I shrug him off and step into the center of the room. All four look at me, the original and the revised, waiting for me to say something.
I must look ready for war because no one interrupts my train of thought. “Cai, nice to see you. The king has come down from playing in the woods. Any news?”
Caius finally sets down his phone, swirling the ice in his glass. He doesn’t speak for a full ten seconds.
“Do you remember the summer before high school graduation?” he asks, voice cold. “When we broke into the principals office and replaced every file with doctored versions?”
Bam nods, nostalgic. “Best week of my life.”
“We need to do that again,” Caius says. “But instead of files, we swap out the Board.”
He lets it hang. Rhett grins. “You mean kill them all?”
Caius shrugs, as if murder is just a midterm to pass.
I watch him, waiting for the other shoe. He doesn’t disappoint.
“The world doesn’t change unless you remove the ones who refuse to let go,” he says. “We take the Board, the Dean, Harrington. All of them. Bring them to the grounds, Hunt style. Let them die the way they want us to.”
Colton’s eyes never move, but his hands tense. Bam cracks his knuckles. Rhett just smiles.
Frustrated, I run my hand through my hair and sigh, “It’s not enough.”
Caius raises an eyebrow.
“They don’t just want us,” I explain. “They want the women. Our women. They want to take the firstborn, like it’s a fucking prize. You know this. Rhett tried taking that out of his contract, but fact remains, as long as the Academy exists, they won’t stop until they get what they want. Cai is untouchable out in Pineridge, but that doesn’t mean the rest of us are safe.”
Bam’s face goes hard. “No one touches my kid.”
Colton says, voice flat, “They won’t get close to Eve.”
Rhett says nothing, but I can see the pulse in his jaw. He’s thinking of Isolde, and the baby, and how much he’d give to keep them safe.
Caius holds up his phone. The screen is lit with a picture—Ophelia, holding a fat baby with a shock of black hair. Both are smiling, alive.
He sets it on the table. “Daisy’s flourishing and so is O,” he says, voice softer than I’ve ever heard it. “They won’t get her. They won’t get any of them.”
The room is silent, save for the slow drip of water from the faucet.
Looking around, I take note of the changes since the last time I was here. The walls are lined with hunting trophies—elk, boar, a bear’s head that’s too big to be real. Liquor bottles march along the shelf like soldiers. There are stacks of paperwork and maps on every surface, a pile of tactical gear in the corner.
Rhett’s been busy while I’ve been trying to keep Amara safe.
Caius stands, stretching, cracking his bones, and crosses to me. For a second, I think he’s going to punch me. Instead, he grabs my shoulder and pulls me in, forehead to forehead.
“I missed you, asshole,” he says.
“Missed you, brother. I mean that.”
Bam interrupts, clapping his hands. “Group hug or Russian Roulette, let’s pick. We’re burning time.”
Colton moves to the window, surveying the trees. “Girls are at Bam’s,” he says. “Dahlia’s idea for girls night.”
I blink. “Amara’s with them?”
Colton shrugs. “No. They said they couldn’t find her.”
Anger surges through me. She needs support, now more than ever and no one is there for her. Not Eve, not her own fucking father. And I’m here. I want to see her, want to check the bruises on her wrists and the look in her eyes, but strategy first. Always.
