What the fuck? “They can’t do that.”
“They can, and they have,” Minnie said softly. “It seems that the number of shadow knights being born is dropping. There’s even talk of making the nectar compulsory to every supernatural male over the age of sixteen.”
Harper continued. “But the opposition from the legacy families is all that’s keeping that law from being passed right now. However, if the number of shadow cadets falls any further, then it might become a reality.”
Oberon approached the table, his golden hair pulled back off a face that was paler than usual.
“Let’s get this over with,” he muttered.
A bell rang just as the last people at our table joined us. A stocky, angry-looking feyblood sat to my right. She shot me a glare before fixing her attention on the tutor table. This had to be Nettie.
Harmon looked to the doorway, probably to see if Lottie was about, but then Principal Brunner was speaking.
“Welcome to the Revelation ceremony, cadets. Tonight, we will unveil our next class of shadow cadets, and we will celebrate the continued protection of our world.” She reached for the goblet before her. “Please, stand.”
The room was filled with the sound of chair legs scraping against polished wood.
“The goblet before you is filled with revelation nectar. You will each take a sip, male or female, as we are united in this revelation that protects us all.”
Hyde stepped off the raised platform housing the tutors’ table and onto the main floor.
Around us, cadets began to drink. Thomas took a deep breath and reached for the goblet, but Harmon got to it first.
He raised it in a mock salute. “Fuck it.” He took a swig and passed it to Thomas.
The nightblood took a sip, and then Harper took a gulp.
“Yum.” She passed it to Minnie.
Minnie took a dainty sip and held it out to me. “Tastes good.”
I took the huge goblet and sniffed. It didn’t smell of anything. I shrugged and took a sip. Flavor exploded on my tongue as the cool liquid slid down my throat. It was sweet and tangy at the same time.
Nice.
I handed the goblet to Nettie, who swigged and handed it to Oberon.
“Fuck!” Harmon grabbed his forearm and shoved his sleeve up to reveal a crescent-shaped mark with a line through it. “Oh, shit.”
Thomas looked up at his lover in shock. “Harmon … I’m so—Ouch.” He grabbed the back of his hand, his eyes wide.
“Show me,” Harmon said.
Thomas revealed the back of his palm, which had an identical mark to Harmon’s on it.
They could both be arseholes, but they didn’t deserve conscription. My heart sank on their behalf.
Around us, more and more exclamations filled the air. Most were celebratory. I guessed not everyone understood what being a shadow knight would entail, or maybe they did and were just uber brave, like the man who was weaving in between the tables, taking a mental note of all those exhibiting a mark.
Oberon cursed softly.
“You too?” Thomas asked him.
He shook his head. “No. I … I don’t feel anything.” His eyes widened in panic. “What the fuck?”
“You’re lucky,” Harmon sneered. “You get to live.”
“It’ll be over soon.” Minnie smiled. “Then we get to eat cake. Lloyd said last year they had warm blood as if it had just been tapped from the vein.”
My stomach grumbled again. I needed blood. I squeezed my eyes shut. It would be fine. It was bagged, so it was fine.
Heat bloomed across my collarbones and then coalesced at a single point above my right breast in an intense burning sensation.
“Fucking hell.” I slapped a hand over the spot and rubbed it through the material of my tunic.
“You okay?” Minnie reached for my collar.
“I think something bit me.” I tugged at my tunic, wanting to get at the offending insect and stop the pain. There was a slight rip, and then the material was loose enough to look down.
There was something there. Something black. Unmoving. Ice filled my veins.
Not an insect.
“Indie?” Minnie leaned in and peered down my top. Her head whipped up so fast she almost smacked me in the chin. Her face drained of color. “No …”
A shadow fell over us.
“What’s going on?” Archer Hyde asked.
Minnie stepped back, her mouth parted in shock.
I looked up at Master Hyde, my pulse pounding in my throat like a tribal drum. “I don’t understand.”
I pulled down the top to reveal the mark that now marred my skin.
He reached out to graze it with his fingers, searing me with a new kind of heat and sending my pulse galloping.
“What is it?” My voice was a breathless whisper.
He locked gazes with me, his green-blue eyes boring into my soul. “It’s the mark. The mark of a shadow knight.”
Twelve
Brunner stared at me from behind her desk, her face an unreadable mask. They’d placed a chair against the wall, so I was facing the room as a whole. Master Hyde leaned up against the windowsill, his arms crossed over his chest. Madam Garnet had taken up a spot by the bookcase opposite me, and now they were all staring at me.
So much for getting to eat cake.
Hyde had dragged me out of the ballroom so fast my head had spun. We’d come straight here, and the last six minutes had passed in silence. It didn’t look like anyone was going to be breaking that silence any time soon.
There was a mark on my chest. A shadow mark.
It had to be a mistake.
There was no other answer.
The door opened, and a portly man with wispy gray hair and ruddy cheeks stumbled in.
His attention went straight to Brunner. “Ines, you wished to … Oh, ah, hello there, Archer. Melle.” He nodded at Garnet. His gaze fell on me. “Student whose name I do not know.” He smiled pleasantly before focusing on the principal again. “You wanted to see me?”
Brunner tapped her fingers on the desk. “The revelation nectar …”
“Yes?”
“You mixed it to the usual specifications?”
He frowned. “Um, yes. Yes, of course I did. Is there a problem?”
Brunner fixed her steely eyes on me. “Master Herman is responsible for our hothouse and also takes Herbs and Toxins. Show him please, Miss Justice.”
I tugged my top down to show yet another person the top of my tit.
His hand flew to his mouth, and his ruddy cheeks lost the red tinge. “Oh … Oh, my.” His hands fluttered around his face. “Two parts honey pea, three parts Linga root …” He fell into a mutter, reciting the secret recipe. He looked up and nodded. “Perfect. It was perfect. You have others marked? Males?”
Brunner nodded.
“Then it works. The nectar works as it always has.”
Hyde pushed off the sill, and his arms dropped to his sides. “But she’s a fucking woman.”
“Ten out of ten for observation.” The words were out before I could stop them.
He glared at me, and I glared back. Like hell would I be cowed, no matter how badly my limbs were quivering right now.
I looked to Brunner. “It’s obviously a mistake. Shadow knights are male.” I indicated myself. “Breasts and no dick equals not male.”
“The nectar has never failed us,” Brunner replied calmly. “It identifies the gene and manifests the mark. You have the mark, which means, as unorthodox as it may seem, somehow you have the gene.”
“Ines?” Melle said. “You really think a woman could have the gene? After all this time.”
“I believe there’s an explanation for everything.” She smiled tightly at me. “I’ve sent a messenger to summon your parents. We’ll start there, and then move on to council advice if need be. I’d rather not escalate the issue if, by some chance, there has been an error.” She fixed her attention on Master Herman.
T
he Herbs and Toxins master shook his head. “No. No, the nectar was brewed to perfection.”
Principle Brunner canted her head as if listening for something. “I believe your parents have arrived.”
The door to the office opened a moment later, and my father strode in, dressed in all his Armani finery. His distinctive cologne filled the room and turned my stomach. I clenched my teeth.
A diminutive woman tottered in on six-inch heels behind him. My mother. Perfectly coiffed and powdered. She was a beauty, and she knew it.
Master Herman didn’t even bother to hide his gawp.
Her gaze fell on me, and there was a flash of something akin to concern, but it was so fleeting I was sure I’d imagined it.
“What has she done now?” my father asked Brunner.
His words had me curling my hands into fists.
“Baron, please take a seat,” Brunner said with a smile. “Indigo hasn’t done anything. It’s more what has happened to her that concerns us.”
My father didn’t even look at me. “I’m sure whatever it was, she brought it on herself. My daughter has a penchant for attracting trouble. Anything for attention.”
“Mr. Justice—”
“Whatever it is, I suggest you take it with a pinch of salt and send her back to her dorms.”
“It’s not that simple. I—”
“I know what this is.” My father took a step closer to Brunner’s desk. “You’re trying to get rid of her. Use this incident, whatever it is, to force her out of the Academy. Well, let’s get something straight. We have a deal in place. The council has put her in your care for the next three years. It’s your job to keep her out of trouble. To train her and shape her.”
“Like you failed to do?” Hyde said, his tone low and menacing.
My father straightened and looked down his nose at Master Hyde. “I’d remember your place if I were you, Archer. Tenures can be cut short.”
“And maybe you should bloody listen to what the principal has to say,” Garnet snapped. “Instead of making incorrect assumptions.” There was sympathy in her gaze when she turned it on me. “Show him, Indigo.”
I kept my gaze averted because if I looked at him, if I met his eyes, I’d lose my shit and either scream in his face or burst into tears. The pressure building in my head and throat meant it could go either way. I pulled my tunic down far enough to reveal the mark.
Someone gasped.
My mother.
My gaze flicked her way to see her eyes bright and her mouth quivering. Taking a breath to rein in my emotions, I lifted my head to finally look at my father, needing to see his reaction.
His lips were bloodless, and his eyes were dark with anger, almost as if he was furious with me. Nothing new there. But how could he be mad at me over this?
He took a shuddering breath and fixed his attention on Brunner. “That’s what he would have been then,” he said softly. “That mark was his destiny.”
Who was he talking about? “Mother?”
She slumped into the nearest seat, her hand covering her mouth.
Brunner looked from my mother to my father. “Mr. Justice, if you know something that can explain this, then please, enlighten us.”
He cleared his throat. “Indigo was a twin. Partway into the pregnancy, she absorbed her brother. They call it vanishing twin syndrome in humans. They’d never seen it happen in a supernatural pregnancy before and there was no literature on it. No explanation as to how it happened. They said it meant our son was never meant to be. But it seems now he had a destiny of his own.” He looked at me now, locked gazes with me, and there was so much vitriol in his eyes that my insides shriveled up, and any tiny hope of ever earning his love died. “A destiny you stole.”
I felt the eyes of the room on me, the shock and the sympathy. Anger and despair rose up to choke me. I stood, toppling my chair.
“That’s why you didn’t love me? Why you treated me like an obligation rather than a fucking daughter? Because of something I had no control whatsoever over?” My voice rose incredulously. I looked to my mother. “What is wrong with you? You’re my mother. You carried me in your womb for thirteen months. How can you not feel anything?”
She kept her head down and the urge to shake her rose up to choke me. I took an involuntary step toward her. The door swung open, giving me the second I needed to get myself under control. Shit. What the fuck had I been about to do?
A familiar figure strode in. Master Payne froze and took in the scene, and then his gaze fell on my mother, and his mouth turned down as if in displeasure.
“Hello, Carter,” my father said. “I see everyone is invited to witness the spectacle that just happens to be my daughter.” He waved a hand in my direction.
Master Payne’s gaze flicked to my chest then back to my mother.
She was looking up at him now. Her expression was soft. “Hello, Carter.”
He nodded curtly. “Lea.”
“So, Justice has the gene,” Master Hyde said. “What now?”
My father spun on his heel and headed toward the door. “Not my problem. The deal still stands, except now you own her.” He grinned over his shoulder as if this was some kind of twisted victory. “Not many shadow knights being born recently, are there? I doubt the council would want to lose a shadow knight that could protect thousands of humans over the lost life of one.” He looked at me. “It looks like you’ve been given a chance to redeem yourself. Don’t mess it up.” He clicked his fingers. “Come, Lea.”
My mother looked torn, and for a moment I thought she’d come to me, hug me, something. But with a final lingering glance at Master Carter, she followed my father from the room.
Silence descended like a shroud.
I could feel them watching me—the girl who’d absorbed her sibling in the womb. Who’d killed her brother. No wonder my parents hated me. A wave of emotions smashed into me, and I took a staggered step back. It pooled in my chest and then hardened into a rock that pressed onto my heart. My eyes burned and stung.
No. Like hell would I cry.
I raised my chin and glared daggers at everyone in the room. “Stop it. Stop looking at me.”
“Justice, I’m so sorry,” Brunner said softly.
Garnet nodded, her mouth twisted in sympathy.
Fuck them and their pity. I swallowed the lump in my throat. “What now? What happens to me now?”
“Too many students saw the mark,” Garnet said to Brunner.
“I know,” Brunner replied.
Wait … no. They couldn’t seriously expect me to go through with this. “Then tell them it was a mistake. Get rid of the damn thing. You have weavers. Get them to hide it. I didn’t come here for this.”
But no one was listening to me.
“We can’t turn our backs on this and pretend it’s not happening,” Garnet said. “She’s an anomaly—a woman with the gene. We need to explore this.”
Brunner pouted in thought. “If we let this go, then the conscription law will be questioned.”
“Then we conscript her,” Hyde said, his intense gaze on me. “She has the gene, so she has the power.”
“Hyde,” Payne said. “Maybe we need to stop and think about this.”
“Thank you!” I threw my hands up.
“There’s no other option,” Brunner said. “It’s what the council would want.”
For God’s sake. “Doesn’t it matter what the fuck I want?”
“No.” Hyde narrowed his gaze. “In the forest the other day when the youngling attacked, what was your first instinct?”
Huh? “Fight.” Where was he going with this? “It’s always to fight.”
He nodded. “Then you belong with us. Pack your things, and make your way to the shadow cadet dorms.”
Damn it.
“Um, Archer,” Melle said. “The dorm is male only.”
“There’s an empty room on the tutor floor. She can have that,” Archer said. “That way, I can keep an eye on her.”
He meant, make sure none of the horny boys bugged me. They’d made up their mind. I was trapped, and there was no getting out of this.
I grit my teeth. “I can take care of myself.”
“I’m sure you can,” Hyde replied. “But the shadow cadets are my responsibility, and now that you wear the mark, so are you.” His smile was brittle. “Forget what you’ve learned so far. Your real training starts tomorrow.”
Thirteen
The corridors were empty on the way back to the nightblood and moonkissed wing. It looked like festivities had been cut short. Everyone probably knew about my mark now. News spread like chocolate spread on hot crumpets in this place. And news about the criminal was a gossip mill staple. I’d kept a low profile and refused to feed it the past few weeks, but now my name would be on everyone’s lips as they speculated over why I had the mark.
I’d just gone from criminal to freak.
I turned the corner onto my floor and slammed into a wide chest. My palms came up to brace against taut muscle.
A hand shot out to steady me. “Indie?”
I looked up into Harmon’s perpetual five o’clock shadow and the concerned face beneath. “That’s me.”
“What happened?” he asked.
I glanced down at the bulging bag in his hand.
He followed my gaze. “All shadow marked have been instructed to move into the shadow wing.” There was a question in his cocoa eyes.
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Yeah. Me too.”
He blew out a breath. “So, it’s real? The mark?”
“What’s real?” Thomas appeared behind Harmon. “Indie, shit. The mark is legit?”
I nodded. “I don’t want to talk about it. I’ve got to pack and … move.”
Thomas looked torn for a moment. “Do you want us to wait for you?”
Was Thomas being nice to me? I narrowed my eyes. “Did you just offer to do something for me that didn’t involve mockery or humiliation?”
Shadow Caster: The Nightwatch Academy book 1 Page 8
