by Scott, Helen
The black vinyl mats cushioned their feet and made their movements almost silent, even though the training room was anything but. The crackle and pop of lightning was coming from one side of the room as well as the sizzle of something burning, all of which was peppered with the grunting of women or, in some cases, screeching, as the spells hit home. The tunics only helped prevent death, not pain, and there was plenty of that going around.
Finally, Lily became too impatient and let loose a great gust of air that sent Marcella flying off her feet. She landed with a grunt a few feet away before flipping to standing again. Her strength and agility was impressive, and as she wielded the twig she called a focus, I saw something I hadn't ever thought to see again in my life, something that explained why I wasn't able to access Marcella's dreams and made me reexamine the petite redhead. It was just a flicker, but it was enough to make me theorize about her capabilities.
As she twirled the focus around like a baton, I couldn’t help but notice when her eyes flicked to Cade and Gideon a few more times, and I could swear they were on the verge of cheering her on if their body language was anything to go by. Whatever Marcella saw there was enough to help her decide on her course of action.
An illusion spun forth from the center, copies of Marcella appeared surrounding her in an arc. They all quickly merged into one line before spreading out again, effectively hiding which one of them was the true Marcella. I watched in fascination as Lily called forth first fire, then water, to take out two of the illusions. Until her magic touched them they were as solid as they needed to be, and they were starting to close in on Lily. Each one of them wore a slightly evil smirk, which, even I had to admit, made her look damn good. Was she pleased with her decision to use this illusion, this skill? Or was it because she had the backing of two members of our brotherhood? Whatever it was, we needed to talk about it once this was over.
Lily lashed out with another round of fire and water before wising up and calling in fog. There was no way they could all be completely solid all the time, so she just had to look for one the fog moved around the longest. As soon as she thought she had it figured out, she let out a giant blast of lightning. It was enough to make the whole training area smell like ozone and ash.
I wouldn't have thought it possible for the blonde to distinguish the real Marcella, but apparently, she did, because the lightning hit her square in the chest and sent her flying. The strike was big enough that it should have killed her, and it didn't escape my notice that four of my brotherhood were on their feet, or that it was only Cade's hand on Raven's arm that prevented him from running into the fight. Although, it looked like that move was also about holding himself back as much as our brother.
Looking past Cade and Raven, I could see Master Lee smiling, pride beaming out of every pore. He really did want Marcella to lose, with Lily clearly being his favorite, and I'd be willing to bet the Sixth, he'd try and shove down our throats.
Although I wasn't focused on him, I saw Cade's lips twitch, a sure sign he was pleased with something. When I returned my gaze back to the mat, I watched in horror as Lily brought her focus down like a blade, stabbing it into what was supposed to be the chest of Marcella.
The illusion disappeared in a puff of smoke, and the real Marcella lunged from the shadows of the nearby wall, pointing the amethyst tip of her focus to Lily's neck.
The match was over.
Marcella had won, and not by cheating, either.
“She cheated!” Lily cried as soon as her opponent dropped the crystal from her neck. Rage mottled her pale skin and made her blue eyes icy cold instead of the warm, summer sky she'd been showing us every time we saw her.
“What?” Master Lee growled as he stalked forward onto the mat.
“How? I didn't do anything,” Marcella stated, crossing her arms over her chest, well, as much as she could anyway.
“There's something different about her focus. It's not natural!” Lily cried.
“Man-made materials in a focus? What are you trying to do, kill us all?” Master Lee said whirling on Marcella.
The redhead's lips were pressed into a thin line, and she almost vibrated with anger. No sane being would put man-made materials in a focus since they reacted so strangely to our magic. A Sixth had tried to add concrete to their focus when it first became widely available and almost blew up half of Westbrook. The accident was legendary.
“I'm not suicidal! Why the hell would I do that? It’s the same focus I’ve always used!” Marcella ground out, her arms dropping to her sides as her hands balled into fists, one of which still held the object in question.
Master Lee simply held out his hand and waited. There wasn't a sound in the room, but I'd swear by the Maker, I could feel the rage pouring out of Marcella at that point. When he made a come-hither motion with his hand I thought she was going to punch him, which would kill any shot she had at being a Sixth, or finding a reliable food source without scavenging off humans, which would mean risking exposure, or worse, being caught and sent to the Council for judgement.
After a long, tense moment, Marcella handed her focus over. Master Lee tucked it into his pocket to apparently examine later instead of in that moment as most people would. I wanted to step forward and demand that he return it to her, but I also knew it would be an exercise in futility.
“I'll be generous and call this a draw since that was some impressive illusion work you did there, Marcella, but I expect better of you than this,” he chided, tapping his pocket. “Very nice elemental work from you, Lily. Everyone is dismissed.”
The women who had been gathered around watching the exchange began to leave, and Master Lee walked over to Gideon. He was saying something, but I knew whatever it was would be of no consequence. The man was full of hot air.
As I watched, I could swear the shadows in the corners of the room wavered as Marcella began to march after Lily. She had apparently had enough. I could see her whole body tensing for a fight, and apparently the other girls she passed could sense it as well, because they quickly got out of the way and out of the training room, not wanting to be caught in the crossfire.
“Raven, do something,” I hissed, not wanting the girl to get in any more trouble.
It took him a second to figure out what I was talking about, and by that time, Marcella had reached Lily, tapped her on the shoulder, and slapped her across the face. The look of shock followed by the swift rise of fury in Lily was oddly satisfying to watch. Before she could do anything, Raven had the situation under control and everyone dispersed somewhat willingly.
I took one last glance at Master Lee, who was oblivious to the whole thing, and headed off toward the door.
Maybe if I couldn't walk through Marcella's dreams, I could check in on Lily's and see why the two women hated each other so much, and why it seemed to be impossible for Marcella to win anything against this other woman, even though in my estimation she was the better fighter and spellcaster.
The one thing I knew for sure was that I'd be paying closer attention to any magic Marcella performed. If she was, as I thought, a shadow-weaver, then no one had realized it yet, and once they did, her whole world would change. Not only was it one of the rarest talents, but it was one of the most powerful as well. When she reached her full potential and bonded with a brotherhood, what I saw today would barely even scratch the surface of her talents.
5
Raven
This was bullshit.
I mean, I’d seen a lot of it in my time, but this was the last straw.
Aside from seeing her training, and that first challenge, I didn’t know Marcella. I had no reason to fight for her, no reason other than that of justice.
At least, that was the line I was selling myself.
It had nothing to do with the fact that Barbie made my skin crawl, and being around Marcella reminded me of those sparse moments I’d had as a child before I’d been taken to Eastbrook. When my mother had cuddled me, shown me love and affection. Tendern
ess.
No!
I couldn’t think back to my childhood. Not without suffering from nightmares for a fucking week, and that was the last thing Keiran needed to be walking through. Dealing with my nightmares was always harder on him than it was when he walked through the others’ dreams. Bad or otherwise. We’d never figured out why, but after seeing him wake up drenched in sweat and looking as though he’d been under torture from a Grand Inquisitor at the Spanish Inquisition, I knew to avoid thoughts that would lead me down certain paths.
I was one of very few boys at Eastbrook to have pleasant memories of my early beginnings, and so, the difficulties we’d faced at the Academy had been harder on me than most.
Though I had no reason, no real reason to back Marcella, something inside me disagreed. And that something was linked to my powers.
Which, yeah, did not bode well.
Before I could control that side of myself, which truly had a mind of its own, I was there.
In Lee’s head.
The brain was an organ, and it was, unsurprisingly, organized.
There were sections I knew to avoid and sections I knew I’d hit paydirt.
And at that moment, paydirt was on my agenda.
I wanted to know what Barbie had on Lee. Wanted to know why he was helping her when the raw talents Marcella had were so above and beyond the magical qualities Lily possessed.
Sometimes, people were just naturally gifted. That was Marcella. Lily knew her talents, knew them well, but there was nothing raw there. Nothing save for shit she’d learned in a book, and with the stuff we’d be facing as a unit?
I wanted raw talent on my side every damn time.
Instinct had guided Marcella’s choices today, and those instincts would save us and keep us alive. Because, once we were linked by our Sixth, we were a symbiotic unit. One of us died, all of us died.
Yeah. Sucked to be us, right?
As I riffled through Lee’s mind, I knew he was aware I was there, but I immediately shut down that train of thought by blasting him with pain. He staggered, so taken aback by the sudden spurt that he fell into the wall, just beside the door that would take him from the training quarters back into the Academy proper. As he connected with it, the focus in his hand released, dropping to the ground with a suddenness I hadn’t predicted.
The smash of the crystal about ripped at my insides, especially as I heard Marcella cry out, “No!” A sob escaped her as she began to run over to Lee, but Cade intercepted her. He grabbed her and held her to his chest. “I have to see if I can fix it,” she whispered, clawing at his hold even as her body responded to his proximity.
With my talents still walking through Lee’s mind, I wasn’t too focused to miss that the two of them were intimate. The way she’d relaxed into him?
She’d been there before.
I didn’t feel jealous. There was no point with my brotherhood. Cade definitely hadn’t shared something with the rest of us, but I knew he wouldn’t mess shit up for us. Not intentionally, anyway.
It was the intentionally part that concerned me, though, especially as I saw Lily, half-holding Lee up, take stock of the intimacy between Marcella and Cade.
Shit.
As a mind-walker, my abilities were threefold. I could read minds, I could anticipate a person’s actions, and I could plant thoughts.
What I wasn’t supposed to be able to do was to trigger pain or split my abilities in two. The fact I could was not only unique, but outside of my brotherhood it was unknown. That was why I’d used pain to deflect Lee’s suspicions, and it was how I leapfrogged into Barbie’s thoughts.
Lee needs to visit the infirmary. Take him. Now.
I issued the command, and the swiftness with which Lily responded, made me realize, yet again, how unsuitable she was for us.
Book smart didn’t cut it out on the streets.
Distance should have made my work harder, but I wasn’t an average mind-walker. As I carried on riffling through Lee’s head, Cade was hushing Marcella even though he’d released his hold on her at Gideon’s insistence.
In the back of my thoughts, I saw how easily Gideon touched Marcella, too, and knew that news came as a surprise to Barclay, Keiran, and me. There’d be an accounting later, that was for damn sure.
Watching as the trio headed for the focus, which now lay in shards, I saw the other girls traipse after them, their intent to exit.
Don’t let her touch the focus until the room clears, I shot out at Gideon and Cade, who staggered Marcella to a halt by grabbing one of her arms each.
The other girls sneered at Marcella who was openly crying now as they passed, and a few laughed at the broken pieces on the floor. One even toed it with her shoe, but I sent another bolt of pain out into the ether, satisfied when she staggered into her friends. The remaining girls looked spooked as shit as they left the room. The fact that two people had been hurt in that exact same spot, keyed them into the fact that someone, not something, was behind it.
They shot Marcella glares over their shoulder but soon departed.
Gideon squeezed her gently before he released his hold on her. Now that the room was empty, Cade did, too. Sadness seemed to emanate from her pores as she headed for the focus, and in turn, it welled inside me.
As Marcella touched each broken shard as though they were raw diamonds, I finally found a rather ungainly scar on Lee’s psyche.
These were the parts of the mind I sought out. Of course, there was plenty to be found. I had access to everything. Every piece of knowledge, every memory, every desire, and every dream. But that was a lot to process. Too much, especially without being spotted.
These scars?
These were my lifeblood.
Someone had done a very shitty job of covering something up in Lee’s mind. I considered it my duty to discover exactly what that was.
* * *
“You’re a pervert, Marcus Lee.”
“I’m not! I’m not!” The blond man, I knew, was Barbie’s brother. There was no way they weren’t related. Maker, they might even have been twins except for the fact the male was, without a doubt, older. Decades, maybe even centuries older than his sibling.
He also, I noted, wore the mark of an Enforcer. The tat was etched onto his throat for all to see. A key made up the sigil, and it was topped by an onyx raven. This mark reflected his house, too, in the flourishing curlicues, the extravagant lines.
Having been taught this information at a very early age, I quickly flipped through his memory banks and saw that, ironically enough, the raven was a LeFauvre line sigil.
LeFauvre?
As in our Enforcer’s bitter enemy?
The key was ornate, as befit a line as ancient as the LeFauvres, and though Enforcers were powerful males, who could and would strike fear into the heart of any within their line, what Lee was feeling?
That wasn’t fear.
It was terror.
Interested, I took a seat on the desk the Enforcer sat behind. They were in an ornate office with a desk that had seen as many years as the Enforcer himself. The double pedestal partner’s desk was wide and stacked high with papers. Behind the Enforcer, there was a large gilt mirror, the size of me in height and half that in width, and it reflected the doorway, as well as putting the person in the visitor’s seat right in their own line of sight.
Master Marcus Lee, at this very moment, could see his own terror.
It was a clever strategy that added to a person’s discomfort.
“You are indeed a pervert. I’ve had the Headmaster on the phone, Lee. Do you know the shame you bring to the LeFauvres?”
“They ask for it,” Lee retorted. “They come on to me.”
“Of course, they do, you fool. You’re the Master who’ll help them join a brotherhood.”
“They’re not underage.”
“No, but they’re under your guardianship.” The Enforcer pursed his lips. “I’ve had to sort out your messes twice this past decade, Marcus. A third t
ime is one time too many. Every man needs a dalliance. I’m not a prude. But you’re pissing where you eat. I can’t have that. Especially not with my sister due in the Academy.”
Marcus’s eyes widened as his mouth began to tremble.
Apparently, and if the puddle of piss staining the Enforcer’s embroidered visitor’s seat was anything to go by, the man feared for his life.
It wasn’t totally unusual for an Enforcer to issue a death knell on one of his line, but it happened rarely, usually on occasions where the line’s name had been called into account.
And I didn’t mean when it came down to a schoolmaster, as the Enforcer had phrased it, pissing where he ate.
“Please, Julian. Please. I’ll do anything. . . .”
The Enforcer, Julian, raised a hand. “Do you think I brought you here to beg for your life? I’d have taken you to the conclave if that was what I’d longed to hear, fool.” The way he said ‘conclave’ told me nothing good happened there.
Definitely on the bucket list of places to avoid, I thought drily, especially as Lee looked like he was on the brink of passing out at the very mention of it.
“N-No, of course not,” Marcus whispered. “B-But. . . .”
“No buts. Your usefulness has saved you this time, however, if you make another mistake I won’t be so generous.”
“I-I won’t—”
Julian held up a hand. “Silence.” He firmed his lips. “Lily will be entering the Academy next year.”
“Y-Yes, I’m aware.”
The Enforcer ran a finger over his mouth. “I have intentions for her.”
“Of course! I’d never touch—”
Disgust had Julian’s brow creasing. “I never thought you would touch her, cretin. Not without being aware I’d have your balls for it.”
