Larkin,” Brunner said, smiling kindly at me. “I know it’s a lot to take in, but you’ve shown great resilience since your arrival here.” Her gaze dropped to the cuffs at my wrists. “I’ve petitioned the council, requesting the removal of the cuffs. I don’t see that they are needed any longer. You belong here, Justice, and I believe you see that now. I’ll let you know once I hear back.”
The cuffs … She’d have them taken off? A weight I hadn’t realized had been sitting on my chest lifted.
“Now, get back to the dorms. I have a meeting to arrange.” She picked up the phone on her desk and canted her head, waiting for us to exit.
Payne ushered me out of the room into the corridor beyond.
We stood at the top of the stairs and locked gazes. His gray eyes were so like mine. How had I not noticed before? My father …
“Indigo, I’d like for us to spend some time together. Get to know each other …”
My instinct was to shut him down. Because what if it went wrong? I was done with disappointment. But then he shifted from foot to foot in a gesture that was pure insecurity and nerves, and my resolve melted.
“I don’t expect anything. I just want you to know you don’t owe me anything.” I kept my tone firm.
He frowned, and then his jaw flexed. “You may not expect anything, but I do. I expect to get to know my daughter. I expect to form a bond with her. I …” His voice cracked. “I expect to make up for the lost time we had no control over.”
Shadow Weaver: The Nightwatch Academy book 2 Page 3
