Chapter 3
Rafe
“Rafe!” Wyatt yelped, grabbing my fist before I could throw another punch.
The bald earth affinate in front of us sputtered from where he lay in the freezing mud. He struggled to get back on his feet, slipping as he tried to regain his balance. “What was I supposed to do?! It’s an investigation!”
“You left students out on the lawn. Over night. In the rain?” I snarled.
“Rafe, stop,” Wyatt was in my ear as he fought to keep hold of me, but we were pretty evenly matched. His boots skidded in the mud as I struggled against him. “Stop,” he hissed. “Alejandro is here.”
“Like I give a damn,” I growled. I really didn’t give a damn at all. My father didn’t scare me. No one in my family Chain scared me anymore, not even my mother.
I broke free from Wyatt’s grasp, spinning quickly, then freezing when I saw the bald fucker had run.
“Fuck!” I practically shouted, then turned back to my friend slash new enemy.
I angrily shoved Wyatt’s shoulder, pissed he’d let the weasel get away. Wyatt’s eyes flashed in challenge, and he shoved me back. One of my hands clenched into a fist, barely holding back the shadows that wanted to emerge. Wyatt watched, his jaw setting as his own hands fisted.
Suddenly, a quiet rumble rolled across the campus. The ground shook just barely beneath my feet. I looked down at the mud, blinking hard, almost positive I was imagining it. Some pebbles quivering on the brick path nearby told me that no, I was not imagining this.
I looked back at Wyatt, who only tilted his head to the side.
Well, that’s new, I said.
Wyatt’s brow furrowed, and the rumbling stopped. He looked back at me, his expression shifting to confusion. I couldn’t help but breathe a laugh.
Fucking Wyatt was so annoying. He had no idea what he was capable of. I eyed him and his concerned expression again, feeling like I should punch him while his guard was down.
“Your Royal Highness?” A voice chirped from nearby, saving Wyatt’s jaw from my fist. For now. I turned to face the man who’d approached. He was shaking, his eyes looking anywhere but at me. He probably thought I’d caused the small earthquake.
“Yeah?” I prompted, my tone too clipped.
The man cleared his throat, looking between me and Wyatt nervously. “My name is Jameson. I’m the lead engineer on site,” he explained. “I have a damage report for you, if you’d like it.”
I blinked at him.
“I’m not…” I glanced at Wyatt, feeling lost.
“Go ahead,” Wyatt said, crossing his arms and looking a hell of a lot more official than me. I was stuck wearing some of his workout gear he kept in his office since my princely clothes had been covered in blood from the battle.
When Jefferson looked to me again, I rolled my neck. “Go on.”
Jacobs cleared his throat, then began to read from the crinkled paper he held at his chest.
“The dead include twenty-three students and one staff member. There are six students still unaccounted for–”
He went on, outlining the damage to several buildings and trees, and I tuned him out, a quiet rage burning under my skin.
The loss of trees and buildings was nothing compared to the loss of life. These academies held some of the most talented affinates in the world. Any one of them dying, regardless of their affinity, was a tragic loss. And not just because the military wanted them.
I started making mental notes of things I needed to rage to my mother about. My grandfather was gone, had been gone for nearly a year now. It was time for some changes, and the Crown Princess would listen to me. I was a mama’s boy, after all.
Johnson, or whatever his name was, began listing the missing and dead students’ affinities, and my attention was snagged.
“Aiden Brandt, twenty-four, fire affinate. Missing.”
Wyatt’s alarmed gaze met mine, and I shook my head, just barely.
It’s better if Lucille believes Aiden is gone, I explained.
Wyatt nodded once in understanding.
“Skye Aria, twenty-four, air and water affinate. Missing.”
I clenched my jaw. Who had even confirmed that Skye was gone?
Actually…who was her next of kin, now? Shouldn’t they have come to me to check for her?
Was I the next of kin as the Prince? Or was she my next of kin as the Key? Had Wyatt even registered her Link results in the database?
“Any chance the missing students fled?” Wyatt asked, taking over as he noticed my thoughts had wandered again. I eyed him carefully, deciding that no, he probably hadn’t registered any results. My Link-mates were safe from the press.
For now.
“Strong possibility,” Jackson replied. “We’re working to contact their families now.”
“What a nightmare,” Wyatt muttered from beside me as Jensen continued.
I only nodded in reply, rubbing at my chest. It’d been bothering me for hours, but I refused to have Wyatt look at it. He was in a piss-poor mood ever since Skye had left us, and my loss of control had only made it worse.
I’d apologize later.
Probably.
Zoning out again, trusting that Wyatt would hear anything important that I was missing, I took in the scene in front of us.
Several buildings had been damaged, but the astronomy tower was a pile of rubble.
A group of structural engineers, almost all earth affinates, had shown up at dawn, and were now furiously debating whether or not the basement level from the old building would still be functional and safe with a rebuild.
“M-my Prince? Should I continue?”
The engineer, who’s name I’d already forgotten, was still trembling slightly, the papers in his hands crinkling with his shakes. What the hell was he so afraid of?
“Rafe,” Wyatt hissed, raising one of his feet as if he’d stepped in shit.
I glanced down and almost laughed. Shadows were pooling across the cracked stone beneath our feet like a puddle of water.
Wyatt shook his foot like he could shake away the shadow clinging to his ankle, then sent me a glare.
Wyatt had always thought I was in complete control of the shadows and did things like this to fuck with him, but in reality, they frequently acted of their own volition.
It wasn’t exactly becoming of a prince to not have full control of his affinity, but my affinity had never behaved like everyone else’s.
The engineer next to me was white as a ghost, looking like he’d pass out at any moment.
“The Prince will call you back when he’s ready to hear more,” Wyatt snapped from beside me. I briefly registered the man next to me scrambling out of my field of vision while I refocused on the devastation in front of me.
“What even happened to them?” I asked quietly. “That one looks…”
Wyatt and I tensed at the same moment as we looked over the closest body. It wasn’t a student – I’d had them all moved inside as soon as I’d arrived back this morning. This was one of the attackers. Even on his all black outfit, some darker wet spots were visible.
His body, though…
It sort of resembled…I shivered. It appeared as if all his bones were broken and his skin was the only thing holding it all in.
He had no shape to his face or skull, and his arms and fingers were at odd angles.
There was very minimal bruising, which meant his heart had stopped so abruptly, the blood hadn’t had time to move to the area of injury.
“He looks…” Wyatt trailed off.
“Squeezed.” I finished in a whisper. “Who the fuck did that?”
As if I didn’t already know.
“Oh shit, Rafe. Alejandro incoming,” Wyatt said quickly, shifting closer to me.
I sighed deeply.
“Rafael,” My father’s deep voice clipped. I sighed again as I turned to face my mother’s least favorite Link. Or most hated? “What is the meaning of this?” He gestured absently, like that was supposed to tell me anything about what he was asking.
“The meaning of what?” I asked, confused.
“Don’t play games with me, boy.” Alejandro hissed.
I barked a laugh in disbelief before looking at Wyatt, who’s eyebrows were nearly to his hairline.
This was something I could have made worse if I were in a joking mood, but I was still pissed about student bodies being left out in the rain and Wyatt not realizing he could cause goddamn earthquakes.
Fuck Wyatt. Why did I even talk to him?
I rolled my neck to rid myself of the sudden tension.
Alejandro’s eyes flashed as his gaze moved from me to Wyatt behind me.
“Color me surprised to see you’re involved in this,” Alejandro said to Wyatt.
“Excuse me?” Wyatt’s voice held that lethal edge to it that always freaked me out. I repositioned myself so that I was blocking my friend more fully while my father took a big step away from us.
“What the hell is your problem?” I asked, keeping my voice low.
“I just spoke to Jameson,” he said, narrowing his eyes.
I blinked.
“The engineer,” he practically snarled at me.
“Oh, right.” I snorted. “Pity. I figured you’d be more upset about the loss of life, here.”
Alejandro breathed out slowly, like he was trying to keep himself from exploding.
Any other time, and I would have fanned the flames, but not now.
Not when the press was only a hundred yards away, watching everything.
They’d have a field day if they caught some royals having it out at a disaster site.
They’d already seen me step between Wyatt and Alejandro, and with the sound of dozens of shuttering cameras, I realized the boyfriend rumors were about to explode again.
I wondered, not for the first time, exactly how far Wyatt’s patience with me could go.
“I wouldn’t know about that,” Alejandro said. “He wouldn’t tell me anything. Because you are apparently in charge of this whole operation.”
I opened my mouth to defend myself, although I wasn’t sure exactly what I could say. I hadn’t meant to be in charge, people just started approaching me so I listened to them.
Mostly listened to them.
I snapped my jaw shut.
“This is a hell of a time for you to decide you want a job. You’ve never wanted to work anything before, and now, you suddenly want to take on disaster relief?”