Chapter 30
Chapter Thirty
Achilles
Achilles Come Down – Gang of Youths
Iunlock the door to the campus house I share with Wren, ready to go straight to bed.
Time.
That's what Nyx wants. She got a call, and when she came back to the living room of the lake house, she said she needed time alone to process what I told her.
I'm a dad. Not because I was desperate to be one, but because I drunkenly didn’t put a condom on with one woman who wasn't on contraception, one time.
It was a mistake, but I love Sophie to my core.
She's part of me, and as I told Nyx, when the mom showed up at my house in France with a newborn, saying there was no way she could take care of her, I knew I would.
In fact, I know in my soul that I would die for my daughter.
I just never thought I'd have to tell a woman I'm in love with about her, and that it could potentially mean she doesn't want me anymore.
Nyx wanted to go to Lena's trailer on the North Shore to be away from me, but I told her she could have the lake house to herself, and that I'd sleep here tonight.
Except it's only seven p.m. and I can't imagine not talking to her, fucking her, hugging her, sleeping next to her.
I'm dying to text her already, even just to make sure she feeds herself tonight. It's fucking torture.
And yet I should’ve known that when you think you've hit rock bottom, fate always finds a way to dig a little further. If I thought a night without Nyx was going to be torturous, then what’s a night without her and a conversation with the people who are currently in my living room?
I try to head for the stairs, bypassing everyone, but Chris Murray calls my name like a dad who just caught his kid coming back past his curfew.
"Not tonight," I throw back as I keep going.
But then another voice resonates, and I freeze on the first step.
"Achilles, come sit with us."
My heart sinks, and I turn around, walking back to the living room to find my father sitting with Wren and Chris.
"Ooh," I coo sarcastically as I wiggle my eyebrows. "Tell me we're having a Lord of the Rings marathon. Because this is my dream team for that."
I'm met with three unimpressed stares as I sit down in an armchair. Wren and Chris are on a sofa, my father on another, and we're officially looking like four idiots in a gangster film.
"Are you capable of behaving like an adult for once?" my father asks. "We have an emergency situation on our hands."
I run a hand through my hair, staying silent since I know they're going to explain the rest.
"Have you seen Hermes's latest post?" Wren asks.
"No. I was busy enjoying life for once." I pull out my phone and go to the SFU app.
It's a picture of Chester, a guy we used to be really good friends with until he treated Alex like shit while I lived in France, and when I came back to SFU, I told him to stay away from her and us.
Or I might have threatened him to stay away.
All I know is, he never tried to approach Alex or anyone else in our group after that.
It's a picture of him being arrested on campus, right outside the castle, and the caption is simple but effective.
First one to fall. But not the last.
Turns out…not everyone at SFU is above the law.
No one's secrets are safe anymore.
#letmeintoyourCircle #who'snext?
I look up at all of them. Their intense stares are focused on me, as if I'm the almighty god with the answers to all their questions.
"What did Chester do?" I ask.
"Apart from being part of a secret society?" Chris answers sarcastically.
I roll my eyes. "I mean recently."
"We just had him join Falcon's campaign team as an assistant so he could report to us."
Falcon is one of the running candidates for his party for the next presidential election.
One that the Silent Circle is putting there.
Because he's one of them, he'll get unlimited funding, access to multiple media outlets, and the support of all the people the Shadows can influence.
He's sure to win unless he fucks up badly.
Or if people on his campaign team start getting arrested, for example.
"My question was more, what did he do to get arrested, Father. Keep up, will you?"
Wren huffs, done with beating around the bush. "He killed an Aphrodite he was having sex with. Choked her to death. And when he got in touch with our contacts in the police to cover for him, he was arrested instead."
I cock an eyebrow at my dad. "You need to control your Shadows if you want your little circle to survive."
"Chester's dead," Chris interjects before my dad can reply. "The Circle killed him while he was in jail awaiting bail last night. Officially, he hung himself in his cell. He can't talk about us."
"Thoughts and prayers," I deadpan. "Now, why am I having this conversation?"
"Because Hermes is coming after everything I worked so hard for," my father hisses, losing his cool. "And whoever they are, they run their shitty account from your college. I want them found and exposed."
"Aw." I pout. "Feeling threatened by a student account, Dad? Come on, you're better than that."
He stands up, looking at all of us. "If that account isn't gone by the time we conduct the next initiations, hell will break loose for you three. Believe me."
I shrug casually, pretending not to care about his threats. But the truth is, every time he threatens me, I think of Sophie, and what would happen if I disappeared, or worse, if he found her.
"I'm not initiated. I don't care whether the Circle lives or dies or if you all get exposed."
"You think," he scoffs. "Truly think that if we all get exposed that you won't be linked to us? Are you that stupid, Son?"
His hand clamps down on my shoulder, and my jaw tightens. I can't stand his touch.
"Do any of you know who that account is?" he asks in a low voice.
My eyes flick to the other two men, and we all stay silent. Yet more proof that they might be pains in the ass sometimes, but they're people I can trust. Because my entire group of friends is sure that my girlfriend is Hermes.
"We don't," I say, nostrils flaring as I try not to cringe away from him. "But don't worry, if we learn anything, you'll be the first to know."
"I sure hope so." He taps my shoulder one last time. "Because I've extended enough kindness to all of you. No more."
Chris is the one who gets up once my dad is gone. He slowly walks to the window and checks that the car has left before turning to us.
His eyes dig into mine when he says, "You need to stop Nyx from posting anything else about the Circle."
I roll my eyes, throwing my head back. "How many times do I have to tell you, Nyx isn't Hermes."
"The proofs are adding up, Achilles," he says impatiently.
It's unlike him to show this much emotion. Chris is the kind of man who scolds you patiently, almost like everyone around is his kid. Tonight, he's out of shits to give, and that can only mean one thing: he's scared.
"Why are you taking my father's threats seriously? The man has regretted anything he's forced on us before. He should be on his knees begging for our help, not aimlessly threatening us."
They eye each other, and I know there's something I'm missing here.
I huff. "Alright, spill."
And to think that a week ago I was fucking the reason out of Nyx so badly she admitted she was in love with me.
It truly felt like things were finally heading in the right direction.
Today, the people closest to me are turning against her.
There's no respite in the things working against us.
Putting her in my car and disappearing with her sounds more and more like a great idea.
"Ella was threatened."
I try not to show my shock, but shit is truly going to hit the fan if Ella’s in danger. There's no protecting anyone from Christopher Murray if he's worried about his girl.
"By the Circle?"
"By the mafia."
I cock an eyebrow at him. "So by the Circle, through the mafia. They're using the big guns."
"Correct. They grabbed her in Stoneview, after the dance classes she teaches there." His face hardens as he carries on. "They shoved her into a car and drove her home. They didn't hurt her, but they told her to pass on a message to me."
I run my tongue across my front teeth, now only wanting to go home to Nyx and make sure she's alright. She can have time to think about Sophie when she's not at risk.
"Let me guess," I say, "the message was to remind you that you're a Shadow, and when the Circle gives you an order, you execute."
"Convenient that it came a day before your dad shows up here and asks us to find out who Hermes is, huh?"
"Yeah, convenient is one way to put it."
"We're just three guys against them, Achilles," Chris admits with defeat.
It's something he's always said. That we're not invincible. That we can't truly take them down, only push back. But now that his precious Ella is in danger again, he's putting down the arms entirely.
"I'm not putting Ella's safety at risk," he says. "You have to stop Nyx from posting. Hermes must disappear."
Running a hand through my hair, I look into the fireplace. The flames are dancing, the fire crackling as the rain outside batters against the window. November is truly a depressing month around here. Probably why I was born then.
Nyx isn’t Hermes. I know she's not. But my worry is how to keep people like Chris from getting to her.
He'll do anything to protect Ella, and I'm sure threatening Nyx is part of that.
Then what? I'd have to kill Chris, break one of my best friends' hearts, and Ella would never forgive me.
This is a shitshow waiting to happen. One way or another, the Silent Circle is destroying our lives, and we're like taken soldiers.
Facing a wall, our hands tied behind our backs, unable to do anything while we wait for that bullet to hit the back of our heads.
"You're awfully quiet," I call out to Wren.