32. Ciel
CIEL
When Cas took away Leona, and Max wandered to his room to change, it left me, Ryu, and Wynn in the living room.
In the last five hours, we’d seen Leona arrested, taken away from us, released, almost assassinated, and then eaten out by our previous enemy. It had been a fucking night.
“We need to talk to Obi,” I said. We had to be on the same page about this. “Come on.”
Ryu eyed me carefully, but then he nodded, and the two of them followed me through the house until we found Obi seated in the new library slash study he’d claimed. He already seemed deep in thought, barely giving us a look as we gathered around his desk.
Obi’s feelings regarding Max were still the most guarded, but we all knew he’d do anything for her.
Ryu had made his antagonistic feelings about Max the most clear—yet he was the one who encouraged Max first tonight.
Wynn and Max had been training together in the mornings, but I couldn’t tell whether Wynn actually liked him.
And me?
Out of all of us, I think I spent the least amount of time with him.
“So—so,” I said, then cleared my throat. “That happened.”
Ryu sat down in the chair in front of the desk and braced his forearms on his knees. “And you’re wondering, now what?”
I nodded. “He begged at her knees. He swore his loyalty to her. Is he one of us now?”
Wynn rubbed his cheek. Ryu pursed his lips. Obi sat back in his chair.
“What do you think, Ciel?” Wynn asked.
I might not have been spending time with him, but I’d been watching Max.
At our meals. On our cameras. Whenever we went out.
His emotional turmoil was the one thing standing between him and his love for her.
Last night had shifted something. She’d protected him.
She’d claimed him as one of our own. He had broken because of it.
“I think he’s changing,” I said. “I think there’s potential he could be one of us.”
None of us would tell Leona no. Not if she wanted him to join us. But unless the rest of us accepted him, conflict would result. The stakes of a tenuous relationship between us all were too great. If we had even just one weakness, the Camorra could tear us apart.
“I trust your analysis, brother,” Obi hedged. He rubbed his eyes. “I don’t hate him. I actually think he’s a powerful ally. But I doubt his commitment to us, to our goals, though he clearly loves her.”
Obi was right. We knew what we were fighting for and why. Did Max?
Ryuji huffed. “I think he’s a selfish dick, but if he loves her the way we love her…
” His hand clutched at his chest, rubbing over his heart.
“If he loves her as much as we do, and she loves him, I can’t keep either of them from that.
If it makes her happy, I can make my peace with it. I’m a selfish dick, too, sometimes.”
“Sometimes,” I snorted.
“If we accept him into our ranks, I’m determined to keep my King Asshole title, just for the record,” Ryu added.
“Wynn?” I asked. “What about you?”
“He’s shown up to train with me every morning, just like I told him to,” Wynn said. “He’s still weak from Greco’s attack, but my assessment is that he will be on par with our skills when he recovers. He could hold his own.”
“But do you trust him?”
Wynn’s lips pressed together as he crossed his arms over his chest. “I don’t know. I believe he adores her. I don’t know that he’s willing to be our brother.”
An idea took shape inside my head. “It sounds like we all question his commitment to the Shadows. We know he loves her, we see her feelings for him, but the question is: can we count on him?”
Wynn nodded while Ryuji shrugged. Obi put his phone on the desk with a sigh. “Yes.”
“Well, that’s easy to test,” I said, a corner of my mouth perking up.
Obi had asked us all the same question before we joined the Shadows. We’ve all had to prove our loyalty. Max should be no different.
Our leader leaned forward in his chair, finally catching on. “You want to put him through the gauntlet.”
I nodded. “We’ve all done it.”
Ryu laughed. “For real?”
“If we make Max do it, Cas will want to do it, too,” Wynn said.
“Cas would pass,” I said. “That’s why we’ve never made him do it before.” Cas’s loyalty was proven early on. When we all voted on accepting them back at the penthouse, when we agreed to be partners, when we gave our blessing for him to propose to Leona, we knew he was committed.
“She will want to do it, too,” Ryu pointed out. “Do you want to put her through the gauntlet?”
“No, but…” I paused, letting out a breath. “She would pass, too.”
“I don’t want her to do it,” Wynn said.
“You know she’ll pass,” I said.
“That doesn’t matter,” he replied. “It’s the principle.”
“She doesn’t have to do it if she doesn’t want to,” I responded. “It won’t change her status or change what we believe about each other. But if Max does it and completes it, is that enough? Do we accept him?”
The three of them were silent as they considered my question. Finally, Ryu nodded. “Yeah. It at least proves he’s as crazy as the rest of us.”
Wynn nodded. “Agreed.”
“Fine,” Obi said. “See if he accepts in the morning. If he fails, we need to move on as soon as possible.”
He would accept. The question was whether he’d fail.
If he failed, he didn’t deserve a place here. A place with us, or with her.
But if he succeeded, he’d be one of us. A Shadow, forever.