CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
It was a meeting of long stares and silence.
Aurora sat at the table, her shoulders slumped forward in an attempt to make herself smaller, unnoticeable, she wished more than anything that she could disappear. If she believed praying would help she would have dropped an orison to Frenlorn, the god of Winter. Perhaps that is where she had gone wrong in the past. Finding out she was Winter born meant that in the years previous when praying to the gods she had been invoking the wrong one.
Aurora’s leg bounced frantically, as she watched the group, her eyes darting from each person, trying and failing to read their lips.
All the members of the inner circle stood at the head of the table, crowded together with Violet acting as their anchor in the middle. They had been debating something. An occasional wave of a hand or glance thrown in her direction caused her eyes to snap to that person.
Aurora groaned, it was worse than being yelled at. The room was deathly quiet, only the glow of the floating orbs that lit the room gave off a soft hum. It was obvious to her they had placed a ward of some kind around themselves, blocking out their voices so they could speak freely without being heard.
Every now and then Violet would look back at Aurora, assessing her as Silas had done before. With nothing to do but wait, she sat and turned her attention to Eli. He was leaning against a wall on the other side of the room, his arms crossed over his chest, excluded from the conversation.
She hadn’t expected him to be present.
He was watching her, his eyes almost imploring, like he was trying to communicate something he was afraid to voice for fear of it being heard by the others.
His eyes lit up as Aurora stared at him, she hadn’t looked at him much as of late. She still couldn’t get past his lies. She allowed herself to truly look at the man she always viewed as her father, her protector. The two hadn’t spoken more than was needed. Of course Eli had tried to talk to her on many occasions since their arrival and the disclosure of her past, but she never let the conversation go past a ‘yes’ or ‘no’. They were the only words spoken to him in the weeks they had been residing within the Guild.
She inwardly cringed at his pale skin and the dark circles under his eyes. He had thrived outside of the Guild, that was now obvious. The male now stood across from her, now looked as if life was slowly being stolen from him. He looked worn out, haggard. Even his scar looked worse in the magic fae light.
Seeing the shadow of the male he had once been, she understood why he had stayed away for so long. The Guild was like a prison, depriving the members and students of something she had taken for granted. Sunlight.
She forced herself to look away, she was still angry. She had tried to process the things Violet had told her. They weren’t lies, he had not denied any of it. And although he had been good to her, raised her, fed and clothed her as well as schooling and teaching her to take care of herself, he had wronged her.
She couldn’t bring herself to speak to Eli while she held such anger and resentment towards him. She feared it would take just one wrong word and any chance they had at repairing what was now clearly broken would result in the relationship being forever shattered.
She knew she should hate him for killing her parents, and yet she felt a disconnect, two parts of herself at war. On one part she was rational, she may have loved them, but she had no memory of it. What caused her pain was the lies, the deceit. She understood it had been part of his assignment, but had he told her about it, about them, when growing up they could have worked through it, just the two of them.
And yet, the other part of her wept, because if things were different she would have had a family. A mother and father, maybe even siblings, but she never would get that chance. He had stolen that from her, robbed her of that life.
The lies revealed by Violet stung more than Aurora truly wanted to admit to herself. A frustration had begun to grow within Aurora, but aimed at herself. How had she been so blind, she should have known.
She had always felt out of place, even with Eli. There had always been something warring inside her. A feeling that something wasn’t quite right, a pull towards something and yet not knowing what that something was. They had never settled in Winter, they had avoided it now actually. Only now with her newfound knowledge, did it make sense as to why. They had moved between the other three Quarts, rotating their stay in each so as not to draw attention to themselves. Yet, she had never questioned it, her faith in Eli had been so strong, her trust so blind.
Never would she have guessed the reason for avoidance was because she had been stolen from her Quartaine. From her home.
Aurora was shaken from her dark thoughts as Violet stepped past the others and out of the warded sphere. Her movement through the barrier breaking the magical ward.
So they had decided her fate. Violet moved with feline grace, slowly walking around the table towards Aurora.
“You’re not the first to try to sneak away. This is why we normally recruit our members earlier, way younger than you.” Violet stopped behind the chair nearest to Aurora, resting her forearms on it, leaning forward, “You may not have succeeded at getting out, but you impressed Silas, I guess at least that”s something.”
Violet’s voice was flat as she stared forward, almost as if this whole situation bored her.
Aurora’s eyes slid to Silas.
He stared back at her, his strong arms crossed over his chest. His posture, similar to Eli’s, but there was something so much more intimidating about Silas. His hood was down revealing long, dark hair woven in intricate braids along the side of his head.
“Not many of our students are able to memorize these halls so quickly, especially being so new. Picking the lock didn’t go as smoothly as we would have hoped, but that can be easily rectified. If you can earn our trust back, we will train you to become very successful.” Violet said as she turned her head to look at Aurora. Her brow raised, her gray eyes assessing.
“You sound as if you were watching me.”
Violet gave a nonchalant shrug.
“I have many eyes within the Guild. Why do you think you’ve run into Silas so often? He is not a male to wander aimlessly. Did you not find it odd that most of the inner circle have been training you? Or did you assume we had nothing better to do?”
Aurora clenched her teeth together, forcing herself to bite back a snarky comment. She took a moment before jerking her head towards Silas, “So what, he’s been stalking me?”
Try as she might she couldn’t tame the cutting tone, the sharpness as sharp as the blade of her dagger. She glared at the male, not caring that the disgust she felt for him was showing.
He gave her a feline smile.
Aurora fought the sudden kick of her fight or flight response flaring up.
His attention was locked on her, a predator sizing up its prey, “You think I’m happy about this? I don’t want a whiny, self-absorbed young fae nagging at me. We already had one of those. Lucky for him he became one of our best assassins after Eli, I can’t say I see that possibility in you.”
Aurora knew immediately Silas was referring to Asher. Many of the students spoke about how talented the male was and how they hoped to one day become just like him. It pissed her off every time one of them word vomited their admiration of the male.
“Things will be changing for you,” Violet pointed at her, her perfectly manicured nails poking in Aurora’s direction. “It has been agreed that you will continue your combat training with Eli but moving forward you will be receiving extra lessons from Silas.”
Aurora turned her gaze towards Eli, who simply nodded his agreement.
“We don’t have many spies in ranks within the Guild, not many seem up to the challenge. You, however, have potential. Maybe you might make a half decent one as Violet believes, but I doubt it.” Silas’s words dripped of disdain, his stance had not changed.
Aurora opened her mouth to question Violet on her choice of teacher when she was silenced by Silas, his hand rising, halting her before a word had fallen from her lips.
“Listen and behave in our training sessions and there won’t be a problem. Fuck about and you will learn the hard way that you reap what you sow.” His deep voice was dark and threatening, the wording only adding to the weight.
Violet nodded her head in agreement, her calculating gaze flitting between them, “You will find your new schedule in your room, and your new lessons will begin tomorrow.” She pulled back the chair she had been resting on and settled down on it, her leg lazily hanging over the armrest. “Now, for your punishment. I don’t take disobedience lightly and I don’t appreciate my students attempting to leave without permission. You thought you could just up and go,” she shook her head in disappointment, “that just won’t do.”
She began picking at her nails with the tip of a dagger. Aurora hadn’t even noticed when the female had unsheathed it.
“What do you mean by punishment?” Aurora felt her stomach fall, and even though her voice was soft as fear started to build in her belly she had no idea what the female beside her would do.
“You just need some...light reprimanding. We can’t have a repeat of tonight now can we? What would that teach the younglings?” Violet smiled but there was no humor in it.
Khyro and Atlas had moved to where Eli was still leaning on the wall. Each at either side, lounging as he was, watching how things were playing out.
Eli on the other hand tensed. She could see by the set of his jaw and his tense posture that he was anything but relaxed as he watched Violet, his gaze as calculating as hers.
“Silas, along with being a trainer every now and then, gives out punishments to disobedient members and students. You mess up, you deal with him.” Violet drawled like she was bored.
Aurora watched as Silas began to slowly circle the table.
Her heart was racing. Something was about to happen, and whatever it was, it wasn’t good.
Silas stopping behind Aurora.
She sucked in a breath not daring to move.
As the imposing male rested his hands on the back of her chair, Eli pushed himself off the wall. He watched Silas, assessing, waiting to see what the male was going to do.
Aurora knew what Eli was doing, it was what he did so that he could access his daggers with ease. His actions stirring fear in Aurora, whatever was about to happen had Eli reacting, he was readying to defend her. She fought to control her breathing as she watched him.
“Ten or twenty lashes for our new recruit?”
Aurora sucked in a ragged breath at Silas’s words.
Violet, looking bored by the whole thing, continued to pick at her nails, “I’d prefer this to be a correction that doesn”t need to happen again, go with twenty. Feel free to add ten more if you feel she needs them. Maybe once she sees how we do things here and how we deal with disobedience, she won’t try to run when she knows what it will result in.”
Eli took an abrupt step forward, “Physical punishment isn’t necessary. She made one mistake. I understand putting her on cleaning duty, or having her work with the Accountant. Gods knows he has plenty of paperwork she could do.” His fists began clenching and unclenching at his sides.
Violet finally pulled her attention away from her nails to look up at him, “Just because you raised her does not mean she gets special treatment. You chose not to bring her back. You chose to keep her away, this is as much your fault as it is hers. Perhaps more so. You spoiled her and made her soft. Now that needs to be corrected.” As if he too, bored her she went back to picking at her nails. “Fear not Eli, I will do whatever is necessary to correct your mistakes.”
Her posture may have appeared relaxed, but Violet’s eyes told a different story. She was pissed, her eyes burned coldly as they lifted slowly to him, “I will not put the Guild in jeopardy because you couldn’t follow orders.”
For the first time in Aurora’s life she felt true fear. Even when fighting the creatures of No Man’s Land she fed off Eli”s confidence. He hadn’t feared them, and so neither had she, not truly. But the wave of anxiety that bled from him seeped into her and settled like ice in her bones.
Eli took a measured step closer, “Give me the punishment instead. Give me the lashes, not her. Like you said, this is my fault. She was only trying to get back home.”
Violet slowly pushed to her feet, the chair scraping noisily back on the natural stone floor, she walked towards Eli. The female was shorter than Eli, but that didn’t take away from the power she exuded.
Violet took a step closer, Eli refused to move and stood his ground as they stood almost toe to toe, “This is her home now, Eli. Both of you need to come to terms with that. You’ve received plenty of lashes in your day, but I think we both know that keeping you down here is a more fitting punishment.”
Eli glared at Violet, his calm demeanor slowly cracking as he began to realize that what was about to happen could not be stopped.
Khyro and Atlas tensed, remaining where they were against the wall, they watched Eli, readying to step in if needed.
“I won’t let you hurt her.” Eli’s words were growled out.
Violet laughed, with a small wave of her hand Khyro and Atlas were on Eli, faster than Aurora had seen anyone move before. The two males at either side of Eli had a firm grip on each of his arms.
Violet groaned, “These fatherly instincts are becoming a problem, Eli. Maybe you need your own punishment after all. You’ve become so disobedient during the years spent away from us, I see where the girl gets it from.” Violet watched as Eli struggled against Khyro and Atlas. Trying and failing, he attempted to reach for his daggers, but the males held him firm.
Aurora could imagine a fight of Guild members would result only in death. They could all read each other too easily.
He glared at Violet, a silent plea laced with a threatening promise.
Aurora hadn’t even noticed that she had taken a fist full of her own long hair, tugging on it roughly, the biting pain an attempt to ground her, force her to focus. Her instincts screamed at her to help Eli, but the presence of Silas behind her told her she wouldn’t get far.
She immediately regretted giving in to the habit of relying on what she had always done to help her focus. Since she was a child she had developed the mechanism that helped her. Self-inflicted pain, drawn by using the one thing about herself that she actually loved, her hair. In a twisted way, it was comforting.
Silas reached out playing with a lock.
Aurora flinched away from him, but he didn’t let go and her action created a sharp painful tug at the base of her skull, making her cringe. She hated the male touching her.
“Maybe a trim will do you good as well,” he purred.
Aurora’s eyes widened at the threat.
No, she couldn’t let him take her hair. She had been hiding it’s color for many years now, she hid many things about herself but one thing she could show off and many had admired, her hair. She had so much pride in it no matter the color.
Violet looked at Silas, wicked humor burning bright in her eyes, “Wonderful catch, Silas. Wonderful indeed.”
Silas only grunted in answer as he gave another sharp tug, drawing a slight yelp from Aurora.
Like a queen leaving her court to do her bidding, Violet patted Eli’s cheek with a little false pout on her lips before turning away from him and walking to the door, “Do as you wish with her Silas, but avoid her face. It’s too pretty to ruin, it could be a useful asset in the future.” She stopped briefly at the door, not turning back as she called over her shoulder to the male behind Aurora, “Do enough that she won’t rebel again, by all means have some fun with it, but don’t render her useless to us, yes?”