The thought alone makes my jaw tighten.
I don’t think about the Markev family.Ever.
I don’t allow it.
Hunter Wardgrave enters and takes a seat across from Piper. He arrived at the academy at the same time as the Ferrum Syndicate boys, which tells me everything I need to know.
He isn’t here to teach, he’s here as a Ferrum Syndicate heir.
I don’t have him as a lecturer, for obvious reasons, but Piper does, she has him for Crisis Management and Strategic Risk.
In short, none of them are here to study. Vass, the Markev cousins, and Wardgrave are all a few years older than us, old enough that they should have been done with university by now.
I have all the information I need on each of them, because when you welcome the enemy onto your ground, you prepare for things to explode.
And they will.
Eventually.
They all have an agenda, and it isn’t peace. It isn’t education either, we’ve already established that. And it certainly isn’t a truce between the Thirteenth Circle and the Ferrum Syndicate.
If it doesn’t touch me, I don’t care.
I already have too much on my plate.
But if this reaches my sister, or Piper, or Eleanor in any way, I won’t hesitate. I’ll go after the leader of the Thirteenth Circle myself, the one who allowed this farce to begin in the first place, even if we’re meant to be on the same side.
Supposedly.
Because it doesn’t feel that way anymore.
My sister glances at me as I slip an arm around her shoulders, her familiar strawberry scent wrapping around me.
“Hi,” she says.
I soften instantly. “How are you feeling?”
She rolls her eyes. “I’m fine. Stop fussing.”
“It’s my job.”
“No,” she snaps. “It really isn’t.”
She has Type One diabetes, and I know she lives a normal life with medication and care.
But it terrifies me nevertheless.
I need to know she has her insulin, that she won’t faint, that her blood sugar is where it should be. I’ve always looked after my baby sister, the way I look after the people I love, to the point of staying back a year at school just to keep us together.
She hated that.
Oh well.
The air shifts, and everyone turns toward the door as it opens. Markev walks in beside Arlo.
His eyes catch mine instantly, and he winks.
Winks.
