Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
Hennessy: The rules no one was taught.
Her name settled between us, and she didn’t stop smiling.
“You’ve met my brother.”
My breath caught. “Not exactly.”
My gaze searched hers again. The resemblance between them wasn’t obvious until now. It was their eyes. They shared the same honey color.
“So,” I rasped, “Onyx is your brother?”
She snorted. “Unfortunately. Although he did used to tell me they found me in a trash can.”
“Oh…”
“That’s okay.” She shrugged. “I’ve spent years telling him we adopted him from the zoo. It’s why he acts like a feral animal all the time.”
“Right…”
She caught the skepticism in my tone, chuckling, “What?”
“I guess you just don’t seem anything like him.”
“I know.” She sighed, setting her hand on her chest. “It’s my family’s biggest disappointment.”
I couldn’t tell if she was joking.
“You’ve been walking around looking like you’re headed straight into your own demise.”
“Really?” I countered, taking her in. “I thought I was doing a better job at hiding it.”
“You can’t hide anything from a Devereaux. It’s how we’re made. It truly is a curse.” She stepped beside me, grabbing the crook of my arm to start walking, linking hers into mine.
My backpack was still slightly open, and now I was walking with some books in my grasp.
Wanting to see how much information I could get out of Deja, I led with, “Onyx is your older brother?”
Without hesitation, she spoke, “Our mother wanted identical twins. She got Irish ones instead. We’re in the same grade, though. Onyx likes to say it’s because she wanted him to protect me, but the truth is, it’s just because he’s dumb as fuck and I’m smarter than him.”
I choked back a laugh.
“You know.” She eyed me. “You’re not what I expected.”
I glanced over at her. “You had expectations? You mean you knew about me before I arrived?”
“Of course,” she simply stated.
“Why?”
“Everyone knows about everyone at the Graves Academy. It’s a small town.”
“It doesn’t explain why you’d know anything about me before I even got here.”
“It does.” She peered straight ahead. “You see, there are two kinds of students who transfer into Graves. Those who are children of someone important or…” Her eyes met mine. “Someone who just became important.”
“And which am I?”
She smirked. “I think you know the answer to that.”
Unwavering, I responded, “I’m not important.”
“No…” She paused. “But you have become interesting.”
“I don’t think that’s any better.”
“It isn’t.”
She said it so matter-of-factly, I couldn’t stifle my laugh. “You really don’t sugarcoat anything, do you?”
“It’s a waste of time.”
We stepped into the building.
“Besides, if people are talking about you, they’re looking at you.”
“And?”
“And when people are looking at you, they stop paying attention to anyone else.”
“That sounds really strategic.”
“It is.”
“So…” I paused again. “What did you hear about me?”
She pretended to think. “You grew up in Peru.”
I nodded.
“You’re stubborn.”
“I’d say determined.” I shook my head. “But whatever. What else?”
“Oh! That your uncle brought you here because he thinks you’ll restore the Belladonna name at the academy.”
I stopped dead in my tracks, pulling out of her grasp. “My father attended this university?”
Deja stopped beside me with a confused expression on her face. “You didn’t know that?”
“No.”
She studied me for a long moment. “You really didn’t know that?”
I shook my head.
In one breath, she exclaimed, “Fuck.” Her eyes darted down the hallway. “I thought…”
“What?”
“Forget I said anything.”
“Deja—”
“No.” She pointed toward a group of girls sitting on the edge of a stone fountain a few feet away from us. “They’ve been waiting all morning to meet you.”
The same four heads turned in perfect synchronization toward me. They were the girls who were by the bar with Deja at the party.
The redhead immediately stood as I tried to gather the surprising news.
How much more does Deja know that I don’t? Does my family? If they know, why didn’t they tell me?
The redhead immediately stood, calling out, “So this is her.”
The other girls smiled.
“The legend herself.” She extended her hand. “I’m Luna.”
I shook it. “Legend?”
“You embarrassed half the Legacy Council the other night.” Luna smiled, big and wide. “My father was furious.” She beamed at me. “I’ve never loved a stranger more.”
I blurted, “Your father?” Thinking she was another Devereaux.
A bit of relief washed over me when she replied, “The dean.”
“Oh…”
Luna looped her arm through mine like Deja just had. “We’ve been waiting all our lives for somebody to knock them off their pedestal.”
One of the other girls leaned closer. “It was the most entertainment we’ve seen in weeks.”
For the first time since arriving in Connecticut, I laughed. It escaped before I could stop it while the knot in my stomach loosened.
Deja nudged me with her shoulder. “Now, rule number one is—”
That got my attention. “There are rules?” I interrupted, remembering the encounter with the makeup artist and hair stylist.
“Don’t speak unless spoken to…”
“More like survival tips.” Luna pointed toward a massive stone building crowned by gargoyles. “Don’t go past that building.”
“Why?”
“No one knows. The Brotherhood uses it.” Luna continued, “Now rule number two. Don’t ask questions about the chapel.”
“Why?”
Silence.
Every girl exchanged a look.
“And rule number three,” Luna went on, shifting her stare to me. “If you ever see the Brotherhood…” She lowered her voice. “Move.”
I had no idea what she was referring to. “The Brotherhood? Who is that?”
Before anyone answered, the hallway ahead changed. Students stopped talking, and those standing in the center naturally drifted to the sides.
Then the doors opened, and more people stepped aside.
“What’s happening?” I whispered to myself.
Again, no one answered. It was when I saw them. A group of guys emerged from the far end of the corridor, walking with the kind of confidence money couldn’t buy. It was all about power, and each one defined a different type of inheritance.
Their black blazers were nowhere to be found. Their ties were loosened. Some weren’t even wearing one. It was the opposite of what I’d already seen the other students wearing, as if the rules didn’t apply to them. They had no books and no backpacks, as education bent around them.
They spread a little. It was then I noticed the guy right in the middle.
Onyx Devereaux.
He was the only one who wasn’t wearing a uniform.
Instead, he was dressed in a dark gray hoodie, jeans, and boots.
Similar to what he was wearing the other night.
The hoodie sat firmly on his head. I could barely see his face.
Something told me this was his signature attire, hiding himself from the world and maybe his own family.
His intense stare remained fixated ahead. He didn’t acknowledge any of the students moving aside for them. Not one. He didn’t need to. The way the students treated them didn’t seem respectful. It felt more like obedience.
Every instinct inside me screamed at the top of its lungs to step out of the way like everyone else had.
I didn’t.
Not even when Luna grabbed my arm, trying to take me with them. Instead, I stood perfectly still until the distance between us started to diminish.
Twenty feet.
Ten.
Five.
My eyes lifted, locking onto Onyx’s.
They were cold, detached, and unreadable despite the honey color blazing down at me. For a second, I thought he might stop.
He didn’t.
His shoulder clipped mine with deliberate precision. Not hard enough to hurt, but hard enough to get his point across. Since I wasn’t expecting it, my books exploded across the polished marble floors, papers scattering everywhere.
The hallway froze. Silence swallowed the whole corridor.
I glanced down at my notebook, lying open several feet away, before peering back at Onyx.
He never looked over his shoulder. He never slowed down either.
He didn’t acknowledge what he’d done as if I were nothing but a peasant walking among them.
One of the guys beside him did glance back at me, though, displaying the faintest smirk across his face before disappearing around the corner. Only after they were gone did the hallway breathe again. Students resumed walking like nothing had ever happened to begin with.
“Asshole,” Deja muttered, already kneeling beside me.
The others followed, gathering papers before they could drift away.
“Ignore him,” Deja suggested. “He’s testing you. He just wants to see if you’ll break.”
I bent to pick up the last notebook myself. My fingers brushed the worn leather cover. Slowly, I stood, looking toward the hallway where Onyx had vanished.
I cocked my head to the side. “He’s going to have to do better than that.”
Deja stared at me for a moment, then giggled. “Oh…” She shook her head.
“I think you’re going to fit right in.”