Wren observes our surroundings, making sure no one’s listening to us.
"Last year was an unfortunate year for his precious society," he explains with more will than I have. "Every terrible thing that happened on campus, hell, in this town, in the last couple of years was related to people in the Circle. His closest members are mad. The board’s probably threatening to kick him out if he keeps bringing unwanted attention to them."
I can't help but smirk, listening to how badly my father’s doing. Should it happen, he deserves his downfall.
"Plus," I add. "Someone burned his precious temple." My accusatory stare goes to Wren, but the pride in my voice is proof of what I really think. "Members died. They're scared, and they're losing faith in him. He needs to show the influence he has."
I grew up surrounded by the Silent Circle. My dad has been president of the secret society since I was a teen. Some people would give anything to be part of it. Because nothing is impossible once you're a member, or what they call a "Shadow." Laws don't apply to you; the world is yours. The connections it brings are unimaginable.
Some people never had a choice but to join. Ella and her boyfriend, Chris, for example. Or Wren and his fiancée, Penelope. They had to fight with everything they had, almost losing their lives to find a way out after they were forced to initiate. Everyone around me is a member.
So far, I’ve managed to escape. The privilege of being my father's son, my absolute disgust for it, and my stubbornness have bought me time. But my father is onto me. Especially after Wren lost his mind and tried to kill them all last year. He needs to prove that the Circle is just as strong as it's always been. And what better way to show that than having your reluctant son finally join?
That's why he keeps showing me women. Every potential member has to bring a woman to initiate with. Someone who will eventually become their wife and provide heirs to the Silent Circle. They need trusted members now more than ever. And since I've never had a girlfriend, he's ready to arrange this for me. He keeps trying to find women desperate enough that they'd initiate into a dangerous secret society that'll take away all their independence and power so they can be safe from the outside world.
Yes, wives of Shadows can ask any favor they want of the invincible men in the Circle. But they also become their husband's property. Most women either don’t have another choice or don’t know what they’re getting themselves into. Apparently, some don't even know they're my father's target yet.
My attention focuses on him again. He could talk about himself for hours on end. His fake charming voice quickly becomes a dull background noise, and my gaze gets lost on the woman standing next to him like a trophy.
I pause, recognizing that face.
She's got her hands clasped in front of her, wide brown eyes looking out at the crowd. She looks like an animal in a zoo while the man next to her is discussing a fucking building that's barely putting a dent in his bank account.
"Remember her?" Wren asks quietly, clearly insinuating I should.
The thing is, I’m not often fully present when people talk to me, and I disconnect a lot, which annoys my friends to no end, but I remember her.
"I've seen her somewhere," I mumble nonchalantly, not telling them whether I really do or not.
Peach jumps at the occasion to break my balls, as she loves to do.
"For fuck's sake, Achilles. That's Nyx Mayer. You've met her. We talked about her when Hermes made that awful post about her."
"She looks different."
"Yeah, until yesterday, her hair had two colors. Apparently, she's settled on brown now."
"SFU probably made her do it," Ella chimes in.
"She's the recipient of your dad's scholarship. I literally showed you Hermes's postyesterday," Peach concludes with an eye roll.
Ah, Hermes. Peach kept talking about our own campus gossip account yesterday. A poor girl who's going to get eaten by the big, bad rich. Well, yeah, she's already stepped into the wolf's wide-open mouth by accepting my father's new scholarship. One would think the post from yesterday would’ve pushed her away, but here she is.
Hermes has been making everyone's life a living hell on this campus. Only our students can access their account on the SFU app. People have the best time sending pictures of the ones they want to take down, to destroy their reputation. Hermes never holds back, picking the ones that will have the most impact. They live by one motto: "Your secrets are safe with me, until they aren't." No one knows how many secrets they're sitting on or when they'll reveal them, but they always seem to pick their timing perfectly to cause as much damage as possible.
My friends and I are their favorite victims. We're important. We're popular. We're juicy topics.
We hear some muffled giggling, and my eyes go to the two students sitting in the back row, right in front of us. The women are zooming-in on Nyx's dress with their phone's camera. They get closer and closer until they're showing that one of the spaghetti straps of her summer dress is held by a safety pin. One murmurs something, and the other snorts loudly before slapping a hand over her mouth.
I feel Peach shift next to me before she takes a step forward, snatching the phone.
"Seriously? What are you, twelve? Get a fucking life, you losers." She throws the phone on the ground just as my father takes the gold-painted shovel and digs it in the grass, inaugurating the beginning of this new endeavor. He smiles brightly at the journalists taking pictures before handing the shovel to someone else.
And then,afterspending God knows how long talking about bricks that are going to be added on top of each other, he extends his arm toward the actual human next to him like a circus master presenting his latest addition to the freak show.
"I would also like to introduce you to Nyx Mayer, the first-ever recipient of the Virtuoso scholarship. As you all know, my son, Achilles, is a renowned musician, passionate about his art. Hence why we decided to offer a tuition scholarship to another promising musician. After getting her Associate of Arts in music from North Shore Community College"—he pauses to give people time toawabout the girl's unprivileged background, and I want to shoot myself in the face"—she’ll now be finishing her bachelor's in music at the SFU School of Music."
He finally looks at her after ignoring her even while he was talking about her. "Nyx, welcome to Silver Falls University."
