Chapter 43 Orion
ORION
My knuckles still hurt from punching my brother, and when someone knocks on my door, my heart jumps thinking it might be him coming to confront me about it.
My whole life, I’ve wanted nothing more than to be the inseparable best friends I thought we were destined to be.
I love myself, and a brother who looked just like me felt like a gilded gift.
Now it feels like a torture exercise. Why the hell do I have to miss him so much when he tried to take everything from me?
Worst of all, everyone is softening to him, including the man standing behind the door with a pissed-off look on his face. His eyebrows are pushed together, his fists clenched. I have to say, I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen Lex this pissed.
“Good afternoon, Lex. Someone get in the way of you and your corpses?”
He doesn’t look amused or like he even heard me. He pushes past me into my room, and I follow him, shutting the door.
“Cillian,” he says, not bothering to explain further.
“What about him?” I ask, pretending to be bored, but in reality, I hate that grimy little bastard. We’ve all been waiting for Lex to see what a sneaky, jealous fuck he is.
“He brought Arabella to the Offering room, and he signed off on it. It’s your fault she’s here to begin with, and you’re going to help me fix it.”
He hands me some papers that show the sequence of events leading up to Arabella being dropped off in our room.
My stomach roils with anger and guilt, but it doesn’t tell us more than what I already knew.
Cillian’s a creep, and he can’t be trusted.
He is also the college’s bitch, though, so his doing college business isn’t exactly unheard of.
“He pretended he didn’t know anything last time I worked with him, and I don’t like how these dates overlap.”
“There’s only one way to find out,” I say.
“Ask him,” Lex fills in for me.
“I was going to say beat the fuck out of him, but sure, we can start there if it makes you feel better.”
“I’m not actually sure what’s going to make me feel better,” he says, his concern so clear on his face. I almost feel bad for him, but that’s what happens when you start to trust those you pity. They always turn on you.
“Come on, time to see what he knows. You’ve got to lead the way, though. I don’t have a single clue where to find that creep when he’s not following you around like an angry shadow.”
“He’s probably in his room,” he says, and I gesture for him to lead the way.
We leave my room, passing through the hall quickly.
We use one of the hidden passages that cuts through the university, and we pop out in an area that I’m not particularly familiar with, the dorms. Here, there are lines of rooms where multiple people live, as evidenced by the bunk beds in some of them.
Communal areas pop up now and then, and people gather there, talking and laughing.
They all look at us as we pass. Obviously, we don’t belong here.
“Nice to see you again, Soren,” one of the girls says, and I turn around, ready to start a fight. I won’t punch a girl, but I can be just as catty when I want to.
“He’s not Soren, he’s Orion,” another one of them corrects.
“So what was up with your brother then?” the original girl continues. Lex and I still haven’t responded, but I’m rooted to the spot, my anger at him preventing me from moving. I assume she means how high he’s been. People have to notice. They have to be talking about it when they do.
“What do you mean?” I lie, my teeth clenched so hard they might break and really make a difference in our appearance.
“Well, when he left here a few weeks ago, he looked really fucked up.”
“He’s been doing drugs, I guess.” I shrug like it doesn’t matter much to me.
“Sure, but he was on another planet. I didn’t think he would even make it back to his room until Arabella took him back to hers.
” She giggles to herself. “Now she’s the new Offering.
” She looks at us to confirm it. I hate myself a little for playing this game with her, but a pit is forming in my stomach.
“Come on, Orion,” Lex says, pulling me away from the conversation. I meet his eyes, expecting to see some of the shock I’m feeling, but nothing is there.
“Lex,” I say as he keeps leading me forward.
He doesn’t turn around or answer me, and I’m forced to follow him the rest of the way without getting any answers.
Finally, we’re in an area marked for older students.
A few of the doors stand open, and these seem to be exclusively single rooms. He comes to a stop in front of one of them and knocks in a particular pattern.
“Lex, do you know something about my brother?”
There’s silence all around, both behind the door and from the man standing next to me, who looks oddly expressionless, so much so that I’m sure he’s guilty.
He knocks again, this time much more aggressively.
A girl across the hall opens her door to see what all the racket is about.
She looks us up and down with annoyance, but tells us, “Cillian isn’t here. ”
“Fine then,” I say, my concern for my brother and my anger with Lex building into a useful level of fury for once.
My shoulder collides with the door, knocking it off the hinges almost too easily.
A cloud of dust surrounds us as it rips out of the drywall, and I’m confused that it even exists here.
I suppose this part of the castle just isn’t as well-enforced.
The girl squeals as she rushes back into her room.
The space is different from what I expected in just about every way.
Bellthorn is so grandiose that I didn’t even realize people were living somewhat normally by comparison.
It almost seems like an insult to ask someone to wear fancy Victorian clothes when you’re making them stay here.
I would pity Cillian if I could stand the sight of him.
“Why are you acting so weird about my brother?” I finally turn on Lex and force him to confront me.
“Why are you?” he asks.
“Don’t be a prick. I’m asking you a question,” I nearly shout.
He shuts the broken door. “I am too. Why are you acting so weird about Soren when he has been the person you care most about your entire life? Have you asked him what happened? Have you given him a single chance to explain?”
My anger and pain are combining into something dangerous, and I’m just not sure what to think or say to him right now. “What are you getting at? Did he tell you something?”
“He didn’t tell me anything, but I’ve known your brother for years, and I have eyes.”
“What do your eyes tell you then?” I demand.
“That something is really fucking wrong, and you are the only person who has never turned on him for anything, and you’ve abandoned him.”
“He deserved it!” I insist, memories of that video filling my mind until I’m so angry I could spit.
“Maybe.” He shrugs like he doesn’t want to fight, but hell, it’s all I want.
I’m really geared up to give it to him. Hell, I might even hit him too.
I’m not sure when I switched into self-destruct mode, but I’m here, and I’m about as reasonable as I was in my father’s office when I caused this whole problem with Arabella.
The only thing that stops me is Lex’s jaw dropping open.
The little color in his cheeks fades out, and his expression looks gut-punched.
Rather than ask, I turn to see what he’s so upset about and find a series of pictures on the wall.
They’re all relatively small, probably four by six inches, but I recognize all but the first two.
Offerings.
He has pictures of all the Offerings since he’s been at school in Bellthorn, including Sable and now Arabella.
“What the fuck is that?” I ask, thoughts of fighting with Lex forgotten.
“I don’t know, but we’re not leaving until we turn over every inch of this room.”
We do, and we find nothing at all but his belongings and schoolwork.
The only hint that something is amiss is those damn pictures.
The room is wrecked, and there’s no chance of convincing him that no one was here with his door smashed and his belongings everywhere, but that’s fine.
He can consider it a warning not to fuck with us.
I’m not sure what the hell Cillian is up to, but I know it’s something.
“Maybe he’s just a sick fuck,” Lex suggests. “A lot of people are jealous of the Offering.”
“Oh, he’s a sick fuck alright,” I answer. Despite my newfound determination to find and confront Cillian, the thought of my brother and what that girl said drips in the back of my mind like a broken faucet. Should I ask him what happened? “Should we tell Sable about this?” I ask Lex.
“Not yet. Let me figure out what the hell is going on first.”
We leave Cillian’s room behind, and suddenly, everything feels so very fucking wrong.