Page 44 of Caelum

ELEVEN

STEFAN

Having spied Eve with Reed in the garden, I grabbed a pack of dried fruit and nuts from the stash in my room, and shoved a few more into my pockets, then headed out to the yard.

Ever since the shit with Dre, Eve was spending more time out there, finding random excuses to be out in the fresh air, avoiding being alone with us in private areas so we couldn’t discuss more classes. Since the debacle with the bear, I understood her hesitance, but she’d have to get over it. She needed our help. One-on-one with someone who understood the soul she was dealing with that day.

Still, it was no hardship to go and spend time outside with her. I enjoyed it. Enjoyed being with her. Even when she was being cagey, she was entertaining, but something was going on in that pretty little head of hers, and I didn’t like it. She was overthinking, and to be honest, I knew that was dangerous. Sure, that sounded like something a chauvinistic prick would say, but it was the truth.

She was running scared, and I didn’t blame her. What was happening was enough to make me scared of the future and what her oddities meant for us as a unit.

Keeping her safe was my only priority, my Pack’s too. It didn’t matter that the Pack appeared to have grown, thanks to Eve’s uniqueness, since it was what it was. Packs shared their females. Not because we were into orgies, but we were into protection. Why would I try to protect Eve on my own when I had others to help keep her safe too? And, usually, it worked with any other female mates that were added along the way.

We were all just one overlarge episode of Big Love waiting to happen, but this shit with Eve? I had a feeling it wasn’t going to work that way. We were hers and nobody else’s. Which might have been a good thing, considering keeping her out of danger was looking harder and harder to accomplish now that she had markings of her own to hide—marks that females shouldn’t bear, and ones that Nestor and Dre didn’t have on their backs. More weirdness.

As I headed outside to the yard, I found her hovering by a bush close to the outdoor washroom.

“I didn’t think you had it in you to be a Peeping Tom, Eve,” I teased her, laughing when she jumped in surprise at my voice.

“I’m not peeping on anyone,” she muttered crossly, folding her arms across her chest in a way that screamed ‘awkward.’

My lips curved because I knew she wasn’t, but that still didn’t mean teasing her was out of the question. Curving my arm over her shoulder, I asked, “Who are you waiting on?”

“Reed.” Her brow puckered. “He came from the ocean.”

She said that like he was Triton reborn or something.

“He likes to surf,” was all I said.

Eve’s mouth tightened. “What do you like to do?”

I wasn’t sure why I was taken aback at the question, but I was. “I like to climb.”

“Climb what?” she inquired, her attention shifting from her feet to my face. I was glad for that. I hated seeing her so on edge, so uncomfortable.

Learning she was ours hadn’t put her at ease. If anything, it had made things so much worse for all of us.

“Trees, rocks, mountains.” I shrugged. “Whatever I feel like.”

“Why would you do that?”

“Pitting myself against gravity is fun.” I grinned at her. “Gravity doesn’t always have to win.”

Her mouth dropped open, and she reached up and pressed a hand to her forehead. “How high do you go?”

Because she looked so worried, I couldn’t tease her, and I even lied as I said, “Not too high. Just so I can take a great picture of the view.”

Her relief was instantaneous, and I knew she could never find out about my love of free climbing. She might have a heart attack if she did.

Killing my Chosen wasn’t on my list of things to do now that I had her in my life .

“Want to go inside?” I asked, tugging her slightly in Caelum’s direction.

“No. I’m waiting on Reed. He wanted to talk to me, but I wasn’t about to watch him shower.” Her voice turned high-pitched at that, and I almost laughed.

God forbid she see one of her ‘husbands’ naked.

That was the moment said husband, of course, strolled out in a pair of board shorts, a loose tee, and flip-flops.

When he saw me, he dipped his chin in greeting, but we eyed each other warily until he broke away and, to Eve, apologized, “Sorry about the wait. I stored all my stuff in one of the lockers but had to treat my board.”

I got the feeling she only understood about a half of that, and to take some of the spotlight off her, I questioned, “The surf good?”

“Yeah. Better over at Cruckshanks than Tomasse Bay.” He scrubbed a hand over his head and added, “Something weird happened when I was there.”

“Yeah? See a mermaid?” I teased, snorting when he flipped me the bird.

At my side, Eve smiled and relaxed slightly. I was never sure if she got my jokes, but whenever her tension eased, I took that for the win it was.

He squinted up at the sun for a second then shot me a look that instantly put me on edge. “Might be good to gather in Frazer’s room, you know?”

I scowled, frustrated with not having answers right away, but nodded. “Sure. I’ll gather my people, you gather yours.”

Reed’s smile was tight. “They’re already up there.”

Trying not to let tension strum through me, because I knew Eve would be susceptible to it and she’d already picked up on whatever was making Reed shadier than usual, I merely sent out a group text.

Within thirty seconds, I had agreements from all my brothers except for Nestor.

“Nestor still can’t move from his suite,” Eve said before I even muttered a word.

Reed swore under his breath. “Shit. Yeah. I forgot about that. I’ll tell Sam and Fraze to go to his bedroom.”

I told Dre and Eren about the change of locale and Reed did the same before we set off at a leisurely pace toward the Academy. Though none of us uttered a word, we silently maneuvered around to the back of the building, going in through one of the rear entrances rather than through the foyer where one of the faculty might have spotted us.

Eve might not think much of seeing Reed and I hanging around each other the way we were, but I knew if the faculty spotted us, they’d immediately think something was going on.

Our rivalry was over four years in the making, for God’s sake. Friendships weren’t formed from that kind of dislike.

Well, except when a Chosen was involved, of course.

The tended front yard made way to the more rugged area where staff tended vegetable plots. There were too many students and teachers for us to be self-sustainable on an island that was too rocky and rugged for its own good, but we managed to grow some stuff.

Because of how hot it could get—we were in Africa, after all—the veggie and fruit patches were covered with a kind of tarp that had holes in it. As we passed, it quivered in the stiff breeze from the sea, and the scent of ozone, as well as Eve’s perfume, settled some of the unease Reed’s hush-hush manner had stirred.

Herding in through the side door, we paused at the instant fall into relative darkness until our eyes adjusted. Here, wood reigned supreme. The floor, walls, and even the ceiling were covered in the stuff. The staircase, too, was formed from it, and the railings were ornate, even though these areas had been manned by staff back in the day and staff didn’t need ornamentation.

As we headed up toward Nestor’s part of the building, Reed followed us while I kept Eve close to my side, and we remained in the shadows until we approached his room.

Knocking on the door to warn him, I opened up and led the others inside.

Nestor lay in bed, looking pale as fucking water. Seeing him so infirm really aggravated my Incubus. I wanted to lay claim to the Ghoul who’d hurt him, wanted to strike out and maim those who’d dare injure my Pack brother.

Of course, we’d slaughtered the Ghouls that night, so one of us had done the deed, but that didn’t ease my soul. It wanted blood and vengeance every time I looked at him and saw him so frail and weakened by what had happened.

Dre was sitting on the sofa I knew Eve was sleeping on and had been since Nestor had been discharged from the sickbay, and Eren was over by the window, looking out onto a prime view of Cruckshanks Bay.

I nodded at them both in greeting then squeezed Eve’s hand. I wasn’t sure which mark I touched—whether it was Nestor’s or Dre’s—but it didn’t surprise me when she instantly ignored the latter and headed over to Nestor’s side. Despite wearing Dre’s mark, things were still chilly between them.

Watching her care for my Pack brother? Jesus, it annihilated me. Seriously. Even before she’d received the mark, she’d gone to the sickbay and sat with him, had been the one to wheel him out and back to this part of Caelum. It made sense that they were mates, too, and I couldn’t be happier if I were honest. In fact, I could be. If Eren was marked next or if Eve was marked in turn.

Of course, her marks were a great concern to me. Only males had them, so once again, the existence of those etchings on her palms was proof of just how unusual Eve was, but still, I’d take it if it meant Eren was Chosen next.

“How are you doing?” she asked my brother softly, her hand coming up to rub over his forehead.

The lucky bastard grabbed her wrist then slid his fingers down until their hands were bridged. “I’m okay. I don’t have a temperature, Eve,” he teased, and the note of amusement in his voice relieved me further. He might look like he was close to death’s door, but he wasn’t.

She huffed at his reply but took a seat next to him on the bed. With her back turned toward us, she didn’t see the look I shot Nestor. His eyes flashed, and his chin dipped as he silently confirmed that he wasn’t lying—he was okay.

Deep inside, the news comforted me, and I headed over to Dre. He raised his fist as I raised mine, and we bumped them together in greeting. As I took a seat next to him, a knock sounded at the door and Reed, who’d been hovering there, pulled it open and let his brothers in.

“What’s going on?”

It didn’t surprise me that Frazer was the first to speak. He was their leader, after all. Just as I would often take charge, he did too.

Reed rubbed the back of his neck in a way that put me on edge, but with his free hand, he held out something to Frazer. The Sin Eater frowned as he scowled down at Reed’s palm, then his eyes bugged out.

“That the key ring you lost as a kid?” Samuel blurted out, his own shock evident.

Reed nodded. “Yeah. The Coolangatta one.”

“Back up, guys. What the fuck are you talking about here?” Dre, as always, waded through the shit to get to the bones of the matter.

I expected one of the other Pack members to answer, but they didn’t, Eve did. And that? Well, it stunned me.

“When Reed was a little boy, just after his souls revealed themselves to him, he went on a trip with his mother to a beach called Coolangatta. They bought a key ring as a memento. The day they left for home, they were involved in a crash and his mother died.”

My eyes ping-ponged between her and him, sensing this was going somewhere and not seeing the woods for the trees just yet. When he nodded and didn’t explain further, I frowned. “Okay… so, what?”

“I lost this key ring just before I came to Caelum. The facility where my dad dumped me was on the beach. I was allowed out there because it helped cool my temper and my doctor was progressive.” He cleared his throat. “Anyway, a riptide tossed me off my board, and the baggy I had around my neck with my personal shit in it was washed away.”

Dre scowled at him. “So how the fuck is it in your hand?”

Reed’s smile was taut. “That’s just it. I wished for it.”

My eyes widened, and if his expression wasn’t deadly serious, I’d have thought he was taking the piss. Only, he wasn’t. He was serious, and for some reason, that really made me uneasy.

“You wished for it?” I repeated, unsure where he was going with this, except I knew he was going somewhere.

“Yeah. In front of Eve.”

As one, we all turned to look at the woman who was changing our lives. Not just because she was choosing us as mates, not just because she was changing our perceptions of what creatures were, but also because she could apparently grant fucking wishes. And yeah, this was just a single wish, but it was so unlikely that the key ring would show up on its own that there was no other explanation—even if that meant putting ‘wish’ and ‘reality’ in the same sentence.

I couldn’t utter a word. My throat felt too thick, and I winced as I swallowed because it suddenly felt like my mouth was the Sahara—I’d been, so I knew how dry it was there. “Eve?” I rasped, managing to force out the word.

Her back was still to us as she kept her gaze trained on Nestor, but I could see the tension dancing down her spine, could tell from how she was holding herself that she was listening and was purposely evading our stares.

“Eve? Is he right?” Dre bit off, and even though he’d been Chosen, he still sounded as miserable as fucking ever.

She tensed again, but her head bobbed in a single nod.

Almost as one, we blew out a collective breath.

“You can’t be serious,” Dre rasped. “This can’t be real.”

“This is proof that it is,” Reed retorted, but he sounded just as winded. This news, while cool, felt so impossible that I empathized—I felt like I’d been hit in the gut too.

He stepped over to me and handed me the key ring, but from his covetous eyes, the way his gaze stayed glued to it, I knew he hated giving it to me, knew he wanted it firmly in his grasp.

When I looked at the crappy plastic, I saw the insert was severely faded. There was definitely a ‘Coolangatta’ sign on the front though, and just as I was about to call coincidence and begin praying that Eve had been teasing—because yeah, she was such a joker, not —I turned it over and saw a picture of a boy standing with a beaming grin as he looked at the camera. On one shoulder, there was a parrot, and the woman at his back was grinning down at him while she cringed when the wings of another bird, hovering on her shoulder too, flared wide like it was about to take flight.

It was just as faded, just as water stained, but the details were somehow vibrant, so I could see everything, and there was no mistaking just who the boy was.

When I handed it to Dre, he shook his head. “How is this possible?”

“Is this the eighth soul?” Samuel demanded from Eve, his tone harsh, but I understood his anger.

She’d known this and had kept it from us?

What the fuck? What else was she hiding?

If things weren’t hard enough where she was concerned, now we had to worry about her holding back on us?

“I couldn’t tell you,” she whispered, and her voice was strangely soundless, like she was speaking but wasn’t somehow forming the words. “You wouldn’t have believed me until you saw it for yourself.”

“Djinn,” Eren rasped. “That’s the eighth soul. Or what we call it where I’m from.”

“Eve?” Nestor called, his voice softer than any of ours had been. We watched as he reached up and cupped her chin, then, using his hold on her, tilted her head back so he could look into her eyes. “Explain?”

From her new angle, I could see the tear tracks on her cheeks. The sight stirred me like nothing else could, and even though I longed to go comfort her, I couldn’t.

Nestor was right. We needed answers, and the only person we were going to get them from was the woman herself.