90

Fire and Bloodstone

I’m still reeling ten minutes later as we make our way to the ceremony. I tell myself that it’s no big deal, that everything is going to be okay—with Jaxon, with the ceremony, with the Unkillable Beast. But how okay can I convince myself things are going to be if Jaxon was willing to sever our mating bond?

Everything feels wrong now, off-kilter. And the fact that Hudson is back to haranguing me definitely doesn’t help.

“Which part of my father murdered every gargoyle in existence do you not understand?” Hudson demands as we make our way down to the auditorium. “Do you think he killed all of them in secret? He did it right out in the open and dared anyone to question him. And if they did, he killed them, too—or at least discredited them. You think he can’t make one silly little girl go away?

“His words, not mine,” he hastens to add when I turn on him, infuriated. “I’m just saying, that’s what he’ll be thinking. It’s not true, but that’s how he’ll see it.”

“Yeah, well, that’s ridiculous,” I mutter and glance up at Jaxon talking to Mekhi.

“Absolutely. But he’s a ridiculous man. Evil. Monstrous. But ridiculous. You’ll do well to remember that.”

He doesn’t say anything else, but then neither do Jaxon, Mekhi, or I as we take the last flight of stairs two at a time. The others are waiting for us at the bottom, looking a million times happier than I feel. Then again, the king probably doesn’t want to kill them.

“Looking good, Grace,” Flint tells me, holding up a hand for a fist bump.

“You’re looking pretty good yourself,” I tell him, because it’s true. All the guys look amazing in their dress uniforms, especially since they get to wear blazers tonight instead of those absurd purple robes.

“Everybody ready for this dog and vampire show?” Mekhi asks as he holds an arm out for Eden. She looks a little surprised at the gesture—I’m guessing the combat boots and kick-ass attitude tend to limit the gallant gestures aimed her way—but then she smiles wider than I’ve ever seen her.

“Damn straight!” she tells him, taking his offered arm.

Xavier offers his arm to Macy, and she giggles like a schoolgirl before she also takes it. But I can’t help grinning at the way she and Xavier keep stealing glances at each other out of the corners of their eyes when they think the other one isn’t looking.

“Guess that leaves you and me,” Flint says to Gwen with a waggle of his eyebrows.

She looks at him like he’s a little strange, but she nods as she gingerly takes his arm. She’s doing so much better, but her arm is still badly bruised and cut up.

Jaxon reaches up and smooths my curls off my face. “It’s going to be okay,” he tells me. “I promise, I won’t let anything happen to you.”

“I know you won’t,” I answer as he takes my hand in his. But his words from earlier keep playing in my head.

Sometimes it feels like Jaxon tries to protect me from everyone but himself.

But as our palms meet, I can’t help but realize how drained he is. I fed him energy down the mating bond right after we got back from the Boneyard earlier, and he seemed to be doing better, but right now I’m not so sure.

We have to get the last item. We don’t have any time to waste.

“So anxious to get me out, huh?” Hudson asks.

So anxious to get your brother back to normal, I answer. It’s not the same thing.

I wait for the obnoxious comeback, and it doesn’t take long. “Jaxon doesn’t do normal, or haven’t you noticed?”

Says the guy who lives in my head, I shoot back, fed up with everyone at the moment. Hate to be the one to break it to you, but he’s not the abnormal one here.

Hudson starts to say something else, but he stops as we walk into the auditorium, which is already half filled with students, many of whom turn to look at us as we start toward the back row of seats.

There’s a purple carpet—a purple carpet!—lining the walkway up to the stage. It’s obviously for us, and I feel completely ridiculous walking down it, even though everyone else seems to think it’s totally normal.

Uncle Finn is waiting when we get to the stage, once again fiddling with the sound system. He grins at all of us and goes out of his way to send an encouraging little wink to Macy and me.

Still, there’s something in his eyes—they’re so serious, despite his smile and wink—that makes my stomach clench.

“Is it too late to run?” I ask, and I’m only half kidding. Something about this just feels off. Jaxon squeezes my hand.

“I told you not to come,” Hudson hisses at me. “I told you something bad would happen.”

Nothing bad has happened yet, I try to soothe, but my heart has started beating out of control.

Even Jaxon looks like he thinks running might be a good option, especially as the assembly hall doors swing open and the members of the Circle come parading up the walkway on the opposite side of the auditorium from where the rest of us entered.

Cyrus heads to the podium with all the pomp and flair of Mick Jagger at a Stones concert. Today he’s dressed in a black pinstripe suit with a purple-and-black tie and, not going to lie, he looks like a million bucks. Of course, his eyes are gleaming like a zealot’s, so it takes a little away from the whole picture.

As soon as the other members of the Circle find their seats, he starts the assembly with a, “Thank you, Katmere Academy, for the most exciting Ludares tournament we have ever experienced. It was truly a delight to preside over such an incredible event.”

The room falls silent as he looks the audience over, and I’m not sure what’s scarier, the serious looks on their faces or the sound of the locks as the doors slide shut.

I swallow the panic rising in my throat as I give the audience a shaky smile. What I really want to do is race down the aisle like a K-pop fan after my favorite idol, but instead I stay where I am as the king turns back to the audience and continues what I now know—what all eight of us now know—is a total fucking farce.

“First on the agenda is celebrating the win of this amazing team up here. They played an incredible game of Ludares, didn’t they? That moment when Grace dodged the two dragons was breathtaking. And when she turned one of the dragons to stone?” He shakes his head. “Absolutely captivating.”

The audience claps more enthusiastically than I expected.

“So, with no further ado, let’s bring them up to accept the special prize donated this year—a bloodstone from the royal collection.”

Delilah is also at the front of the stage, though it’s clear she plans to let her husband do all the talking today. She’s dressed head to toe in white, and she looks chillingly beautiful. Her crimson lips are turned upward in a perfect smile—that appears genuine as long as you don’t look at it too closely.

Cyrus motions toward our team at the back of the auditorium. “Can our Ludares winners please come forward together and take a bow?”

The group of us exchanges uneasy glances—but Jaxon squares his shoulders and walks in front, with all of us following behind reluctantly and single file.

“Take your bow,” Cyrus instructs as we come to a stop on the stage, and we do as the audience applauds.

Cyrus walks behind us now and pats everyone on the back as he calls their name. I’m at the end, though, and he stops when he gets to me.

“Grace.” Cyrus hands me the box with the bloodstone in it, looking me up and down, and it totally squicks me out. Not because the look he gives me is lascivious—it’s not—but because it’s avaricious. Like he wants me, but only because he’s already figured out how to best use me to serve his interests.

“It’s so lovely to meet you,” he tells me, coming around to my side and opening both arms in some kind of bizarre facsimile of a social-distancing hug. “My son’s mate, a gargoyle.” He shakes his head. “It’s unfathomable but so, so exciting.”

“So exciting,” Delilah echoes, and her perfect crimson smile never wavers.

Cyrus continues. “I can’t tell you how impressed we were by your performance during the tournament.”

“My entire team did very well,” I agree.

Delilah cocks a brow in exactly the same way as both her sons do but says nothing.

“So they did. But you were their secret weapon. We all saw Grace Foster’s performance at the Ludares tournament yesterday, correct?” Cyrus’s voice booms through the auditorium and elicits cheers in response. “We saw the amazing things she could do, didn’t we?” More cheers.

“But we also saw how vulnerable the poor girl is,” Cyrus adds, shaking his head. “We saw her struggle, we saw her dragged across the field by a werewolf, we saw her nearly die between two dragons. Grace, our only gargoyle in more than one thousand years.”

Where’s he going with this? I ask Hudson as he continues to list the many things that have happened to me since my parents died.

“Nowhere good.”

Cyrus pauses, and it’s like the whole room forgot how to breathe. He turns to his wife and motions her over. “Would you like to deliver the good news, Delilah?”

The queen continues to smile as she walks forward, but it’s not a happy smile. It’s rigid, brittle, and I wonder how long she can hold it before shattering. Wonder how long she can wear this facade before she breaks completely.

Long enough, I guess, because she doesn’t break as she steps forward to take the microphone. As she turns to the audience and says, “It is with the utmost pleasure that I share some exciting news.”

She faces me, and I don’t know whether it’s Hudson or me who’s more anxious about what she’s going to say. Probably me. As her smile grows wider, my heartbeat pounds in my ears so loudly, I’m not sure I’ll be able to hear the words.

“The Circle has voted and agreed. King Cyrus and I will be taking Grace home with us to the Vampire Court.”

Huh. Turns out I definitely heard that…even though I wish I hadn’t.