Page 33 of Broken Ties

Brayden Marshall was found dead on Draven’s campus this morning.

The Marshall’s have lived two doors down from my parents’ place my entire life. Our moms were on our grade school PTA together, we did track club with a bunch of other Gifted as high school sophomores, and when I found out I was a Shifter, Brayden was the first Gifted outside of my Bond Group to reach out to me.

His mom wasn’t happy about it, she’s always been terrified of the Dravens, and finding out I was in the same Bond Group as North and Nox was enough for her to ice me out completely, but Brayden never let her shitty attitude stop him from being my friend. He was a Shifter too, just like his dad, and they were both pivotal to me developing restraint. Bray spent months training with me, pulling hundreds of late nights on the football field until I was sure I could still play without hurting anyone, and he never once made me feel like a burden.

Now he’s dead.

He was a Central Bonded with two Bonded, and one of them is now missing as well, along with two of her close friends. Marley is an Elemental, but while her father is a Top Tier Gifted, she’s always been limited to localized weather patterns. The Resistance don’t usually bother with Gifted who can’t weaponize their power, even if they’re stronger than most.

I scroll through the rest of messages about the attack, but even as more still stream in as more students wake to the news,there’s nothing else to go on. There’s no sign of the Resistance scouts who took them, no statement from the council, and no response from the community but panic so far.

Scrambling to throw clothes on, I send a quick text message to Nina to reassure her I'm safe and move as quickly as I can to get myself decent enough to get out the door. North doesn't usually get up as early as the rest of us, a night owl through and through, but when the Resistance attacks hit Draven, the mansion always becomes a makeshift response center. The other council members will hole up in their own mansions, demanding TacTeams to protect them while they cower, while North is usually trying to find shelter for as many of the local Lower Gifted families as he can while still keeping his household running, protecting the Bond Group, and fielding the bullshit that inevitably comes his way from the rest of the council.

He doesn’t deserve any of the fear and scorn he’s given, and it’s getting harder by the day to keep myself from losing my shit at half the community for how they treat him—my Bond, most of all.

The hallways are unusually quiet, none of the cleaning staff working with the house locked down the way it is, but when I turn the corner into the main hallway, I find the dining room has been overtaken by TacTeam personnel and twitchy council staff that spill out into the foyer. Only the guys I know from Gryph’s team acknowledge me as I make my way through the crowd, Harrison slapping my shoulder as I dip my head at him in greeting, but the mood is somber to say the least.

Bray’s older brother served on Gryph’s TacTeam, but he was killed on a scouting jump two years ago. He has an older sister who moved to the Midwest a few years ago with her own Bonded Group, and his younger brother is a high school freshman. They already know what it's like to grieve a brother and now they've lost another. If there has ever been proof that these sorts ofconflicts aren't fair, this is it. How do some families pass by the Resistance’s attacks unscathed while others lose everything, not once but over and over again?

My father was the second Bonded my mother lost. She learnt long before I was born how to grieve a missing piece of her soul, but my father’s death took the last of her strength with him. Oli’s face flashes into my mind unbidden, smiling and laughing at Sage because she’sdefinitelynever looked at me like that before, and the churning in my gut reaches an all time high.

Could I survive her loss?

If she was the one taken, if it were her body found on campus, would that be the end of me as well?

A lump forms in my throat that’s impossible to swallow around, my eyes prickling again until I’m clearing my throat and fixing my gaze somewhere in the vicinity of my scuffed-up high tops until I’m sure I’m not about to lose it. When I finally get through the crowd and walk into the dining room, the other council members sitting around it don't bother to glance my way but North looks up to meet my eye the moment my shoulders squeeze through the doorframe.

It's not so obvious that the members of council would be able to spot it but I’ve spent enough time in the center of crises with North to see fatigue all over him. His new assistant is fussing over a large jug of coffee and she preens over every man she pours a cup for while barely batting an eye at the women here. It’s gross and obvious, but impossible to deny and despite thinking nothing of her, I get secondhand embarrassment so badly my skin crawls with it.

Before I can find a reason to get the hell out of this room so I don’t have to see more of this crap, Penelope reaches North and stops in her tracks, the blood draining from her face. You’d think his eyes had shifted by how she’s reacting, but the dark blue irises are the same shade they always are, only the usualplacating and sedate mask he usually wears is gone and the look he’s throwing at her is scathing enough to strip paint from the walls.

She blanches even more at the curt thank you he all but spits in her direction, the delivery like a threat, and the idiotic woman seems to finally figure out that she’s acting in a disgusting manner. Scurrying away without another word, her cheeks are scarlet red and I catch the gleam of tears there, too.

Several of the council members shift uncomfortably in their seats at the display, looks shared across the room, and my stomach drops at the new mess North will be forced to smooth over. He told Gryph over dinner weeks ago that Pen is harmless, but maybe she’s not as innocuous as he thinks.

Glancing around, I realize Gryphon is nowhere to be seen and when a scowl tugs at my brow, North stands and stalks over to me, snapping at Rockelle when he makes a sound of protest.

“If you can't figure out how to get your own household into a safehouse without me supervising you, Councilman, then you're of no use to our community and should step down from your position on the council before your incompetence gets someone else killed.”

Effective as always, Rockelle's mouth snaps shut as his protests die instantly. The gossip ceases as though lives depend on it, and wide eyes around the table all watch the Death Dealer’s path out of the room. North claps a hand on my shoulder as he leads me out with him, and though Gryphon’s TacTeam dip their gazes respectfully, it’s only Kieran who falls in step with us both to escort us toward the garage.

That’s a red flag if I ever saw one.

The spike of panic in my blood is either so obvious that North can't help but acknowledge it or he's just that good at observing everything around him, but either way, he pitches his tone low tokeep the dozens of extra ears in the mansion from overhearing us as he moves seamlessly into reassuring me.

“Oleander is safe. She hasn't left the dorms and none of the surveillance there has been reporting any signs of Resistance. Something else has happened, and before I tell you, just know that everyone is alive and recovering well."

He shares a look with Kieran that makes it pretty obvious who has been injured. “It was Gryphon, wasn’t it? How bad? Did he go after the scouts or did he find them here?”

Kieran blows out a breath, scratching the back of his head. “We were supposed to be offering assistance to a town being pillaged by Resistance scum, but instead we found a big hitter… a Gifted wielding a power we’ve never seen before. Shore was taken out the second our feet hit the ground. He was targeted like they knew we were coming. North had to come and let his nightmare creatures out to hunt just to give us the chance to evac.”

North opens the garage door and ushers us both through, waiting until it’s closed firmly behind us both before he speaks again. “All information surrounding this Gifted is being treated as classified,especiallyGryphon’s injuries. We’re in a precarious position, and any weaknesses we expose now will only be exploited by the Resistance… or the Gifted within our own community looking to further their own agendas with the deaths of others.”

I glance over my shoulder at the closed door, as though the solid wood there will give me any answers on the Top Tier families coming for our throats even as we keep them alive, but the churning in my gut is quickly turning into an ache. “Is Gryph going to be okay?”

North grips my shoulder again, giving me a little shake in reassurance. “He’ll be fine; Nox is with him and nothing has ever gotten past his nightmares before. I’ll keep the security detailon our Bond, but you should focus on keeping close to her and your own schoolwork. Keep your eyes open, your head down, and be ready to step in if we need to. The TacTeams stationed on campus are well-trained and ready to defend, but there’s no one I trust with her more than our own Bond Group. I’m counting on you to keep Oleander close, Gabe.”

Despite the uncharacteristicsilence of the dorm and suffocatingly somber air on Draven’s campus, it takes until we reach the cafeteria before my Bond seems to catch on to the danger we’re all in. When she glances over her shoulder at me, properly looking at me directly for the first time since I arrived at her door, I have to bite my tongue to stop myself from snapping at her.