Chapter 32
The clock struck midnight. The sound echoed through the Graves Academy, vibrating through the grass beneath my boots. Thanksgiving was a few days ago, and it was the disaster I knew it’d be, which was why I didn’t bother showing up.
The last thing I wanted to do was to pretend that Hennessy wasn’t mine in front of my family and the Brotherhood.
I wouldn’t be able to fake it, and they knew that.
I was done with their fucking tests. I wouldn’t willingly participate in any of their traps that were obviously meant for me to fail. I hadn’t seen Hennessy since the holiday a couple of days ago. She was avoiding me. That much was also obvious.
The clock ticked by, faster and faster. Time was running by. With the thirteenth chime, every candle in the circle was lit, and no one spoke. The Brotherhood stood beneath the night sky, the full moon looming over the horizon, making it a perfect night for a ritual.
Each of us was dressed in our cloaks, our faces hidden behind masks passed down through generations. These woods were used for worship for decades. The candles flickered through the darkness, illuminating the trees all around us, along with the stones that had B.O.B. carved into them.
Some were so old the edges were now smooth, while others were recently engraved with fresh initials or crests. It just depended on the ritual.
However, the blood in the center was fresh.
Hennessy and I had a lot in common when it came to believing in hocus pocus. She wasn’t aware of the knowledge I held when she’d share all about occult magic. I knew a thing or two about that too.
The universe worked in mysterious ways. When I was younger, I used to wonder how I’d explain the Brotherhood to anyone, let alone a woman. With Hennessy there’d be no need. She already believed in mystic things, knowing that the unexplainable was real.
I stood with my arms crossed over my chest, listening for nothing in particular as we started reciting the oath into the fog of the night. The words might have been familiar, but I wasn’t feeling them. Not that I ever did.
Loyalty, silence, power = family.
The things we were taught here mattered more than anything we’d ever learn in class or the real world. This was the only universe that mattered. It was the only thing that existed.
When the blade was brought forward by one of the councils, a brother stepped into the center of the circle, waiting…
The blade was sliced into his palm, it was the more blood, the better. A few drops fell onto the stone, and the flame of the candles trembled as if they were possessed by the evil radiating from our pores.
I was over this shit. These rituals were so fucking performative, from the chants to the blood to the oaths. They were all a fucking show to the legacies before us.
“Tonight,” a council member announced, “We renew what was sworn before us, we renew what our families laid out for us, we renew our pledge to the Blood Oath Brotherhood. Tonight, we remember who we are.”
We renewed our pledge a few times a year, mostly because it made the council’s dick hard. They loved nothing more than to hear their own words thrown back at them, vowing the bullshit we were ordered to. Don’t get me wrong, the Brotherhood had its advantages.
I’d never have to look for a job. The connections were intended that way.
If I wanted to run in anything political, I’d have the ties in a matter of minutes.
If I ever got arrested, they wouldn’t even handcuff me.
If I needed a favor, a lawyer, a fucking blow job, it was handed to me on a gold-plated platter with the initial D on it.
The sky was the limit. Brothers gave their souls over for a free ride at this thing called life.
The blade moved to the next brother. It went on like this for far too long until I heard something coming from the forest. It was the faintest sound, a twig breaking.
Without moving my head to make a scene, my eyes shifted toward the movement, and a soft shadow moved with a prowl I was familiar with.
Fuck…
As soon as Hennessy started to make herself at home on our land, I knew it was only a matter of time before she found one of our ritual sites.
My father loved hosting these things. It gave him a much greater sense of power in a world where he already held so much.
It was never enough; nothing ever was for him.
Especially when it came to this Brotherhood. It was his whole world and the only thing that mattered to him.
For a second, I feared for Hennessy’s life.
No one ever came back here, and if they did, they didn’t live to talk about it.
She was hidden, blending among the trees in the way she always did, being one with nature, understanding it more than anyone I’d known.
The Brotherhood spent decades making sure no one outside of us knew about this place, yet there she was.
Did she follow me out here, or did she stumble upon it?
It was midnight. She could’ve been roaming around, participating in her own rituals. She loved the full moon, never missed one, constantly dancing for her gods. She was getting ballsy, or maybe she was just looking for answers that no one would tell her. I imagined it was probably a little of both.
She was fed up. After Thanksgiving and finding out she was an assignment for me, it was only going to rattle her brain, overriding any sense she actually had, which wasn’t much, if any.
I swear the girl had a death wish.
Everything inside me went still, hoping like hell the Brotherhood hadn’t heard what I did. No one had made any inclination they heard her, and I prayed she had enough sense not to make herself seen.
She shouldn’t be there. No one other than the Brotherhood was permitted in these parts.
Not a soul, but we were all soulless except for her. Maybe it was why I felt her to begin with. She was too pure, too holy, too untouched, and the demon inside me knew that.
I knew her gaze was fixated on what she was observing for the first time. From an outsider looking in, this must’ve been quite a sight. Some sick fucking cult shit, cutting each other, sacrificing our blood to the Brotherhood.
I could feel her stare taking it all in, from the cloaks to the dagger, to all the symbols and oaths and God knows what.
If life had taught me anything, it was that confusion always led to fear, which led to panic, which led to fleeing.
As much as I loved to chase her, this wasn’t the time or place for my sick fucking kinks.
If she were any other outsider, I would have already been running after her, chasing my prey and then bringing it back to my pack to make them pay. Instead, I stood there more alert than I’d felt in years, ready to protect her with my life if I had to.
She meant that much to me.
So many thoughts and theories sped through my mind at lightning speed with no stop. I couldn’t make a move, not a sound, or a reaction. I just had to keep pretending my focus was on the ritual taking place in front of us.
Even from the space between us, I could feel her emotions pouring out of her and directly into my veins. I saw the exact moment this could turn horribly wrong. The feeling barely left my chest before it was my turn to pledge my oath again.
Except this time, Hennessy would be watching me, and I hated that more than anything.
Word by word, I pledged, “Speak No Claim, Hear No Promises, See No Temptation.”
Each oath felt as if it were tearing apart whatever was left of me with her witnessing my greatest tragedy. I never wanted her to see me like this, and I swear I could hear her breathing, desperately trying not to take off after her. It was my instinct to.
Did she recognize my voice? Did she know it was me under this mask and cloak?
Under all these lies…
Seconds turned into minutes and minutes turned into hours. We could’ve been standing there for days by the time the ritual was over.
It was only when Caspian whispered in my ear behind me, “You better catch her before they do, Onyx,” that I understood where his loyalty lay.
With me.
I slightly nodded.
For the first time in my life, I felt like I had someone on my side other than Deja.
In eight words, Caspian Hawthorne proved his alliance to me, and now I owed him one.
It was how our world worked: favor for a favor, eye for an eye.
I’d be in his debt now, and he knew that, but that wasn’t his intention.
He was sacrificing his life to save her too, and I’d never forget that.
“Go, now,” he clenched out.
I didn’t have to be told twice. Once the council was out of sight, I backed away slowly, trying as best as I could to go unnoticed, knowing it was probably useless, but having to give it a shot regardless.
Out of nowhere, she turned around and locked eyes with me from across the distance of maybe a hundred yards.
Tonight, she wasn’t getting away from me.
Because I was hunting…
Her.