The reckoning: Day 1, hour 2
Two hours later the hall was transformed by the loud hum of conversation.
Apparently, the depressive gloom had all been for the reckoning. Now everyone was upbeat.
Not relatable.
Students greeted one another and embraced like they were excited to learn and begin a new school year as they looked over the class schedules that had appeared at the tables.
For the first time, people seemed almost normal.
Almost was the key word.
Power swirled around students in tangible clouds of danger, and the room vibrated with energy, tension, and violence.
Men and women alike were unnaturally beautiful, with unique eyes, curling horns, and even some tails. I’d never seen so many different species in one room before.
Descendants of gods, water sprites, vampyres, shifters, and demons were just a few of the creatures I could distinguish from looks alone.
But there was one constant—everyone had darkness in their eyes. It was a room full of predators.
For example, Uclydes had fallen onto the floor and was moaning in pain with a pool of blood surrounding his mutilated hand.
But most students at the commoner table ignored him.
Suddenly, the stunning woman next to him leaned low in her chair and dragged her fingers through the pool of blood rapidly spreading beneath him.
She licked her fingers in ecstasy while her vampyre eyes glowed bright orange.
Uclydes pleaded with her for help, but she ignored him and just kept drinking his blood.
I looked away, equally disgusted by the woman’s savagery and the man’s weakness.
Blood wasn’t as much of a trigger as it had been right after the deed, but I still didn’t enjoy staring at it. Watching it slowly pour out of a person.
The world spun as my breath caught in my chest. Stomach cramped with nausea.
Instead of spiraling, I turned my attention to Lothaire, who stood still as a statue in the middle of the room.
His eyes flickered like he was constantly scanning for threats.
The black sky and lunar eclipse refracted through the mosaic windows that framed the ceiling.
Black petals slowly drifted from the tree.
“They’ll just let anyone in these days,” a male voice rasped in a baritone that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
I turned my attention back to the uncomfortable silence at the small table.
The assassins weren’t buzzing with small talk like the rest of the room. No, the energy at our table was surly and aggressive.
The fire fae I’d noticed earlier was the owner of the impossibly deep voice.
He spoke again. “The tree must have made a mistake.”
His high cheekbones pulled tight as he sneered, and the harsh expression fit with his buzz cut and cruel beauty.
Up close, the dagger tattoo that wrapped around his neck was silver with such intricate detail that the blade appeared to cut his throat as he spoke.
It matched his glimmering silver eyes.
The handsome dark-haired fae who sat next to him sneered, his pale skin pulling tight with anger as he said, “Obviously, Corvus. Even I can fucking see that.”
His milky white eyes stared off into the distance. He was blind.
Also, apparently the bronze fire fae was Corvus. He was named after the constellation of a raven, rumored to originate from the Olympus realm and represent the sun god Apollo.
Red flames danced across his short dark hair like a crown.
Corvus fit him perfectly.
The blind fae stared off into the distance as he kept ranting, “That old fucking tree hasn’t been accurate in three years. Of course it made a fucking mistake.”
Nice, another male asshole. Groundbreaking.
His detailed tattoo of an eye spread across his Adam’s apple like a choker and appeared to stare at me.
Did his neck tattoo just wink?
Sanity was slipping away from me.
“Really, Scorpius, do you have to be so crass?” whispered the third fae, who was almost pretty in his masculinity.
White-blond hair fell in soft waves around his shoulders and framed soft features. Large chocolate-brown eyes were decorated with impossibly long lashes. He stared at the blind fae with sadness.
Up close, the flower tattoo on his neck shed petals that fluttered across his collarbone and disappeared under his sweatshirt.
He was about half a foot shorter than the other men and looked smaller compared to them. But he was still covered in lean muscles that would make any warrior jealous.
And now I knew the blind fae was named Scorpius.
A unique, harsh name that fit his aggressive countenance. From how he sneered and frowned, it was clear he was a miserable bastard.
Like his brother Corvus, Scorpius was also named after a constellation: a scorpion that stung the hunter Orion and chased him from the sky.
A dangerous name for a dangerous man.
“Really, Orion, do you have to be such a baby at all times?” Scorpius’s voice dripped with disgust.
My gut lurched with shock.
Scorpius and Orion were two constellations that could never be seen at once; Orion set as Scorpius rose.
Their namesakes didn’t seem like a coincidence.
Corvus, Scorpius, and Orion. Three of the most renowned and impressive constellations.
Also, three of the most intimidating fae men I’d ever seen, and I’d been exposed to a lot of soldiers thanks to Mother dearest and her torture.
Across the table, Scorpius made a rude gesture to Orion.
Orion responded by rolling his eyes at his blind companion, golden skin glimmering as his lush lips pursed with annoyance. His beauty really was shockingly pretty.
The brothers were works of art.
Scorpius’s face scrunched as he taunted him back. “Don’t be a baby.”
Orion leaned forward so his face was closer to the pale fae’s, and his voice was barely a whisper. “It’s called having a sense of decorum.”
“Some of us prefer to fucking say things as they fucking are. Grow up.” Scorpius shook his slicked-back black hair.
Suddenly, Corvus’s silver eyes flashed as flames leapt across his deeply tanned skin, and he wrapped his long fingers around Scorpius’s chin and shook his head back and forth.
“Yes, we know you’re so gritty and damaged. Let’s focus on getting through this year’s training with no more mishaps,” Corvus’s baritone voice rumbled.
Scorpius just growled like a feral beast.
Orion leaned closer to both men and whispered, “I don’t know; Scorpius’s mishaps are kind of fun.”
Corvus slung his arm over his brothers’ chairs affectionately. “Not you too. One of us has gotta pretend to not be completely unhinged.”
They grinned at one another, warmth radiating around them with such intensity it made me sad.
I missed my family.
The brothers continued to bicker, and the female in me took her time inspecting and categorizing them.
Corvus was the terrifying leader, all harsh lines and edges, with a buzz cut, silver eyes, dagger tattoo, and flames.
Corvus was hardened.
Scorpius was cold and mocking, handsome with refined features; short, perfectly slicked-back black hair; pale skin; unseeing white eyes; and a lifelike eye tattoo on his neck.
Scorpius was cruel.
Orion was quiet. Stunning with soft, feminine features, white-blond hair, golden skin, chocolate-brown eyes, and roses tattooed across his neck.
Orion was refined.
None of them looked like any fae I’d ever met.
Unique gold jewelry covered the tops of their pointed ears, and they weren’t lean and lithe like most fae; they were corded with rippling muscles and impossibly wide shoulders.
Their beauty was harsh and fierce, like the horrible red flames that crawled down Corvus’s shoulders and made my stomach hurt.
“What are you looking at?” Scorpius sneered with such vitriol that his handsome face lost all civility.
It took me a second to realize he was speaking to me.
The brothers looked up.
Glittering silver, milky white, and chocolate brown pierced through me.
Instinctively, I averted my eyes.
“I wasn’t looking,” I mumbled as my face burned hot, and I stared across the hall, pretending to be interested in the dark petals that decorated the tree.
Scorpius scoffed, white eyes flashing. “Bull. Fucking. Shit. I bet a pretty boy like you hasn’t seen a day of hard work in his life. You’re going to get destroyed.”
I gnawed on my lower lip and fought a smile as I ignored his blathering about me being privileged. Sun god help me; he thinks I’m pretty.
Even though I was disguised as a boy, I wasn’t dead, and one of the hottest men I’d ever seen had just called me pretty.
“He wasn’t looking,” Corvus’s deep voice rumbled softly as he paused.
I looked back at him in confusion.
The dagger jumped on his throat, and red flames danced across his shoulders. Corvus smirked. “Because he doesn’t want to die painfully.”
Scorpius sneered and chuckled in agreement.
Orion narrowed his eyes.
A shudder rolled down my spine as they glared at me like I was dirt beneath their boots.
For a second, my shoulders slumped low, and I curled in on myself, fingers trembling around the pipe that was tucked into the waistband of my pants.
Scorpius’s laugh was cruel. “Pathetic. Pretty boy isn’t going to last a day.”
Shame burned hot through my chest, but the oppressive heat kindled into rage and reminded me just who the fuck I was.
My monster screamed.
I’d faced down pompous elite fae men who made small talk at palace balls about the price of my virginity, joked about the tightness of my cunt, and asked Mother what methods she used to control me.
Their vitriol meant nothing to me.
They had no idea the war crimes I’d committed against my own mother; they had no idea my capacity for violence.
I straightened my shoulders and refused to cow. Someday they’d see.
For sun god’s sake, I had a literal monster inside me, and I didn’t even know what species I was.
“WHORE” was marked on my flesh for all of eternity.
They should be afraid of me.
Plus, even though I didn’t want to rule, I was still the technical fucking queen of the fae realm, and they were fae men.
My subordinates.
Barely fit to lick my feet.
I relaxed the tension from my forehead and let my blue eyes reflect the depth of my indifference.
“I’ll look wherever I want to look.” The corners of my lips pulled into the tight smile Mother had perfected, the one she’d worn when I writhed on the floor and begged for mercy.
“Oh, really?” Corvus’s silver eyes sharpened into steel, and his red flames burned so hot that I could feel the heat across my skin.
My stomach rolled, and it took every ounce of willpower I possessed not to avert my eyes.
I fucking hated flames.
Scorpius leaned forward, and the lifelike eye tattooed on his flesh seemed to stare through me. “How cute. The little pampered pretty boy thinks he wants to fight the big dogs. Positively inspiring.”
My fingernails dug into the table. I’d show him pampered.
“Don’t,” Orion said softly, long, delicate fingers grabbing Scorpius’s shoulders, stopping the blind man as he lunged across the table like he was going to hurt me.
“No. I think he should.” Corvus smiled with malice, and his teeth were startlingly white against his darkly tanned skin.
Scorpius mocked. “But he wants it so badly.”
I rolled my eyes and donned my mask of indifference. “Great point. I really do.” My words dripped with sarcasm.
Arms relaxed, face dead of all emotion, I lounged back in my chair like I didn’t have a care in the world as I slowly inspected the other men at the table.
Just another pampered motherfucker with a dick.
If I didn’t treat the three fae like they scared me, then eventually they’d stop thinking I was weaker than them.
It was all about the long game.
However, inspecting the rest of the table wasn’t reassuring.
If I weren’t pretending to be blasé, I might have frowned at the black veins that crawled down the cheeks of two of the other men next to me.
Might have wondered why the man beside them had long orange hair like Lothaire and pale skin that looked translucent.
Might have thought it odd that the man in the middle of the table looked completely normal. He was built large, but his features were boyish, and there was nothing unique about him.
At a table full of supernatural freaks, being completely plain was somehow weirder than having an interesting physical characteristic.
But it didn’t matter what creatures the men were; their body language made it clear I was not welcome among them.
The three fae weren’t the only ones radiating hostility.
Waves of vitriol were directed my way.
Fine with me. The last thing I wanted to do was train to be an assassin. Truthfully, I didn’t want to be anything anymore.
Aspired to nothing.
I just wanted to sleep until I felt okay.
That was the funny thing about trauma: it didn’t need time to strip you of your personality and plunge you into darkness.
It worked quickly.
Mercilessly.
Didn’t care that you’d spent years cultivating your sense of self and acting a certain way and didn’t give a flying fuck about who you were or what you wanted out of life.
It ripped you apart and left nothing.
I was jagged shards of what had once been whole.
My nails dragged across the table’s veneer as I avoided the death glares Corvus and Scorpius were still sending my way.
Orion was whispering quietly in their ears, and it sounded like he was pleading with his brothers not to cause a scene.
Scorpius sneered something about “pampered,” and Corvus swore, “—disgustingly fucking pretty, it’s embarrassing.”
Why are they so obsessed with me?
Sadie would have loved the drama, and throat punched someone already.
Fuck. I’d take a throat punch for five more seconds with her.
My therapist warned me that I was too dependent on Sadie’s friendship. She’d said it wasn’t healthy to sleep in my best friend’s bed each night and strangle her with my love, because she wouldn’t always be there to chase away the nightmares.
Well, look at me now. I was all alone.
My therapist would love this shit and probably make a note on her clipboard, “Aran is fucked,” while bragging to her colleagues that she’d been right.
Before I could sink too deeply into my pity party, Lothaire loomed over the table with his singular eye flashing as he stared down at me.
“We begin now. Follow me.”
Lovely. Not even enough time to panic appropriately.
The men stood up immediately like they were eager to please their master. Did they know he was nothing more than my mother’s man-whore?
I took my time standing because I’d never been one to kowtow to authority figures, aka I had mommy issues. But it was more fun to just pretend I had a rebellious spirit.
As if the universe was mocking my false bravado, my stomach plummeted yet again.
Because the tallest man at the table, Corvus, towered at about seven feet tall.
He was a monster.
Plus, the rest of the men weren’t much shorter than him. Orion was by far the smallest, but he was about six feet four, so that wasn’t saying much.
Since I was just shy of six feet tall, I wasn’t used to craning my neck to look up at people.
Now my spine ached from the strain of trying to look into the eyes of men I was barely chest height with.
Corvus’s buzzed head and chiseled features lorded over everyone else.
What did he eat to get so large?
It wasn’t natural.
I swallowed thickly as I pushed my shoulders back and discreetly elevated onto my tiptoes as I followed the men out of the room, into the hall.
Each step away from the great hall seemed like a step away from hope.
Lothaire stalked quickly down the dark halls, and the seven men sauntered behind him.
They should have lumbered, but each man moved with the smooth grace of a warrior and glided silently across the black marble floors.
Killers on the prowl.
One of the men who had black veins trailing down his face walked up beside me.
“You’re gonna be dead in an hour,” he said casually, like he was trying to make small talk.
I took a drag of my pipe. “One could hope.”
Laughter burst from his mouth, and he showcased pointed black teeth as he stared at me. “Are you joking?”
“No.” I exhaled calm.
“I respect that.” He paused like he was thinking about something intense, and after a long moment, he nodded like he’d made a decision. “My name’s Vegar. I’m a demon.”
I tripped and barely caught myself from slamming into the wall as it lit with lightning.
What an exhilarating way to go.
Electric.
“Aran, water fae.” I gave him a mock salute and tried to act like him being a demon wasn’t terrifying as shit.
At this point I didn’t want to be alone in an alley with anyone in the assassin program.
Vegar smiled, and his pointy teeth gleamed in the hall’s shadows.
Demons were rumored to be evil creatures that fed on the pain and misery of others. Basically, they were the elite fae I’d grown up with.
Vegar reached forward, but instead of shaking my hand, he slammed his meaty palm across my back.
I swallowed down a scream as the wound on my back burned like it had been doused in kerosene.
He smiled as I grimaced back at him. Had he meant to break my spine?
A few hours ago, I would have worried about my monster losing its shit at Vegar’s aggressive action, but it had gotten progressively quieter after I’d impaled my hand on the dagger.
A small blessing.
Maybe I need to start stabbing myself to control my monster?
Food for thought.
Abruptly, the other man who had black veins under his eyes pushed to stand between us.
While Vegar was dark-skinned with dark features, this man had blond hair and blue eyes. If it weren’t for the black veins crawling down his face, I wouldn’t have known they were the same race.
But I knew better.
He was another demon, and he was glaring at me like he wanted me dead.
Get in line.
