Chapter 6
SERATH
T he sound of Ulrickson’s name on her lips spawns lava in my gut as long-buried emotions threaten to rise, but I bury them expertly. I’ve had years of practice.
Ulrickson has a halfblood son and yet kept him a secret.
On the one hand, I’m not surprised. Ulrickson is all about appearances, but on the other hand, goyles love to boast about their virility, and there are many halfbloods outside of our world who carry their sire’s name proudly, working on the outskirts in admin positions.
But this goyle, Levi, is here as an instructor. What makes him so special? “What is this Levi teaching the cadets?”
“Supernatural defense. His mother is a druid, and he’s a hunter.”
She sounds proud of that fact, and my beast doesn’t like it. “You can’t trust him. If he’s anything like his father, then you must keep your guard up.”
“What do you mean?”
“Serath…” Selas nods at me. “Tell her. She should know.”
Most everyone knows my story, but only my team know of my suspicions, and the fact that Selas is encouraging me to share them with Cameron shows that she already sees her as part of our team.
A gentle warmth fills my chest, and I shoot her a smile.
She nods, milky eyes soft with encouragement.
“Ulrickson is my father’s older brother, and I’m certain he orchestrated my parents’ death.”
Cam stares at me in stunned silence. “Serath…what the…How?”
Memories of that time rise, bringing the very emotions I’ve suppressed for so long with them. This time, I allow them to wash over me, letting them breathe before pushing them back down.
“My father was an elite, and my mother was a medic.” I can see them in my mind’s eye, smiling at one another or holding hands and kissing.
There was so much love in my life back then.
So much hope. “My father was an alpha, and my mother chose him as her only mate even though as an omega she could have taken several. But then, my mother was always headstrong. She even joined an alpha team as a medic. They used to argue good-naturedly about it all the time, how an omega’s place wasn’t on the front lines, but my mother had a gift for healing, and she wouldn’t be denied.
They were so close. The love they shared…
Sometimes it was as if I wasn’t there.” Fuck.
I’m oversharing. “Anyway, elite teams are allowed time off every six months even though they’re still on call.
While on leave, my father got a call that an outer rim settlement was under attack.
My parents left late in the night but never returned.
I found out later that the call never went out to the other elites or the alpha team.
My parents walked into danger alone. Their bodies were never recovered among the charred remains of that settlement, but they found my mother’s medic bag and my father’s broken watch. ”
“Oh, Serath…” Cam’s eyes are wide with horror and compassion, and my throat pinches. “How old were you?”
“Ten years.”
Shadows dance in her eyes. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”
The sincerity in her words acts like a balm on wounds that will likely never heal. “Thank you.”
“What happened to you once they were…gone? Did Ulrickson take you in?”
A bitter smile tugs at my lips. “Ulrickson didn’t even come to see me.
Not once. I was taken to a group home for orphaned goyles.
” My jaw tightens at the memory of that place.
The hunger, the constant need to be vigilant.
“Farnell took me in a few years later. He caught me pummeling one of the other goyles in the yard. Told me there were better outlets for my aggression. He was shocked to find out I was a Halle. Apparently, that information had been left off my records.”
“Ulrickson was trying to hide you?”
I love how her mind makes connections. Love how smart she is.
“I think so. Together, Farnell and I found out that Ulrickson had made the dispatch calls the night of the attack. There’d been an inquiry where he claimed something must have gone wrong with the comms units.
The reports confirm a technical issue, but I know… I know he created that issue.”
“But why? Why kill his brother?”
I’ve wondered this very thing for so many years.
“Ulrickson wasn’t always head councilman.
He failed the academy and was forced into admin while my father passed and became an elite.
Ulrickson was responsible for dispatch for years, but after my father died, he clawed his way up to councilman and now…
Now he’s one of the most powerful gargoyles in Arcadia, and I know…
I just know the death of my parents paved his way. I simply don’t know how.”
She wraps her arms around my waist and squeezes. “I’m sorry, Serath. So sorry.”
How can this contact be so soothing? How can her holding me like this take the edge off a pain that’s acted like a thorn in my side for decades?
I hug her back, reveling in her scent and her body that fits perfectly against me. This female is made for me but denied to me. Her hair is silken against my lips as I drop a kiss to her head and breathe her in. Mine.
My chest vibrates as my beast stirs.
“We should train now,” Selas says. “We only have a few weeks until the elite trials and a few days before she trains alongside the initiates prepping for their final exams. She needs to be on par with them.”
My heart sinks. She’ll be in danger. So much danger.
Cam wriggles in my arms, body rubbing against me and inflaming me. I release her with a soft growl, and she looks up at me, cheeks flushed.
Fuck, she is so beautiful. If Selas wasn’t in the room right now—
“I’m not skipping the cadet exam,” Cameron says.
Her words are ice water.
“What?” Selas draws her away from me. “What do you mean? Your father said—”
“I know what he said, but hear me out. If I have to wait to take the elite trial till after the cadet exam, then why can’t I just take the cadet exam like everyone else?
” Selas looks like she’s about to speak, but Cameron forges on.
“I don’t feel comfortable training alongside the initiates if I haven’t earned the right to be there. ”
“You’re a Basque,” Selas replies. “The only Basque that can take up the mantle and—”
“You think I might die in the cadet exams and never make it to elite.”
Selas snaps her mouth closed and breathes through her nose. “I don’t think that. I believe in you.”
And so do I. “Cameron’s right.” Selas looks at me in surprise, but I forge on.
“The elite trial can only take place on a sidhe moon, which is six weeks from now. She could take the cadet exams if she wants. It will be good preparation. It’s not like we can fail her.
When she makes it through, she can join the initiates and take the elite trial. ”
Cameron is looking at me with an indecipherable expression.
“What is it?”
“You didn’t say if. You said when.” She beams at me, and my head feels light with euphoria. “Thank you.”
“I think she needs to know about the elite trial,” Selas says softly.
The warm, fuzzy feeling vanishes.
“I know it’ll be dangerous,” Cameron says. “But I’ll be ready. I’m willing to work hard, and I have you guys to prepare me for it.”
Selas arches a brow my way, handing me the floor.
I cup Cam’s shoulders. “The other exams are pass or fail. Yes, some cadets die during them, but there is no penalty for failing to score. You can score low and still survive and end up in an administration position. The elite trials are pass or die. There is no in between.”
“What…what do you mean?”
“You either pass the tests and live, or you fail and don’t come out at all. There is no scoring low in the elite trial. No body to be returned to a family if you fail.”
“What happens? What is the trial?”
My scalp tightens as my subconscious recalls the trial, but the memory is gone, wiped by the council.
Selas answers for me. “We don’t remember. Our memories of the trial have been wiped.”
Cameron’s disquiet is loud in the silence that follows.
When she speaks, her tone is firm, and her eyes flash with determination.
“My brother is in the clutches of the enemy. Failure isn’t an option for me, and neither is death.
Speak to Lionel and tell him I’m taking the cadet exams. I need to do them, for my own confidence and peace of mind. ”
“I’ll speak to Lionel,” Selas says.
Cameron nods curtly, her expression fierce. “Now let’s train.”
Not falling in love with her is going to be impossible.