When I step into the courtyard and see Marco and Milo sprawled across a bench like they own the sunrise, the weight slides off my shoulders.
“You look like hell,” Marco says, tossing me a protein bar.
I catch it, half-smiling. “Feel worse.”
Milo leans forward, eyes sharp. “They try to break you again?”
I sit, jaw locked, rubbing the back of my neck. “Of course. That’s the point.”
“What’d they ask?” Marco’s tone stays casual, but his eyes don’t. He’s looking for cracks. He’s been watching since the first trial. We all know they’re there it’s only a question of when I split.
I shrug. “If I’d give either of you up or hold out through torture.”
“Which did you pick?” Milo asks, grinning, but the edge in his voice gives him away.
“I didn’t,” I say. “Didn’t give them a thing.”
Marco whistles. “Brutal.”
“They said if I stayed quiet, Mom would vanish. Said you two were already bleeding. Said I’d walk out to ashes. Kept a light on me the whole time, feels like my eyes are burning still.”
“And you didn’t break?” Milo asks, quieter now.
I shake my head. “One rule. Never betray the family. Not for love. Not for pain. Not for anything.”
Marco claps my shoulder. “Then you passed.”
“They didn’t get me to flinch. Leo said everyone else did. Out of the three, this one was the easiest.”
Truth is, it was. Not because I wasn’t afraid because loyalty’s my spine. The thread that keeps me whole. Even when I lose my grip, I don’t let go.
“I’d do it again.”
“That’s why you’ll lead us one day,” Marco mutters.
Milo nods. “It’s in your blood.”
I rub my eyes and look at them. “I might be doing the trials because I’m older by a few minutes, but when I lead, you lead too. This family gets three heads, not one. We move together. Always.”
They know I mean it. Without them, I’m nothing, my strength, my weapon, is them.
“The three of us together are chaos,” Milo says, grinning. It pulls a real smile out of me.
My gaze drifts to the academy windows. Somewhere inside, she’s pretending her world hasn’t split apart. I haven’t seen her on the roof in two days. Conor’s glued to her side. When he’s not, Cillian is.
Why the sudden leash? What’s happening in her family?
The night on the roof, she looked like she had nothing left. Her family was using her like a pawn.
I wanted to hold her. Tell her I was there.
But the truth is, I can’t save her without betraying my own.
“Ready for the Ball tomorrow?” Milo asks.
I roll my eyes. The Heir’s Ball, an old tradition. Happens when one heir graduates and another steps in. Last year, we skipped it. No heir enrolled. After me, there won’t be another until I have a kid.
“I think it’ll be fun,” Marco says. “All the criminals in one room.”
