Page 115 of The Blairville Legacies

“Miles, enough is enough...” David began again.

“TheOrder of Tenebrisis doing exactly the same thing you are!” Miles looked at me angrily. “And we have a way of not living like those lawless bastards, and yet you’re still doing it.” He banged on the table, and a loud crack sounded. “I’m sure Nicolaj encouraged you to do it – orhedid!”

I felt the anger boiling over. “I do it because I can control myself!”

I had gone too far. At least for Miles, who sped toward me and pinned me against the wall. His eyes glowed menacingly.

“Miles! That’s enough! That wasn’t our plan,” I admonished placatingly, pushing Miles backwards and walking with my hands in my pockets to the window through which the sun was still shining. But I stood so that it reached just to my covered chest level.

“No one hereis a member of theOrder of Tenebris. You should hear yourself talk. It’s unbearable!” I added annoyed, knowing that there were far worse things than being a part of theOrder.

Miles didn’t say anything more, and I knew he was struggling with his emotions right now. As usual. And gradually I was getting fed up with it.

“Let’s focus on other things instead. Miles, I’m sure you’ve got a plan to really kick some mutts’ butts...”

This time I wondered about my words, since I tried to avoid such problems on principle. But it seemed like a welcome distraction from the life I had outside of this campus.

I felt Miles start to move and appear next to me within a split second.

I didn’t have to look over at him to know that he hadn’t finished discussing the matter. On the contrary. The fire of aggression was blazing inside him. Something he had definitely inherited from his father.

“Do you have a plan?” David asked with interest, and when I turned around, he was leaning casually against a table on which colorful pictures and posters lay neatly sorted.

This room had to belong to the Faculty of Arts.

I caught myself staring at the pictures for too long, as if they were calling out to me. And then I wondered what my life would have been like as an art student – a thought I quickly dismissed because Iwasn’t. I had duties and tasks that set me apart from the others. There was no place for such things in my life, just like all the things Miles wallowed in every day.

“I mean, we could just cut down their oak tree...” Miles suggested.

“And have her entire pack stuck to our cheek with it?Hardly.”

David was right. That would have been too obvious. And sooner or later, Nicolaj would find out. Something my blood brothers shouldn't have to deal with.

“Now comes a boring Adrian version, I’m sure.”

Even if it didn’t sound like it, Miles really tried to keep himself under control and forget about the conversation from before.Because even though it was just us here, we had to function flawlessly out there. Anything we screwed uphere, sooner or later, we wouldn’t be able to manage in front of the clan either. Emotional outbursts of any kind were a disgrace for every Ruisangor. Because feelings meant weakness.

Bastien and Camille often tried to look past it, reasoning that he was the youngest of us at twenty and that I should keep an eye on him at the age of twenty-six. I obeyed, even though I had better things to do than babysitMiles. He wouldnevergrow up, even if he had eternity to do so. It would take a miracle for that to happen, and I didn’t believe in such things.

I sighed.

“Maybe we should just leave it alone. We would get nothing but stress with such provocations. And besides...don’t you think we should stand above things?” David finally said, and normally I would have agreed with his opinion, but this time I had my own objectives. And as long as we let those miserable dogs make us look stupid,no one herewould show us respect.

“Good one, David,” Miles laughed with his hands up. “This place is boring as hell, and the dogs really need to be walked. So, get your shit together and defend our honor.”

“I think I have an idea.” I was too quiet, even if they could have heard me through ten walls.

David shook his head. “I still wonder why Bastien had the glorious idea of letting you come here.”

Miles eyed David suspiciously, braced his hands at his sides, and turned to me energetically. “And that idea would be?”

Chapter 26

Julie

When I entered the molecular biology seminar room in the west wing, the first thing I noticed was the many girls excitedly whispering to each other in the best seats.

At Blairville High, I had always been the only girl in science classes.