I say nothing, watching him take a bite of the pasta. “Vegan chicken,” he adds dryly. “My absolute favourite.”
Isaak looks at him like he might actually commit murder. “Are you ever going to eat without complaining? Every single day since the menu changed, it’s the same thing.”
“No,” Markev replies with a shrug. He glances at Arlo. “You’ll never hear the end of it. I still don’t know how you could do this to me. You know how much I love my meat.”
Their voices fade into background noise as I pick up a fry, my hands trembling slightly. Everyone else is absorbed in the conversation, but Piper looks at me and offers a small smile. It doesn’t reach her eyes.
Like the rest of us, she came back changed.
Damaged.
Chapter 26
Octavia
The next few days pass faster than I expect. My time disappears into sketches, drafts, exams, and projects until, suddenly, we’re here, Thanksgiving break.
Which also means that today I’m flying to Switzerland for our annual girls’ trip.
It started years ago as something enforced, Thirteenth Circle heirs pushed together under the convenient guise of unity.
Inconveniently, it worked.
What began as obligation turned into a genuine friendship between Adelaide, Piper, my sister, Eleanor, and me, and over time we found ourselves enjoying one another’s company more than anyone had planned.
For our parents, of course, it was never just a holiday. It was about keeping an eye on one another, gathering information, testing alliances. Even allies don’t trust blindly in our world.
Especially not when the Thirteenth Circle’s founding families aren’t all mafia—only mine and Adelaide’s.
Piper and Eleanor come from social elite families, powerful in different ways, but powerful all the same.
This year, though, I dread the trip.
Because this time, we aren’t going as friends.
This year, Eleanor is missing.
Weeks have passed without a word from her. I’m worried, but there’s little I can do when her own father insists she’s perfectly fine and will return when she’s ready.
I hate him and don’t trust a single word he says, but I’m also in no position to interfere.
Something is definitely wrong, though it doesn’t help that Eleanor has always been like this, disappearing, reappearing,behaving as though vanishing for months at a time is perfectly ordinary.
Yesterday, we sat together in my sister’s room—Adelaide, Piper, and me—and agreed to a truce, temporary and strictly limited to the duration of the trip.
I’m expected to be civil with the cartel princess, to swallow every scathing thought and keep it carefully behind my teeth, at least for now.
As if that’s possible after Adelaide threatened my sister’s life.
She can provoke me all she wants, but the moment she goes after my people, it crosses a line that doesn’t bend.
You don’t threaten the people I love.
Ever.
Something is off with Adelaide as well, I can feel it. Whatever she’s dealing with, however tangled it might be, this was not the way to handle it.
I zip my bag shut and am met immediately by a sharp knock at the door.
