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“Think about who’s been doing the attacks. Mostly wolves and mades, with a few of the born vamps thrown in,” Hudson comments.
“Don’t forget the witches,” Mekhi says with a glower.
“Or the dragons,” Macy adds.
“Yeah, but the only witches and dragons who participated in the attacks are ones we already know are loyal to Cyrus,” I say as what they’re getting at finally becomes clear. “All of this has been masterminded by your father.”
“Looks that way,” Jaxon says, and there is absolutely no emotion in his voice as he says it.
“War is coming to Katmere—and the rest of the world. I’ve known it for two years,” Hudson says pointedly, glancing briefly at Flint before continuing. “I think we all know it now.”
My heart is pounding in my chest. “Cyrus is really planning to attack Katmere?” A thought occurs to me, and I ask Hudson, “Do you know what his plan was last year? What were those students about to do that made you”—I wave my hand—“do what you did?”
I can tell by Hudson’s wide gaze that no one has bothered to ask him this before. Not the details, at least. But I want to know. And since all eyes are staring at Hudson expectantly, I’m clearly not the only one interested in his answer.
Hudson crosses his arms as he leans against the wall. “They were planning to take control of Katmere and hold the students hostage to force all the major ruling families, whose kids attend this school, to join his attack on humans.” There’s a collective gasp from everyone in the room, but Hudson continues. “As proof of his seriousness, he’d ordered those students to kill the firstborn of every family with more than one child at Katmere.”
“My God,” Luca whispers, and Flint pales. Luca has a little brother in the ninth grade, which would mean… I shudder. I can’t even imagine Katmere, our friend group, without Luca in it.
I knew Katmere was an elite school for vampires, werewolves, witches, and dragons, but I had no idea every major ruling family had students here. It was a brilliant plan, honestly. How do you control powerful men and women all around the world? Threaten their children. And how easy to do so when they all happen to be in the same place at the same time.
“Your father’s a real bastard,” Eden growls.
“That’s one way of putting it,” Hudson says without an ounce of humor.
“Why didn’t you tell someone? Instead of just killing them?” Flint asks, and it’s hard not to realize this new information is difficult for the dragon to swallow. If true, it would mean his own brother was willing to do some pretty heinous things for Cyrus.
Hudson spears him with a hard gaze. “I did. No one believed me.”
“You told Uncle Finn.” It’s a statement, not a question. I can see it in his gaze, the answer.
“I don’t blame him. I probably wouldn’t have believed me, either.” He shrugs, but I can tell it bothers him. As our gazes collide, I note the stark pain swimming in his blue eyes before he quickly shutters them. And I know, as sure as I will take my next breath, Hudson is blaming himself. If he’d been a different guy, if he’d been anyone but Cyrus’s kid, things might have ended differently.
“So what do we do?” Mekhi asks. “And do we think this is what’s going on? Cyrus is going to try to take Katmere again?”
“I’m sorry my dad didn’t believe you, Hudson,” Macy says softly. “But he would listen now, and once he realizes Cyrus is behind putting his students in danger, he’ll go after him—in the Circle first, and then if that doesn’t work, he’ll go straight to the source.”
Tears fill her eyes, so she closes them and whispers, “And then Cyrus will kill him.”
“We’re not going to let that happen,” Eden assures her.
“No way,” Mekhi agrees as Flint nods along.
“We can’t tell him,” I say. It’s the only thing that makes sense. “If we tell him, he will try to do something—all alone and without proof—and Cyrus will ensure he’s removed from the chessboard. One way or another.”
“You can say that, but how are we going to stop Cyrus without his help?” Macy asks. “Especially since Cyrus and Delilah are coming for graduation.”
“They are?” Hudson asks sharply. “How do you know that? I haven’t heard anything about it.”
“They RSVP’d with Dad, as the graduation announcements requested.” She spins her phone around and around in her hand. “He was unpleasantly surprised they were coming, too.”
“I thought it would take that asshole longer to heal.” Hudson doesn’t sound pleased that it hasn’t.
And suddenly I know what we have to do. The only thing we can do. We were already planning on finding the Crown anyway to thwart Hudson’s arrest warrant—which makes even more sense why Cyrus wants the only guy who stopped him last time out of the way, but now…now the stakes are even higher. We’ll need the Crown if we have any hope of saving the students at Katmere…and preventing a war. Maybe if we’re lucky, Cyrus won’t even make a move if he knows we have it.
I try to catch Hudson’s gaze, to make sure we’re on the same page with this plan, but he’s staring at his phone, deep in thought.
So instead of waiting to see what he thinks, I take a deep breath and say, “We need to find the Crown before he gets here.”
Hudson still doesn’t meet my gaze but nods. “It’s the only chance we’ve got.”
I continue to try to get Hudson’s attention as Mekhi explains to everyone else about the arrest warrant for Hudson, what the Bloodletter said about the Blacksmith, and Hudson’s theory about the giants. But he won’t look up. Instead, he stares silently at his phone, occasionally swiping his finger across the screen. I know he’s feeling guilty right now. He killed all those students, and it didn’t stop a damn thing. I can tell in the rigid way he’s holding his shoulders, he’s wrestling with his decisions. I briefly consider walking over to him, but if he’s this uncomfortable about our distraction earlier, I feel like that would just make him even more uncomfortable.
Distraction. Ha. What an insignificant word to describe what happens every time we get close. It feels more like my senses are just so focused on taking in everything that is Hudson, not missing a single breath, a single twitch of his mouth, a single crinkle of his eyes, that I have no senses left to notice that we’re not the only two people in the world.
“You know, that means we have to go to Giant City sooner rather than later,” Luca says.
“Hell yeah.” Flint grins. “Those giants really know how to party.” He wraps an arm around Luca’s shoulders and whispers something in his ear, and Luca blushes. Watching them makes me smile, despite all the shit that’s about to come down on us. Flint deserves someone who is wild about him.
“How about Friday?” Mekhi suggests. “It’s a staff workshop day, so we’ve got it off. I could use a break from all the studying anyway.” Mekhi coughs, then adds, “I’ve always wanted to try the Gorbenschlam Challenge. Want to join me for one, Macy?”
“Mekhi!” Macy looks horrified, but underneath the horror, my cousin also looks…interested.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” Mekhi grins.
Macy groans. “Fine. But only one.”
Mekhi winks at her. “I’ve heard that’s all it takes.”
And now my cousin’s cheeks are positively on fire, but I notice she doesn’t correct Mekhi, either. Next to her, Eden shifts her gaze between Macy and Mekhi, and I can’t help but wonder if she was interested in Macy herself. Well, if she was, she better get to moving. Mekhi doesn’t look like the type to wait around when he sees something he wants, and if the gleam in his gaze is any indication, the vampire is most definitely interested in Macy.
An awkward silence falls, so I ask to break the tension, “What’s Gorbenschlam? Can I try it, too?”
Hudson looks up from his phone and arrows me with a sharp gaze. “It’s only for couples, Grace.”
“I thought—” I start to say I thought we were a couple, but then his meaning hits me in the chest, and I narrow my gaze on him, a clear message in its depths that we will be talking about this later.
Macy rushes in to explain. “It’s a giant stein of beer that you race to see who can finish first. Loser buys the round—which is not cheap, considering I mean quite literally a giant-size mug. Legal drinking age in Giant City is fourteen, and they take their beer drinking very seriously.” She grins at me.
“Ah, okay, well, I’m not a huge fan of beer, but I bet Eden and I could race you two,” I suggest, and Eden lets out a whoop and we fist-bump. I send an arched look at Hudson, and he mouths back, Touché.
My shoulders sag a bit that he seems to be over his snit. I’ll be the first to admit I love matching wits with Hudson. When we argue, I forget about my anxiety, about my problems, about everything. I feel alive in the moment. But this doesn’t feel like one of our regular fights. This feels like a lot more is going on, and instead of freeing me from my panic attacks, a bubble of fear is growing in my belly.
“Okay, then,” Flint says as he picks up a taco with his patented grin. “Let’s do this thing.”
With Enemies
Like These, Who