Page 8

“That and more,” Gabe said, his British accent thick. Whenever he was in a heightened emotion, it always seemed as if he’d just stepped out of England itself.

“This isn’t fair, and you know it, Walter. Either you have something that shows evidence of why you’re trying to enforce this law, or you’re being bullied into it by fear.”

As I’d always said, fear leads people to do crazy shit.

“Is that your answer then?” Walter asked. “Rather than do your life’s calling, you’d rather give in to your feelings?”

Travis looked back at us. It felt as if a spotlight was on me. I was the reason that this was happening. If I’d never been called to them. If I’d just gone back to New Orleans.

A whole highlight reel of what I would’ve missed out on flashed in my mind. Yeah, I wouldn’t give them up for the world. The Order could kiss my ass.

After getting the affirmative from all of us, Travis turned back around. “The Akasha doesn’t lie. When you guys start believing in your own teachings, you can come back and talk to us.”

Walter swallowed. The faces on the other Order members were blank, expressionless. They’d almost always taken their cue from him. How dull that was. I couldn’t imagine any one of us letting Travis speak for the rest of us.

In one fluid motion, they all rose. Collectively, they turned toward the side door and started walking away. Their shoes echoed off the floor and bounced around the walls as they left us there. Walter let them all go ahead of him and when he was the last one in the room, he turned. “You have one day to vacate the premises.”

“You know Jax is still out there!” Travis said. Evidently, he thought he’d been calling the Order’s bluff, but it hadn’t worked. They were going to be dicks about this.

“That is none of your concern now,” Walter said.

He walked out, and the slamming door echoed around the room as if it was the call to recess in a courtroom.

We all sat or stood stunned into silence. They’d really done it.

“I’m so…sorry,” I said, my voice breaking. Shock still poured through me. I hadn’t seen this coming. Then again, I hadn’t really been thinking about it. There were so much more important things to think about that what the Order was going to do about us had been put on the back burner. Evidently, that wasn’t what they were most worried about.

“They have to have a reason for doing this,” Liam said.

“It doesn’t fucking matter,” Randy said, renewed anger wafting off him. “We don’t matter to them, so…”

“So…?” Liam asked. His cute little face was bunched up.

I looked at all of them down the line. Gabe seemed resigned. Liam was confused, and Travis just looked lost while Randy’s emotions weren’t hard to guess. I knew this wasn’t my fault. I knew this down in the bottom of my gut, but that didn’t stop the sorrow from leaking into me like I’d been riddled with little tiny holes that were just now giving way to these other emotions. These guys had much more at stake in this than I did, and I knew they would do anything for me, and I them. That didn’t make this any better.

I took a deep breath and started to walk toward the doors. Liam reached out for me. “I’m okay,” I said, dodging him. “I just need to be alone for a second.”

“Norah…” Randy said, some of the anger left him, but was replaced with concern.

I turned around and walked backwards. “It’s really okay. I just need a moment.”

Without waiting for an answer, I spun on my heel and walked quickly toward the exit. When I got to it, I pushed it open and kept walking. The chilly night air washed over me in an instant douse of cold. I hoped they would let me do this and when I was on the other side of the parking lot and they hadn’t come after me, I knew they’d listened to me.

My mind wouldn’t cooperate. I walked, staring out at the ocean and wondering what we were going to do now, but my mind wouldn’t focus. Shock still rang through me. I wasn’t sure what I expected, but it wasn’t this. The superiors just dropped us all like we were yesterday’s dinner special. They didn’t take into account what the guys had been doing for Salem since they were inducted into the Order. They hadn’t even taken into account what Salem needed now with Jax on the loose. What the hell were they thinking?

I had to agree with Liam. The Order must’ve known something that they weren’t sharing with the rest of us. I supposed it was their secret to keep. Hell, it wasn’t even any of our concern now.

Though, that was just ridiculous to say. I could think all I want about how I had free time now and that I could really start to get my shop up and running at full steam. I could think about maybe taking some business classes or taking up yoga, or…the future. What was the next steps with the guys and me? It wasn’t something that we’d even talked about. Families, kids. Maybe that hadn’t been an option before, but now…?

I shook my head. What mattered now was what always mattered. The coven and keeping Salem safe. Just because the Order didn’t recognize us anymore, that didn’t mean that we still couldn’t continue to do what we were doing. The Akasha was still at work. I bet if something was going on now, we would still get the call.

Funny how that we’d all been arguing right before the superiors had come in, but when they’d tried to separate us, we came together.

Nothing would stop us from being together.

4

After a half hour of walking by myself, my phone rang. I fished it out of my back pocket and brought it up to my ear after seeing Travis’s name. “Hey,” he said.