Heartless Legacy (Heartless Heirs of Canyon Falls #4)

45. Pax

Chapter 45

Pax

T onight is the first leaderboard shuffle of the semester, and the one I’m most anxious to see. Not because I’m worried my name is moving below the third place spot, but because Thea’s back and this will give me an idea of where she stands with The League.

If her name’s not on the board, that means they’ve dropped her entirely from the rolls. If she’s on the board, she has a chance at a life that involves more than being my father’s incubator.

The opening minutes of the meeting covered basic administrative bullshit, and now we’re an hour into the process of the ceremony master reading off the scores. He calls out the name of a first year prospect and instructs the recorder to make the appropriate entry, as the points tally on the board.

It’s no surprise that Eloise’s group is still at the top of the board. I hold my breath as the names slide and rearrange over and over again, before settling into the final tally. Thea’s name is at the very bottom.

I’m staring at it when the scorekeeper announces. “The board does not contain an error. We’ve added twenty names to the first year prospect board under amnesty rules. No drops will occur following today’s tally or for the sixty days of challenges. At the end of sixty days, all scores will be recalculated, and the bottom five prospects will drop.”

“Two months?” Eloise gasps. “Why are they waiting two months, and why the hell did they add people they’ve already eliminated?”

Amnesty rules sounds like something I never cared to read up on since there was never any danger in me being dropped from consideration. Tonight, the rule works out in twenty people’s favor. One of those lucky prospects is Thea. She has a chance to come back from this. I don’t give a shit what happens to the rest.

What the ceremony master says next drags my attention away from the scoreboard and back to the dais. “Those five will be transferred to guardian lines.”

There’s a murmur of voices among the prospects and renewed interest in the scores posted on the board, as people assess the rankings, looking for the weakest link among the first years. Out of habit, my gaze swings to my friends. Finn’s about ten feet away from me, and Holden’s on the opposite side of the room. They’re both leaning against the wall, looking bored with the conversations going on around them. But I know better. They’re listening, cataloguing everything they hear from the first year prospects who are too impatient to wait until they’re alone to start their strategy meeting.

Something Finn hears has him frowning. He pushes away from the wall and weaves around the bodies in his way. He stops in the middle of the crowd, and turns this way, eyes narrowed at me. Not me. He’s looking past me. Then his gaze locks onto mine, and he smirks at me before joining his father at the front of the room.

J.R. squeezes Finn’s shoulder and nods, then walks over to the dais and whispers something to one of the other councilmen. They both laugh at whatever he’s said. A few more people walk over, joining their conversation.

It all looks innocent. A son talking to his father before leaving a meeting. But I know Finn and that smirk he gave me means he’s up to something. I drag my gaze away from him and his father, searching for Thea. It takes me a while to find her in the sea of bodies, her dark hair indistinguishable from the other girls in chambers. This plain color does nothing for me. I miss the purple and blue.

I miss her glares and flipping me the bird. I miss her doing shit to piss me off and irritating the other legacy students. I miss arguing and fighting with her. I miss. Her.

I watch as she disappears through the doors, keeping to the outside of the swell of bodies. I finally turn my attention back to the wall where Holden was standing. He’s gone and looking towards the front of the room, I see Finn is too.

I wait for the hall to empty a little more before following suit. My delay wasn’t long enough, because Eloise is hovering in the hallway. Fighting the urge to shove her away, I once again don my mask, saying and doing what’s expected of me.

Thea

“Hey little cousin.”

I roll my eyes at Ryland, and the cocky smile he’s wearing on his face. I noticed his name was in the top ten of his year group. “We’re not related, so don’t call me that.”

His smile drops as he says, “As far as the family’s concerned, you’re Hailee’s daughter. She took off with you and spent years raising you as her own. Just because she’s your aunt by blood doesn’t change that.”

I’m shocked into silence. That’s exactly how I feel about the situation. It’s nice hearing someone else voice my thoughts that way. Everyone acknowledges mom raised me for as long as she did, but it’s like they also want to pretend those years of my life were spent with a babysitter and not with someone who was the only parent I had.

“Thank you for saying that.”

“You don’t need to thank me, Thea. It’s a fact. Besides, everyone thinks of Moira as family too. She stopped coming around as much when Hailee left. I guess our family reminded her too much of the big sister she lost. Or maybe she was afraid we’d figure out what they did.”

His smile is back in place. “But you and I won’t have that problem. We’re gonna spend lots of time together.”

“We are?” I snort. “I didn’t see you at all last year. Hell, I didn’t even know you existed until a few weeks ago, but you knew about me, and never introduced yourself. So why are you trying to be all family oriented with me now?”

“Fair point, and in my defense, I wasn’t here last year. I took a year off from school for an internship. I heard what happened to you and would have come back sooner, but I couldn’t walk away from the job I was doing. I finished up that assignment and now I’m back.” His eyes darken, his jaw clenches, and he says, “No one’s gonna fuck with you anymore.”

“You can’t promise that, or even promise that no one will try. You heard what they said in chambers. In sixty days, the bottom five people are being transferred to a guardian line.” He laughs like I’ve just told the funniest joke in the world. “What’s so funny?”

“You are. I’ve read the reports, and I’ve seen your previous scores. We both know that sixty days from now, you won’t be anywhere near the bottom five.”

I wish I were as confident as he sounds. I’m not sure how I’m gonna deal with the challenges this time. They were already dangerous and complicated enough, and that was before I added another layer to my trauma and paranoia.

We’ve reached the security office and I nod at the guard as I retrieve my phone from the faraday bag. Ryland holds out his hand. “Here, gimme your phone.”

“For what?”

“So you’ll have my number.” He says, pulling it from my hand to text himself from my phone. “Use it if you need me or just wanna hang out.”

I’m about to tell him that won’t happen when he does something that makes my heart clench. It’s quick, yet unmistakable. He presses his pointer finger to the back of his wrist and taps on it. One tap. Four taps. Three taps. It’s the same thing he did in the dining hall. The same thing mom used to do when we were in court, and she couldn’t talk to me. It was our special family code that meant, I’m watching out for you. I love you.

I haven’t left my protection in anyone’s hands in a long time. I don’t trust hearing I love you’s from people who haven’t done a thing to prove it. Words are easy. Actions are hard. Sasha, I know she loves me. She’s been in the trenches with me.

My mother might not have been able to care for me, but I know she loved me. Ryland hasn’t done anything to earn my trust. But that code gives a connection to my mom that I’ve been missing. So instead of deleting his number. I save it to my approved contacts list.