Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
Cassian, Ian and I work on my command late into the night. Their objective is to fire sparks at me, and mine is to command them to stop before they can cast the spell. It’s grueling work. I don’t want to command my mates like I accidentally commanded Simon once.
After a dozen tries and a dozen spark burns that Ian heals immediately, I nearly collapse to the ground in frustration.
“You have to mean it, Juniper,” Ian chides as he heals another minuscule burn.
“I do mean it,” I grouse.
Cassian rolls his dark eyes. “Ian is right. You’re holding back. Why?”
“I don’t want to steal your free will!”
“You’ve been commanded by alphas your whole life,” Ian says, a bite to his tone. “And now you have the chance to do the same, to take back some of the will that was taken from you.”
“Taken from me, yes, but not by you. It would be so much easier to do this if you were awful to me.” That gives me an idea, however much I hate it.
“I think that’s the key. I may not be able to command you to stop firing sparks at me, but maybe I can command you to stop deriding me. If you were to say cruel things…”
“Absolutely the fuck not,” Cassian mutters. “Not ever, Junes.”
“There’s nothing in the world worth what you’re asking us to do, my darling. Nothing. I couldn’t live with myself if I said a cross word against you.”
I slump against the training room wall. “You refuse to hurt me, and I won’t hurt you. We’re at a standstill.”
Cassian sighs. “You won’t hurt us if you command us, love. It doesn’t hurt you, does it?”
I bite my lip in frustration and shake my head. “It used to hurt my head when I resisted, but it doesn’t anymore.”
“You’ve grown stronger,” Ian remarks.
I sigh. “I guess we can go again. One more time. I’ll try to give it my all.”
This time, before my mates even raise their scribes, I call my magic, settling into the well of power that is my affinity. I let it flow through me, lighting me up until I feel like a live wire.
Ian raises his scribe, a split-second away from casting a spell against me.
“STOP!”
The spell dies on his lips, and his arm goes rigid.
I whirl on Cassian and issue the same command. He stumbles out of his attacking lunge, body going completely still. Still as he may be, there’s a sparkle in his whiskey-dark eyes. A sparkle that lets me know I’ve done it. I’ve intentionally commanded not one, but two alphas.
“There you are,” Ian murmurs, pride in his voice. “I knew you could do it, Juniper.”
Despite practicing my other affinity skills with my pack, I try to glimpse the future alone, in my nest, one more time. I see the same thing I saw the last time. An omega in an omega trap, begging for mercy as an Ever Ember hex burns through her mate’s heart.
I seek the future until I’m crying, and blood trickles from my nose, but I know what I need to do now. I need my pack and the comforts they offer to banish the darkness I sought.
I feel their concern through our bonds, and before I can even stand, they’re thundering up the stairs to my nest.
“What is it?” Simon demands of Cassian. “What’s wrong?”
“She’s upset and, oh—”
Cassian crashes to the soft floor of my nest and drags me into his arms as I sniffle.
Simon joins him, gently combing his fingers through my hair.
Before long, the scents of my pack surround me.
Luca and Ian take my hands, rub my back, my legs, whatever they can touch, and I let their scents carry me away from the terrors I chased.
Luca dries my tears, and Ian presses a kiss to my palm.
“You were supposed to come to one of us, my darling. You don’t have to do this on your own. We want to help you.”
“You’re our mate, our omega, our love,” Cassian says softly. “Let us help.”
I nod against him just as Marcus reaches the top of the stairs.
I look up sharply at his presence and try to read him, desperate to know what he’s thinking.
Does he hurt when I hurt? Does he long to be part of my pack like I long for him, even though he lied to me?
I get nothing from him. Stonewalled again.
“What is it, sweet-tart?” he asks, voice solemn.
I look up at him through eyes reddened from tears. “It’s nothing.”
But it isn’t. It’s so much more than nothing.
I used to confide my fears in him, but now I won’t even tell him what I’ve told my pack: that I’m trying to call visions.
Saints, before my affinity revealed his lie, he was practically as close to me as my mates are.
More than a friend, less than a lover, but so, so dear to me.
And now I’m withdrawing from him, pushing him away. All over a lie nearly two years in the making. He’s not immune to me, but what does that mean in the face of his dishonesty? I wish I knew.
I can’t keep the coldness from my voice when I tell him, “I’m having a moment with my pack. Please close the door on your way out.”
While I don’t withdraw from Simon and my alphas any longer, only casting for visions with one or more of them around, I feel disconnected from them.
Between helping the omegas, gearing up for finals, and training in my own affinity, I’m busy and tired.
So, so tired. Every time I try to see deeper into my grim vision, something dark settles in my stomach.
Combined with the more joyful visions Luca coaxes out of me when I practice with him, I feel like I’m walking a tightrope high over an abyss.
We all hold our breath, waiting for an attack. For another omega body to wash up on some far-flung shore.
There’s the first body to contend with, too. Ellie and Bitsy badgered Simon until he told them about it after his odd, overprotective behavior around Ellie.
They’re talking about it when Leigh walks into our omega seminar class and finds the atmosphere subdued.
“Simon said the New Jersey sheriff buried the case. That it’s completely gone and not being investigated,” Ellie sighs. “But can you even believe it? An omega without a maginalus washing up on shore somewhere? It’s horrific.”
Leigh shudders, listening to Ellie with rapt attention. “A body, you say? How terrible.” She shakes her head and pinches the bridge of her nose. “Truly, I’m beginning to fear for our designation’s future.”
“Beginning to?” Bitsy mutters. “You should have started worrying when Junie was attacked on her first day on campus.”
Leigh purses her lips. “There have always been… detractors, shall we say? Those unsympathetic to omegas. They’ve been around as long as I’ve been alive and throughout all of history. Isolated attacks have never been uncommon, but what we’re seeing now is different.”
“It scares the shit out of me,” Alyssa admits.
“I’m scared too,” Leigh says. “For all of you young women. Miss Jordan, Miss Monroe, I wish you’d find mates to protect you.
Someone to fight for you. There will come a time when your honor guards won’t be enough.
You need packs. Miss O’Neill and Miss Rose are lucky to have alphas who will fight for them. ”
Bitsy snorts derisively, her mood black tonight. “Why? Having a pack wasn’t enough to stop Grace Cassidy from being taken, and being mated didn’t save Trinity either.”
Leigh sucks in a quiet breath at the mention of our lost omega classmate.
The same classmate Rad tried to use blood magic to control, and the same classmate who saved Grace Cassidy before turning the gun meant to kill her on herself.
Mates and packs weren’t enough to save them.
If my vision is true, having a pack might not be enough to save me either.
There’s a thick envelope with a green wax seal on it waiting for Cassian when we get home. He picks it up and eyes it apprehensively. It’s a skittering feeling through our bond, almost a tickle. My sour mood lifts. This could be a truly momentous moment for my first mate.
“This is it,” he mutters, running his fingers over the seal, but not breaking it. “My letter from the Saint Galen Consortium.”
“If you don’t open it, I will,” Simon mutters. “Saints, you’ve been worried about this for weeks. Of course you got accepted, dummy. Just open it already so I can say, ‘I told you so.’”
It’s true. Amidst all our other worries, Cassian has been worried about getting into the school of law at the Saint Galen Consortium, a consortium of advanced degree colleges on the New Brunswick mainland.
Many of the world’s leading politicians, including Cassian’s father, Gerard, began with an education in law from the consortium.
It’s widely regarded as one of the best law schools in the world, and Cassian has been so passionate about following in his father’s footsteps.
It’s also a premier medicine and business school, its hallowed halls accepting only the best and brightest. Like my mate.
He shifts his weight from foot to foot, while I don’t dare draw a breath as he considers the envelope. Finally, after what seems like an eternity, he lifts the seal and withdraws a letter. He scans it quickly, and his face lights, his dark, smoky brown eyes sparkling.
“I got in!” he says, incredulously.
Simon rolls his eyes but kisses our mate on the cheek. “I told you so.”
“I’m so damn proud of you, Cass,” I murmur, tears welling in my eyes before I throw my arms around him, my mood lighter than it’s been all day.
Saints, he’s done it. I know law school means more than just following in his father’s footsteps to Cassian.
It’s another way for him to fight for my kind.
I’m so blessed to be loved by him, to have a mate who will fight for me, who believes in justice and freedom.
The vision of dining at Promontory Tower suddenly clicks in my mind.
“We have to celebrate, and I know just the place.”
When we last dined at the restaurant in Promontory Tower, Ian had rented it out completely so we could enjoy a meal for the Feast of Saint Valentine, back when he and I had to hide our relationship.
But we don’t have to hide anymore, and I can enjoy a night out with my pack.
The lights of the city sparkle beneath us like a million stars, and we dine on gourmet food and sip the finest champagne on the menu.
Is this what life could be like if we weren’t fighting for it every day? Dinner and celebrations just like this?
“My fathers can’t wait to celebrate,” Cassian admits. “And I’m sure my mom will make a big fuss about it. I hope you all don’t mind a party.”
“Mind? Cass, you deserve it,” Simon tells him, leaning into him. “You worked your ass off for this acceptance, and you’re about to work your ass off even harder when term starts in the fall. A party is the least of what you deserve.”
“Simon’s right. Only the best and brightest are accepted at Saint Galen’s. You’ve more than earned your spot,” Ian agrees.
Cassian’s cheeks redden at the compliments, and I press a kiss to one of them.
I know my mate is going to do great things, and I feel privileged that I’ll be by his side when he does. And that beautiful dream calls for more champagne.
I hold my glass out to Ian, and he’s quick to refill it with a roguish smile.
As I sip my champagne, I glance out across the city, and my eyes land on the Hall of the Council of Nine, and suddenly the fizzy sensation from too much bubbly vanishes.
Cassian takes my hand under the table and squeezes it, his gaze following mine.
We share a grave look. Not even the highest institutions of our government, the government meant to keep us free, are safe from the Soldiers of Saint Aldous and their machinations.
Already, politicians aligned with the Soldiers’ fight to pass draconian legislation, all aimed at stealing rights away from omegas.
Cassian once told me that going to law school will be a way he can fight back, and while going to law school will give him one way to fight for omegas in the future, the battle that is brewing could be over long before that.