Page 14 of Kingdom of Chaos (Creatures of Chaos #2)

Nine

Since I left all my bags in Ensley’s car, I don’t have anything to pack, so I head to the formal great room to wait for Talon and the others.

I try to be patient, but I’m too anxious to sit still.

Popping up from my seat, I begin circling the couches and velvet armchairs in the center of the room like a restless shark.

My gaze catches on the painting above the fireplace.

It’s of a striking young man with shoulder-length dark hair and cloudy blue eyes.

He wears a cream tunic beneath a brown leather breastplate, and a swath of red fabric flows behind him from both shoulders.

In his hand is a familiar, wavy-bladed dagger.

Shadow Striker.

The painting doesn’t look nearly as old as the subject’s clothing suggests. His attire seems like it’s from another era entirely. Ancient, even. I can’t help but wonder if this is an artistic rendering of Lucian, the creature who founded the Arcane Society generations ago.

“Handsome, isn’t he?”

I jump, and turn to find Imogen standing behind me, arms crossed, leaning against the back of a red velvet sofa. I can’t tell if her expression is openly hostile or just mildly curious. She has that kind of resting face that’s hard to read.

“Who is he?” I ask, ignoring her comment.

A hint of a smirk tugs at her lips. “Oh, I think you already know. Our founding father himself.”

So I was right. Lucian.

I glance back at the painting, studying it more carefully. Now that I’m looking, I notice a faint dusting of freckles across his nose and cheekbones. It’s subtle, but it’s there. The detail on the painting is astounding. There’s no way it’s as old as Lucian himself.

“Was the model one of the later Society members?” I ask, curious to know when it was done.

“Oh no. Lucian himself sat for that portrait.”

My eyebrows lift. “The painting can’t possibly be that old.”

She shrugs like it doesn’t matter whether I believe her. “It’s amazing what the right wards can preserve.”

We’ve had relics come through my family’s shop before, items that were supposedly centuries old, but they were always faded, worn down by time. This painting looks fresh, the colors vivid. If someone told me it was painted last year, I wouldn’t doubt them.

“Do you know that Talon’s mother, Jade, is our magistra? Essentially the head of the Society?” Imogen asks, abruptly changing the subject.

I tear my gaze from the painting. Her expression is unreadable but not cold. If anything, there’s a flicker of calculation in her eyes, like she’s weighing my reaction.

When I simply shake my head, she goes on.

“You see, Talon’s family has held the reins of the Arcane Society for generations. It’s been expected that he’ll take over for her someday. Not to say that any of the members are more important than the others, but if they were . . .”

She arches a brow and lets that hang in the air, like she expects me to piece it all together myself.

“I get it. Talon is special.”

She pushes off the couch and moves toward me, forcing me to take a step back. “Oh no. I’m afraid you don’t get it at all.”

Imogen isn’t much taller than me, but with her spike-heeled boots she looms nearly half a foot above.

I tell myself not to flinch, not to be intimidated, but it’s hard.

She clearly doesn’t like humans, and I know she blames me for Talon failing to retrieve Shadow Striker.

The way she looks at me now, it’s like I’m the reason everything is falling apart.

“You’re about to cost Talon everything. But not if I have anything to say about it.”

There’s a gleam in Imogen’s eye that makes my heartrate spike and an internal alarm start blaring.

Years of training and sparring make it second nature to drop into fight mode.

I shift into a defensive position with hardly a thought.

But Imogen doesn’t come at me the way I thought she would.

She stays rooted in place, while a familiar inky sensation invades my mind, slipping past my internal barriers and burying claws right into my brain.

Compulsion . She’s a vampire.

A bolt of terror shoots through my heart. I only have a split second to react before I’m completely under her thrall, and I defend myself in the only way I know how.

Quick as a viper, I throw a punch, nailing Imogen right in the mouth. Her head snaps back and I feel some of her presence inside my mind retreat. I take off, skirting her and sprinting for the exit.

“Stop!” she shouts, and without permission my feet root to the ground.

She walks into my field of vision, wiping blood from her lip with the back of her hand.

“That wasn’t very nice,” she says with a sneer.

“Sorry,” I spit back. “I didn’t realize that compulsion was a sign of affection for Society members.”

She chuckles. “You’re funny. If the situation were different, I might even like you.”

“I can’t say the same,” I snarl, and she shrugs, not caring in the least.

“Let’s be done with this already,” she says. The smile slips off her face as she focuses again.

No. No! I can’t go through this again.

Pure panic sets in. I do what I can to throw up mental shields against Imogen’s invasion, but she shreds them easily. The room darkens as shadows crawl toward us. Not surprising that as a vampire, Imogen has shadow magic as well.

But she’s not paying attention as the darkness creeps closer. It’s not until they reach her booted feet and start crawling up her legs that she even seems to notice them. When she looks down to see them twisting around her feet and legs, I feel her focus slip and I’m able to move again.

“What are you doing?” comes a booming voice that instantly floods me with relief.

The shadows shatter like glass, then dissipate into the air as if they were never there to begin with.

Imogen’s head snaps up, and her gaze collides with her cousin’s.

Talon looks furious as he storms into the room. “Did you just try to compel her?” he asks, his voice deceptively calm.

A flash of fear crosses Imogen’s face. She squares her shoulders and lifts her chin in defiance. “You’re not thinking straight right now. I’m not about to let you throw everything away.”

The temperature in the room drops. I’m sure of it this time. And as certain as I am that Talon wouldn’t hurt me, I still wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of the icy glare directed at his cousin. But Imogen meets his stare with a fiery one of her own.

I may not like the girl, but I have to hand it to her. She’s fearless.

“We’ve already had this discussion,” Talon says, “and you don’t get to make those decisions for me.”

“Your reasoning?—”

“Is my own, and none of your business,” he cuts in, his words hitting like a hammer against nails even though he hasn’t raised his voice. “It’s too late anyway. The die has been cast.”

He turns his back to her, facing me. “Are you okay?” he asks, his features softening as his gaze sweeps over me.

Behind him, Imogen shakes her head, her black hair swinging.

“No, Talon. It’s not too late.” She grabs his arm, and he glances over his shoulder.

The defiance in her voice shifts to pleading as her eyes well with tears.

“Send them away. Please. Aunt Jade and the others never have to know. I won’t say anything. ”

“I can’t,” he says gently, pulling free of her grip.

“You can,” she insists.

“Fine. Then I won’t.” His tone isn’t harsh, but the finality in it silences even her.

I feel like I’m missing something. Sure, Talon agreed to help us, but that can’t be the end of the world. At least, it shouldn’t be. Yet Imogen is acting like it is.

Talon closes the short distance between us. His hand settles on my bicep, warm and grounding.

“Are you okay?” he asks again.

The heat of his touch begins to chase the chill from my skin.

I swallow and wet my lips as I nod. Talon’s gaze follows my tongue as it slides over my top lip, then my bottom. Heat sparks in his blue-gray eyes, and I’d be lying if I said it doesn’t make my stomach dip.

A throat clears, snapping us both out of it and reminding us we’re not alone. I glance over at Ensley and Titus, and startle when I spot a small group of unfamiliar creatures standing with them.

Ensley’s eyes are wide as her gaze bounces between Talon and me. Titus eyes the newcomers warily, and slowly shifts until he’s standing between them and Ensley.

For a moment, we all just stare at each other in silence until an attractive middle-aged woman with thick dark hair and tanned skin steps forward. She approaches Talon and pulls him in for a quick hug. “It’s so good to finally have you home.”

The woman is almost as tall as Talon, and there are too many similarities in their features not to recognize that they’re related somehow. His mother, perhaps? Jade.

“I didn’t realize we have guests,” she says as she pulls back, her gaze sweeping over me. Her eyes aren’t hostile, but they aren’t warm either. They’re assessing.

“They showed up unannounced, Aunt Jade,” Imogen cuts in, and Jade glances at her. “You can thank your brother-in-law for that.”

Jade’s lips press together in unveiled annoyance. “Drake,” she mutters under her breath, forcing a smile as she turns to Ensley and Titus, though she keeps me in her peripheral view. “You all must be my son’s friends from Everton.”

“Something like that,” Titus says, side-eyeing the two males who still haven’t spoken or identified themselves.

Jade looks back at Talon and a charged silence stretches between them, thick with meaning.

“Well,” Jade finally says, “I wish I’d known we were having guests. I would’ve had a few of the guest rooms prepared, but as it is, we don’t have any ready right now.”

Lies . We know they have available guest rooms. We’ve stayed in them.

Jade doesn’t want us poking around the compound. And I can understand why. I was here for less than two hours before I stumbled across where they kept Shadow Striker. Not to mention the library-slash-museum packed with rare books and likely magical relics.

“Talon,” she says, turning to her son, “why don’t you take your friends down to town and get them settled into the Starlight Inn? I’m sure they’ll be much more comfortable there than in this drafty old place. Maybe you can show them around. I’ll bet they’d find the local museum fascinating.”

“With all due respect,” Ensley says, stepping forward, her spine straightening like a steel rod, “we don’t need a room in town. We just need to get to that gate. We’ve wasted enough time as it is. My brother’s life is at stake, so if the family reunion is over I’d like to leave now.”

Jade’s eyes widen and fill with dread. Her gaze snaps to her son. “You told them?”

Talon lifts his chin, his expression hard. “I did.”

“How much do they know?”

Talon pauses, a muscle in his jaw jumping before he says, “Everything.”

The room is silent for a few beats. Jade’s chest rises and falls three times before she responds. “You understand what this means. Even as the Society magistra, I can’t make an exception for you.”

He nods. “I do.”

What’s going on?

I glance at Ensley, but she just shrugs, looking as clueless as I feel. Imogen, however, has slunk toward the back wall. Short of slipping from the room entirely, she seems to be doing whatever she can to make herself small and unnoticeable.

A muscle in Talon’s jaw twitches as he faces off with his mother. His body is rigid, braced for confrontation.

A change comes over Jade. The sadness in her eyes melts away, replaced by cold steel, her face as hard and unreadable as her son’s. Her shoulders square, as if she’s readying for a battle, and even though she’s at least several inches shorter than Talon, she somehow seems to be looking down on him.

“Talon Theron Wintryn. I hereby declare that you are stripped of your membership in the Arcane Society. As such, you will no longer be privy to Society matters, granted access to Society artifacts or relics, or permitted to live within the Society compound. You will also forfeit the name Wintryn, and be magically gagged from speaking of the Arcane Society to anyone who does not already know of its existence.”

I gasp, and my eyes swing from his mother to Talon. He hasn’t moved an inch or so much as flinched, but though he’s holding his facade well, he can’t hide the sorrow in his gaze.

“Do you understand that from this day forward you will no longer be a member of the Arcane Society, nor a part of our family?” Jade’s face remains stony, but her voice catches on the word family , betraying the depth of her true emotions.

Talon nods rather than speaks.

“You’ll have one hour to collect your personal belongings and vacate the compound. After that, you are never to set foot on Grimspire grounds again.”

“Understood,” he says, turning away from his mother and heading toward the exit. He doesn’t even look at me, and my heart breaks for him.

As he passes, I reach out and catch his hand. He pauses and glances down at me.

“Talon, I’m so sorry.” There may not be tears in his eyes, but there are in mine. “I didn’t know. I didn’t realize,” I stammer.

What comfort can I offer him right now? I probably can’t even grasp the full weight of what he’s just sacrificed to help us. To help Becks.

But, really, to help me.

He gently pulls his hand from my grasp. “Let’s go find your shifter,” he says, then strides from the room without another word.