Chapter 3
Chapter
Three
GRAYSON
The men I called brothers gathered in the sitting room that connected our bedrooms. The room was luxurious.
Thick carpets covered the stone floors. Comfortable furniture centered around a cold fireplace.
Soon, in a month or two at most, we’d keep a blaze to ward away the chill.
Bookcases covered one wall, and a table topped with a chessboard sat near the large window.
The place smelled of lemon polish—someone had been in to clean while we fetched the shield.
Flynn lounged on the couch, his arms stretched along its back, his legs spread wide, claiming every inch of space. He grinned when he saw me. “The princess is settled?”
“Princess?” He’d seen the place she lived. The shield was no princess.
He shrugged. “There’s something about her. Those eyes. Those lips. That ass. A princess ready for plucking.”
“Leave her alone,” I barked.
His brow furrowed as if I’d confused him. “Since when do I leave shields alone?” He meant the shields at the front. Women. For all his faults, Flynn never dallied with the young shields in training.
“Since today.”
“I make no promises.”
Unexpected, irrational anger seared my veins. “There are hundreds of women in the compound. Pick another.”
“But I want that one.” Flynn’s voice took on the same petulant tone he’d used when I’d forbidden him from seducing the councilman’s daughter. “You never let me have any fun anymore.”
“That’s because your last idea of fun involved a councillor’s daughter, three bottles of wine, and somehow ending up naked in the fountain,” Teal reminded him.
“You nearly got us court-martialed,” Pierce observed without looking up from his book.
Flynn grinned. “The naked part wasn’t my fault. Teal dared me.”
“I dared you to climb the statue, not land us in the soup.”
Flynn shook off their teasing, raking his fingers through his hair and hitting me with a hopeful expression. “Please?”
“No.”
He slumped into the cushions and crossed his arms. His lower lip jutted forward like that of a toddler who’d been denied a treat.
The new shield was already sewing discord. “We are at war, and she is a weapon.”
“What’s the issue, Gray? Why not let him have her?” Pierce, who leaned in the entry to his bedroom, closed his book and crossed his arms over his chest. Somehow, he leaned and maintained perfect posture. His back was ramrod straight. The man had never slouched, not once in his entire life.
“We’re training her. If he fucks her, things will get messy.”
“She’s new. And Flynn likes new toys. They’re untested. Untasted.” Pierce sighed, no doubt anticipating Flynn’s multiple temper tantrums. “He’ll pout.”
“Did she say anything about the accommodations?” Teal twisted his fingers, and a rose appeared in the palm of his hand.
He frowned, almost as if he was bemused by the flower’s appearance.
With a frown still on his face, he crushed the petals with unnecessary violence.
The scent of cinnamon and roses filled the room.
“Bad day for flowers?” Flynn asked.
“Bad day for beauty,” Teal muttered. “Did she say anything?”
She’d paused as she entered the sparse dormitory, taking in the narrow cots, the one barred window, the cold stone walls, and the colder stone floor. So different from the home she’d left behind.
I’d felt a moment’s guilt. Which was ridiculous. I’d followed the rules. To the letter. Sort of. Technically I should have charged her with murder. But the power to rebound magic was too valuable to waste in a prison cell or, worse, a mage’s lab. “Not up to your standards, Shield?”
She’d stared at me with eyes as deep and dark as a thunderstorm—eyes that held no fear, only defiance—and said, “My name is Haven.” Something in my chest had tightened at her tone. I’d crushed the feeling immediately.
This one was going to be a problem. I’d known that when I took her. But I’d yet to meet a shield whose will I couldn’t break. “You’ll answer to whatever I call you.”
Fire had flashed in those charcoal depths, but she’d held her tongue. Something about her defiance reminded me of my mother in those final days—the way she’d started looking at my father like she was measuring the distance to the door.
“She didn’t complain. I told her to be ready at five.”
Flynn groaned dramatically and threw an arm over his eyes. “In the morning? What did shields ever do to deserve such cruelty? Besides exist, I mean.”
“You do realize you get up at three thirty for patrol,” Pierce observed dryly.
“That’s different. I’m naturally gorgeous. I don’t need beauty sleep.”
Flynn was ridiculous. Haven didn’t need beauty sleep. She was the most gorgeous—I quashed that thought.
“What else did you tell her?” Teal asked, looking almost worried.
“I told her if she wasn’t ready, I’d drag her out of bed by her hair.”
“Grayson.” My name on Teal’s lips was filled with disappointment. He thought I was too harsh. If he led, our shields would be babied.
“What?” I didn’t appreciate his censure. My hands found their way behind my back, fingers interlocking in the familiar parade rest position that kept them from clenching into fists. “She needs to understand who’s in charge.” She would submit. There was no other option.
Pierce cocked a single brow. “Have you ever wondered why you crave control?”
Control kept the chaos and darkness at bay. I needed control like I needed air to breathe. The alternative was chaos, and chaos was unacceptable.
Flynn sat straighter and rubbed his hands together. “Ooh, my favorite. Let’s analyze Grayson’s compulsions.”
“Or we could discuss your need to fuck every woman you meet.”
“Only the pretty ones,” he corrected. “I let our resident bleeding heart have the ugly women.”
“Bleeding heart?” Teal glowered.
“You’re not exactly picky.” Flynn’s tone was mocking. “And you’re the one who suffers when the shields burn out and die.”
Teal’s lips thinned, and I sensed his desire to argue.
He couldn’t. Flynn might be an asshole, but he was right.
Teal let himself care. He had empathy for the shields.
It was his biggest weakness. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t punish Flynn for speaking the truth.
“We took her from her home and family. A pinch of kindness wouldn’t hurt. ”
Flynn rolled his eyes. “Here comes the lecture about our moral obligations.”
“Someone has to have a conscience around here,” Teal shot back.
“That’s what we keep you for,” Pierce said mildly. “You have so much conscience that the rest of us can do as we please.”
Definitely his biggest weakness.
Brutality, not kindness, got the required results—submissive shields who followed orders without question. I schooled my face into an impassive mask. “The shield’s delicate feelings aren’t my problem. She complies or she dies.”
Teal dragged a hand across his eyes. “Do you hear yourself? If we go too far, are we any better than the fuckers we’re fighting?”
“Oh, we’re better.” Pierce’s hand wandered to the hilt of his dagger. “If given half a chance, Rymar’s armies would kill every man in Legacia, then bathe in our blood.”
“Remember what they did to Henderson’s quad?” Flynn’s usual levity disappeared for a moment.
Teal’s jaw tightened. “I remember.”
The room fell silent. We all remembered.
“Besides.” Flynn crossed his ankles and laced his hands behind his head. “A shield that can rebound magic? That power was too important to leave behind.”
Teal pursed his lips. “If she’s so important, perhaps we should treat her like she is.”
Teal was delusional.
“Shields must follow orders.” If they didn’t, men died. “Demanding her submission, bending her will—we need that. Only when we’ve broken her will she follow orders without question.”
Teal shook his head as if I’d disappointed him a second time.
Pierce pushed off his doorframe. “Are we done relitigating command philosophy? Because some of us have reports to review.”
“Always the adult,” Flynn muttered.
“Someone has to be.” Pierce’s long fingers stroked the cover of his book. “Though, I question my qualifications daily, given the present company.”
“Hey!” Flynn protested. “I’m plenty mature.”
Teal gaped at him. “You put salt in my coffee yesterday.”
“That was an accident.”
“Three times?”
“I’m very clumsy.”
Teal’s jaw tightened, and I had a feeling Flynn would be paying for the salt, sooner rather than later. But instead of arguing with Flynn, Teal fixed his gaze on me. “If it was your will that needed to be broken?” He was still concerned about the shield.
“You know the importance of dominance.”
“Not the same, Gray.” He strode toward the door.
“Where are you going?” asked Flynn. “Do you want company?”
“No. I need some air.” Teal let the door slam behind him.
I moved to follow.
“Let him go.” Pierce’s hand on my arm stopped me.
I lifted a brow.
Pierce shrugged. “Teal may argue, but he won’t stand in your way.”
“He’s right.” Flynn melted back into the couch. “Earth magic makes Teal empathetic. Remember when he cried over that injured sparrow?”
“I was six.” Teal’s voice carried from the hallway.
“Walls are thin,” Pierce noted mildly.
“Fuck all of you,” came Teal’s muffled response.
Flynn waited a beat, then said, “Don’t worry about Teal, he might be a big softy, but he’d never put a woman before us.”