Chapter 16
Chapter
Sixteen
G eorgina is waiting for me in my room when I come back, and I pause in the doorway. How did she get in here alone? This is one way to ruin my day after having dinner with Rhodes. She’s sitting on my bed, one leg crossed over the other in a pretty pink sundress. “Do you know it’s the middle of winter?”
“I don’t get cold.” She taps her hand on her knee. “Can you shut the door? I want to talk.”
“What the hell are you doing in my room? If you want to talk, you could have just found me outside,” I ask, but I do close the door behind me from pure curiosity. It feels wrong to be in here alone with her, and a chilly feeling settles down my spine.
“I want us to talk, like I said. You’re not alone very often, and I was ordered not to interact directly with you unless needed.” Georgina stands. “But it’s nearly over, and I wanted to see something for myself.”
“Are you done pretending to be sweet and nice now?” I ask, taking my cloak off and hanging it on the door. “It was getting boring.”
“Yes, because my king is nearly here.” King? I freeze. Georgina doesn’t notice as she focuses on my room, looking at everything and touching my things. “My work will be over, and I won’t have to see you again.”
“As much as never seeing you again sounds perfect to me…you’re working for the Vian. The king?” I make sure I wasn’t hearing things.
“Wasn’t that obvious? I thought you’d be smarter, but you’re not.” She laughs. “I will say, trying to make trouble between you and your mates was far more difficult than I was led to believe. I have a second power, it’s illusions. Both of the mind and in person. The connection I made between me and them was that—an illusion of the bond you have. I thought that they hated you and that it would be easy to get into their heads, and beds, but it wasn’t. They actually love you. Maybe not Hollis, but he does protect you like a mate, even with a fiance as nice as his.”
“You’re a dead bitch walking,” I snap. “You should leave before I let my Nexus take over?—”
“Let her take over?” She laughs as she interrupts me. “Are you still living under the pretence she is in control and you’re not? Oh Gwenieve, haven’t you realised you are the same being? We are different to the other weak Nexus beings…we are legends walking again. We are what the Gods fear, and you are acting like you are one of them! Your Nexus is just the heightened versions of your emotions, and you drown those emotions out so much that you’ve lost control of yourself.” She touches my window. “Did you know when a Nexus is ripped from our souls that they don’t actually leave and it’s what kills us in the end? Our Nexus claws into our souls, holds on with everything they have, and we don’t let go either. We are one being, and the sad truth is, we cannot be parted from each other.”
“I don’t want a lesson on Nexus from you. I’m telling everyone what you are, and you should leave this academy. Get the fuck away from here.” I don’t know why I’m giving her time to actually go. I should throw her to the wolves.
“I fully intend to do just that. Soon. The final part of what I’ve been tasked with doing is here, and I wanted to privately ask you something before he gets here. No one is watching us this time. The prince has been shadowing me since I got here; I think he was worried I would hurt you.” She stares at me in a creepy way. “But he should have known I’d never hurt you when my king commanded me not to.”
“The king raised you?” I flip the conversation. “You’re talking lovingly about the thousand-year-old monster king who killed hundreds of thousands.” She goes to the desk as she picks up the statue, the one with me and the tulip. “Put that down. My father made that.”
“Funny how we get attached to things the males in our life give us.” She puts it down. “What was your mother like?”
I cross my arms. “Why do you want to know that?”
“I don’t know who my parents were. What are mothers like?” she counters. “I’m curious.”
What the hell is wrong with her? “I don’t think mine is the one you should take any interest in knowing about. She was…” I pause. There are a lot of things I could say about my mother. “I only remember her when we were on the run and desperate, because it’s what I made her into by being her daughter. She had to be strong and cold-hearted to raise me. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be alive. Is that what you wanted to talk about? Maybe you should go to one of the other cities. You might be able to find someone there you’re actually related to.”
“My connection to your mates isn’t real.” She walks closer. It’s like a snake slithering across the ground. “You knew this and yet you’re still threatened by me, literally every minute of the day. Why?”
“Because you’re…you are everything I can’t be. You could have a normal life, and I will never be able to do that. For a moment…” I pause. “For a moment, I thought it was all I wanted, for people to look at me the way they do you. That I could have normality like everyone else, but I realised, fuck that, I don’t want to be normal. I like being what I am.” My Nexus listens. “I love knowing that my Nexus has my back, protects me, and that she hunts absolute dickheads down and kills them. I used to be scared of that, but I am starting to realise that maybe I should have been proud all along. She doesn’t hurt my mates because she knows they mean the world to me and to her. The Gods, the stars, whoever made us, we are here for a reason. Who would want to be normal when I can be me?” I step closer and I swear she flinches. “You don’t threaten me anymore, and get out of my room, Georgina, and go away. Go back to your king and tell him I’m only growing stronger. If he comes after me or my mates, I will burn this world down to end him.”
She leans in. “Who says that isn’t exactly what he wants you to do?”
My mouth is dry as she carefully walks around me and opens the door. The second she steps out, she starts screaming. Screaming at the top of her lungs, falling on the floor and crawling away. Somehow, she has blood all over her arm. She must have hurt herself, and she crawls away from me.
“The fuck are you doing?” I hiss as people start gathering in the corridor.
“She’s working with Vian, and she killed Annie!” Georgina screeches. What the actual fuck? “I was trying to be her friend, and I came to see her, but I walked in on her speaking to the Vian. She gave Annie to them and they drained her. Annie’s dead!” She keeps screaming it over and over again. “Annie’s dead, she killed her, she gave them to the Vian! Save me! Help!”
I shake my head, wondering what the hell she’s doing, knowing that she’s completely and utterly lost her mind. “No, I haven’t!”
“Someone find Annie.” Tutor Jettie gets there first and takes a second to lean down to help Georgina, looking at her arm where there are claw marks bleeding out. “And get a healer! She can’t heal herself!” Tutor Jettie looks at me, and I see it in her eyes. Fear. I look around at all the students, and they are looking at me the same way…they are scared of me. I didn’t even do anything.
“You won’t find her. She killed her!” Georgina points at me with her good arm. She sobs, “She’s gone. There must be something done about it. You need to call the Supreme Alpha. Get him to get people down here. She needs to be put on trial. That’s the law.”
“I don’t know what the fuck’s going on, but that is not happening,” Aleksander growls, stepping forward. “Back in your rooms, everyone! This isn’t a movie!”
A few people move and leave, but most don’t. They are whispering and staring at me like they need to be here to stop me if I flip a lid. Tutor Jettie helps Georgina to her feet. “I have to call the alpha, and it can be his decision on this. The academy will be searched for Annie, and if she really is missing, then I can’t defend you, Gwenieve.”
“It’s not true.” I wave my hand at her. “She’s just manipulating everything. I don’t know why, and I’m sure Annie is around somewhere. She’s lying and doing this to make me look bad.” I pause. “Unless you did something to Annie?”
Georgina shakes her head. “I’d never hurt her. I’m not a monster like you!”
Rhodes and Hollis break through the crowd together, followed by Finnegan, who is fuming mad. “What’s going on?”
“She says that I’ve killed Annie by giving her to Vian and that she witnessed all of this. Apparently,” I explain to them. “It’s not true. I found her in my room. She asked me weird shit while telling me she is working for the Vian king, and then she did an acting lesson right out here to scream all of this after hurting herself.”
Hollis doesn’t say anything. None of them do, but they move closer to me. Rhodes speaks first. “I trust Gwenieve and you should, too.”
Tutor Jettie looks at me and then quickly away. “I’m afraid Gwenieve’s actions in the past do not give me the greatest confidence in her. I’m sorry, but this time, unless Annie is found, I am going to believe Georgina.”
“Then we will protect her in her room until Annie is found,” Alek growls. “And you’re making a mistake.”
Tutor Jettie leads a sobbing Georgina away. Most of the students are staring still as Alek leads me into my room and the others follow, shutting the door behind Hollis last.
“We need to get out of here. Pack a bag,” Finnegan begins. “I don’t know what she did with Annie, but I have a feeling we won’t find her.”
“Do you think she hurt Annie?” I whisper before I begin to spiral. “She said that she’s working for the Vian king, and I’m scared. No one is going to believe me against her, and I’m surprised even you guys do. Annie can’t die, she is my friend…I?—”
“We will find Annie,” Rhodes soothes. “We believe you. You don’t need to ask us that, and Georgina working for the Vian makes a lot of sense. I thought something was wrong from the moment she got here. We’ve all taken turns watching her. Not close enough though, because every time she touches us by accident, my Nexus wants to throw up.”
“Same, brother,” Hollis admits. “And my Nexus doesn’t even want Gwen. There is something corrupt about Georgina, so working for the Vian king makes sense. It also means he put her here in this academy and close to us for a reason. I don’t want to be here when we find out what that reason was.”
“Her telling you the truth isn’t a good sign,” Finnegan muses, getting out a backpack.
“I’m not running from here again.” I shake my head. “I just can’t. This is my home, and Annie won’t be missing. I just…”
Alek touches my shoulder. “We can’t stay. I’m sorry.” All the fight leaves me as I realise he is right. It’s too dangerous here now. “Your home is with us. It doesn’t matter where we are, as long as we’re together. I’ll get word to Onyx to get him and his mother out of the city, and we have a place near Morriganis City, a safe house we can meet at. We’ll sort what’s left of our families and get them out too. Now pack a bag. We’ll figure out the rest later.”
I reluctantly take the backpack off Finnegan, who kisses the side of my head, before I throw my favourite clothes, the box from my mother, and my father’s statue into the bag. I go to the bathroom and grab what I need from there next, including the flower clip from Annie. She has to be okay.
“What about you guys? Don’t you need bags?” I ask as I pull on my leather jacket and put the backpack on.
“We’ve been ready to leave at any moment, with cars packed, just in case,” Finnegan explains. “My sister and father are ready to leave separately, and I’m sending word to them now. They will be safe.” He uses his phone to text his family.
They go wait outside as I look at my room one last time, the sinking feeling in my chest that I won’t see it for a while. This is the closest thing I’ve had to a home in a long time, and I loved every moment here. I found myself here, and now I have to run again. I’m sick of running away, living in fear, and I don’t want it anymore.
My mates are waiting for me as I shut the door and wipe my tears away. Aleksander takes my hand, and Rhodes walks on my other side, with Finnegan and Hollis ahead as we go down the corridors into the main part of the academy. It’s silent. “Why is it so empty?”
“I don’t know and I don’t like it,” Finnegan murmurs. When we step outside the front of the academy doors, it becomes apparent why it’s so silent. The sun is setting fast in the sky, and the sky almost looks pink with dots of purple. The Supreme Alpha is waiting for us, and Onyx isn’t here, but there’s a line of rangers behind him. They’re wearing dark green ranger uniforms with a symbol on their chests I’ve not seen before, a snake and a bear claw. There’s something off about them. I can’t see their faces. Black masks cover their features except for their eyes. All their eyes are the brightest green, almost glowing.
“Do you know these rangers?” I ask my mates quietly.
“No.” Rhodes is firm, and the same answer echoes from them all. Well, we are in shit. It’s only seven of them, though, and that should be easy for us to beat.
Alpha Dickhead steps forward in his grey suit. “Gwenieve. We knew it would only be a short amount of time before you’d take it too far again, but to take sweet Annie from us? Her death is not acceptable, and learning you are working for the Vian makes you a traitor. You have been charged with Annie’s disappearance and suspected murder. No Rite of Freedom will save you from this now. The Gods might be angry, but I have to put the people of Starlight City first…and you are a Vian traitor. I should have expected it, when even your mother was recorded to have been caught working with the Vian, right before you ran away.” What? “Your death is not something I will enjoy, and I am sorry for the pain your life has given you. We don’t want another rite where you could ask a God to kill more of our people, and it has been decided by me that you will die tonight.”
“Is that how you’re spinning it?” I arch an eyebrow. “You know as well as I do that I didn’t hurt Annie, and I didn’t ask the Mortal God to do anything. Annie is family to me, and you need to ask Georgina what she has done with her. I have a feeling Annie will turn up the second you’ve killed me.”
Alpha Paavo just smirks. He’s won this. “Your death is not up for discussion. I am your alpha and you will die.”
Finnegan laughs low. “I hate to break it to you, but you’re not going to get anywhere near her.”
“I can’t die.” I shrug my shoulders. “I just come back.”
“We’ll see this time. My new guards are very good at carrying out my sentencing, and they have not failed me yet.” There’s something in his tone, in his eyes, that makes me nervous. “Kill the others, leave her last, and then rip her apart. I want to see if she can come back from death when her heart is a thousand miles away from her brain.”
The seven behind him step forward as one, like trained robots. “This should be easy enough.” Finn cracks his fingers. “You can watch this time, my mate.”
Finnegan and Aleksander move together, Rhodes and Hollis stay at my side, but I want to fight with them. “Nexus.” I reach for her. “These are our mates. We need to fight with them, please. I don’t know why you’re hurting. You won’t speak to me. But I need you.” She doesn’t come out. Fine, I’ll do this on my own. I reach into my rucksack at my back and pull out my Nex dagger from the clip. I let it slide from my hand, and I throw it straight into the air. It embeds into the arm of the guard in the middle. He doesn’t even flinch, and he carries on climbing the steps towards Finnegan and Aleksander. My Nex dagger slips out of his shoulder and flies back into my hand. “That was creepy.”
The middle one, who is bleeding from his arm, gets to Finn and punches him. The world spins for me as Finnegan blasts through into the air. “Finn!” I scream. Finnegan slams through one of the academy windows and disappears. I turn to run after him, but Rhodes grabs my arm and stops me. “How are they that strong?”
Alek has shifted right before my eyes when I turn back. His dark hair is almost white, well, silver, and his skin has drained of all colour. His nails have turned as black as mine. An animalistic roar echoes out of his chest as he grabs one of the guards and lifts him into the air. Another one punches his ribcage, and Alek barely flinches. Black magic, like ink, spreads out of his hands down the man, who screams as he doesn’t let go. The ink seems to settle into his skin like it’s travelling through his blood and ripping him apart from the inside. I don’t know what to say. “Since when could he do that?”
Hollis is running up the steps. “I’ll get Finnegan; get her to a car and run!”
Rhodes tries to pull me to the car, but I push his hand away. “We need to fight with him!”
“Alek can handle them,” Rhodes tells me.
What? We can’t leave him. “No, he can’t, and Finnegan is hurt. I’m not leaving. Why would you make me?”
“Your Nexus won’t even come out!” Rhodes shakes his head. “I need to keep you safe. Come on. Don’t make this difficult.”
“I am not running from my mates.” I pull my hand from his. An ear-splitting bang echoes in the air, and I slam my hands on my ears to cover them as a wave of smoke washes over us, nearly knocking me off my feet. When it stops, I stand straight and see nothing but fire. Fire so high it is touching the sky in the distance and the west side of the city, and one of the towers of Starlight City is fully on fire. Alarms are blaring off from the academy, from the city too, and it is an alarm that I’ve heard before but is different somehow. What does it mean?
I can’t see the alpha or Alek in the smoke, but I hear him. “Come back, you need to protect me! Vian are flooding the city in thousands! Protect your alpha!”