25. Creed

TWENTY-FIVE

CREED

My head is spinning and I don’t know which way is up. If we thought things were fucked before, they’re even worse now. I don’t have a clue what’s going on, and I’m pretty certain the others don’t either.

Erikel is a… fuck, I don’t know what he is, but that was some extreme magic right there.

“We need to get the fuck out of here so we can come back in with the others,” Brax mutters, and Eldon frowns.

“Do we want Erikel to know we’re a part of the guild?” he asks, raising a valid point, and Raven sighs.

“I’m sure if Genie is his daughter, then he already knows,” she bites, her shoulders bunching with a mixture of annoyance and anger.

Fuck.

Genie is his daughter. Genie. Is. His. Daughter. Or that’s how it sounds from what Fitch said moments ago.

“How does someone from the Basilica Realm get into Silvercrest Academy?” I ask, completely bewildered, and Zane shrugs.

“I don’t fucking know. How does any of this happen?” he grumbles, shaking his head in disbelief.

Fitch leaves the room with Sebastian over his shoulder while Erikel drops down into a chair by the table. He leans back, stretching his arms out from side to side before he slowly transforms back into Burton.

My mind is blown. If I hadn’t seen the shift, I would swear it was Burton himself in front of us, but based on Fitch’s words, he’s dead, so that can’t be possible. Why bother making Raven bring him back from the dead that night? Was it all just a ruse to be able to take his place because everyone believes he’s still alive? That’s fucked up.

“Let’s get out of here,” Raven whispers, keeping the connection between everyone as we all fall into step, silently tiptoeing around the room. My breath is lodged in my throat, and I’m certain I’m going to pass out from trying to be so quiet, but to my surprise, we make it to the staircase without interruption.

Zane gets one foot on the first step but quickly has to move as Fitch storms back down the steps in a hurry. He rushes past us as we press as tightly as possible against the wall, and when he saunters back into the main room, completely oblivious to us, I heave a sigh of relief.

We make it up the steps and outside without any further interruptions, coming to a stop when we’re firmly hidden away from view.

“Are we good here?” Zane asks, and I notice the tiredness clinging to him.

I double-check around us before I nod. “We’re good, drop the magic.”

He does instantly, sagging in relief. “Are you okay?” Raven asks, panic in her voice as she grabs his arm, and he nods with a grin.

“Yeah. I’m good. Sorry, Dove. It’s just the magic. It’s exhausted me,” he explains, and she quickly wraps herself around him comfortingly.

“Thank you,” she breathes, and the rest of us all murmur our appreciation too, Leila included, although hers is a little more muffled around the silent sobs burning through her as she tries to keep it bottled up.

Raven releases Zane and drops to the ground, sitting cross-legged on the grass, and the rest of us follow suit except Brax, who continues to keep an eye on our surroundings. She rests her head on Zane’s shoulder and holds Leila’s hand in a show of support as her crying calms.

“What is Erikel?” Raven asks, and I shrug, unable to recall the name for it, but Eldon does.

“He’s a skinwalker, someone who can change their appearance to resemble someone else.”

Raven shivers, her face scrunching in distaste, and I can’t blame her. “I didn’t know that was a thing.”

“It’s rare. He’s technically classed as a shifter,” Brax adds without looking at us.

“Well, either way, we’re going to be okay. The Monarchy is coming soon. We just have to try and keep our heads down and get through all of this alive,” Raven declares, and Leila gapes at her.

“They are?” Hope is thick in her voice and Raven nods.

“We don’t know the exact details, but we know they’re coming. You’re going to need to get your head on straight and consider how you’re going to approach your father until then. I know it’s scary, and I wouldn’t want to do it either, but if he learns that we know he’s working with Erikel, fuck knows what he’ll do. You saw the state of Sebastian.” Raven gulps. She’s shaken by that, by what she saw mottled into Sebastian’s back. If I’m honest, it threw me off too.

Silence descends over us as we all recall the lashing Sebastian got. If you had asked me yesterday if he deserved it, I would have answered with a resounding yes, as I’m sure my brothers would have done, too. Shit, I would have asked for the whip to do it myself, but now…nothing seems real. There’s no guessing what is and isn’t true anymore.

Fuck.

Wiping a hand down my face, I sigh.

“Do you think Sebastian is going to be okay?” Leila asks, and Raven’s lips twist with uncertainty.

“They seem to want him alive. But if what they were saying is true, and we piece the rest together for ourselves, then it seems as though he’s under some kind of magical control. But for how long, I don’t know. Have any of us ever met Sebastian without the influence of it? I don’t know, but that was horrific,” Eldon states, referring to the lashing, and I nod in agreement.

“Damn, thank goodness you all agree,” Raven murmurs, tucking a loose tendril of hair behind her ear. “I thought I was going soft on him for all the wrong reasons. I’m certainly not saying he’s suddenly a high priority for me, but that wasn’t fun to witness.”

Everybody hums their recognition of the truth. Everyone but Brax. I’m sure he’s twisted up about it more than the rest of us. He’s the one who promised to kill him. Promises are life vows to my brother. He doesn’t falter from them. That’s a concern for another day though. We have enough in front of us to deal with as it is. Especially since we need to head back in there and pretend like we didn’t just bear witness to any of that.

“So you think the Burton in the vision was the real Burton, and not the new Burton?” Leila asks, sending my head into a spin with the number of times she said Burton.

“Who fucking knows?” Zane grunts, rubbing at the back of his neck. “When I replay it, I think the projection was the real Burton, which still doesn’t fill me with joy because he was also conniving beneath the surface, and now we can’t question him on any of it because he’s dead.”

Dead.

“At the hands of Ruben too. That must have been the conversation we heard at the party,” Raven clarifies, and Leila scoffs.

“Why would my father not allow me to go to the party because it was full of Erikel’s men when he’s…” A sob bursts from her lips and she covers her mouth for a second before finding the strength to say it. “He’s one of them.” Tears pour from her eyes, betrayal claiming her, and it’s impossible not to feel sorry for her.

I don’t trust her as much as Raven does, but I also know it takes a lot for Raven to believe in the goodness of people, which is the only reason she’s here. As much as I’m glad she’s now aware of what her father is capable of, I half wish she wasn’t here having to deal with the consequences of that.

I don’t even know where to begin with all of that information, nevermind her. It doesn’t help that every time we uncover a new level of the information we’re receiving, it opens something else up. I don’t think we’re ever going to get to the bottom of this. Knowing where it all began is impossible.

“I think we need to join the others,” Brax states, nodding in the direction of the guild, and we all stand, brushing the loose grass off us as we watch the other members heading down the stairway.

“Are you going to be okay?” Raven asks, looking to Leila, who nods meekly.

“I have to be. It’s bigger than me and my feelings,” she admits, wiping the remaining tears from her face before pressing her hands to her eyes. I notice the icy white on her fingertips, but it’s only there for a moment before it disappears and she drops her hands back down.

“Did you just cover the fact that you’ve been crying?” I ask, noticing that her red puffy eyes are all gone.

Leila smiles from ear to ear, pleased with herself as she nods, and Raven giggles. At least we’re heading down there with a calmer vibe than what we left with.

The six of us head toward the stairs, as relaxed as we’re going to be, but my shoulders stiffen when I notice the telltale armor of the golden warrior, my father.

The memory of the projection flickers to mind, a reminder of the onyx Burton mentioned in relation to my father, and I can’t help but wonder if it’s true.

“Creed,” he booms as we approach, crooking his finger for me to go to him, and my back stiffens.

Knowing what he did at Pinebrook fills me with both hope and fear. Hope because there’s potential that he’s the man I’ve longed for all of this time; he’s just hiding underneath the weight of the armor permanently encasing his body. Fear because he was able to play with my mind and body so effortlessly that I was left none the wiser about it.

“I won’t be a minute,” I murmur, separating from the others to go to him.

I don’t look up to meet his gaze straight away, my eyes are obsessively scanning over his armor to see if I can spot anything, but all that greets me is gold, gold, and more gold. Along with the deathly smears of crimson.

“Creed,” he repeats, pulling my gaze to his. “Why are you here?”

“Excuse me?”

“What’s going on down there?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” I retort. If Erikel is trying to hide who he is and what he’s doing, then why is my father here? Glancing over my shoulder, my father’s hand clamps down on my shoulder, forcing my attention back to him, but my eyes slam shut instead and I feel like I’m floating for the briefest moment before I blink up at him.

“No one else but you and your friends have seen me,” he explains as if reading my mind. Is he reading my mind?

Shaking his hand off, I take a step back. He looks at me with strained eyes and a flicker of pain furrowing his brows, but he doesn’t utter another word. I don’t know what’s going on with him, and discomfort burns my chest as I walk away to my actual family.

“Are you okay?” Raven asks as I step closer, and I nod.

“I’m fine, why?”

“I don’t know, it’s just when your eyes closed, your eyebrows…”

I frown at her as we head down the steps, her fingers laced with mine as she strokes her thumb over my knuckles like I’ve done to her so many times. “What?”

“I don’t know, you just looked distressed,” she mutters, her eyebrows pinching with concern, and I force a smile to my face.

“I didn’t feel that way, I swear.” Confused, maybe, but I didn’t feel any kind of distress, and that’s what’s irritating me now. The ability my father has to slip beneath the barriers I have with little to no effort…

Fuck.

My thoughts are interrupted as we step into the room to find the members circling fake Burton and Fitch, who hover by the table.

We step into the crowd, hoping to blend in, but Erikel’s gaze immediately tracks us and I notice Fitch’s brows furrow when he spots Leila.

“Hey, man,” Grave murmurs as he moves to step beside Leila, nodding at me before turning to greet her. They whisper quietly between themselves for a few seconds until Leila giggles at something he says.

“Have you been crying?” he asks, lifting his hand to cup her cheek, and she shakes her head. “Are you sure? Do you want to come back to my place tonight?” he offers, and she nods, nibbling her bottom lip nervously as she tilts her head to look at Raven, who gives her a smile.

“You don’t mind?”

“Of course not.”

Grave grabs her hand, linking their fingers together, and I’m just as baffled by the pair of them as I am with everything else happening around us. At least Raven won’t be worrying about Leila tonight if she’s with Grave instead of going home to her father.

“We’ll keep things brief,” not Burton says, gaining everyone’s attention. “I’ve heard rumors that Erikel is going to lead a march soon. Has anyone else?” He plants his hands on his hips, surveying the crowd, and a resounding no echoes around us.

Is he saying that because he actually is organizing a march, or is he just trying to cut short any rumors that are actually out there? Fuck, now we’re going to be second-guessing every last thing.

“I’ve reached out to The Monarchy a few times on our behalf, but I’m getting no response. Has anyone else had any luck?” Burton scans the crowd once again as everyone shakes their head. Now he’s clearly trying to see if anyone has had any communication with people outside of the academy, and there’s no way in Hell any of us are admitting to that. “Okay, we have to stay vigilant and alert. On a final note, a manuscript on magical artifacts is missing from the library. Has anyone here seen it?” Another resounding echo of no’s repeats around us, and he sighs with frustration, his knuckles turning white as he clenches his hands. “Are any of you any use at all?” he snaps, his outburst catching everyone by surprise as we gape at him.

That’s definitely more of an Erikel trait than a Burton one.

“Professor Burton, are we done with the members for this evening?” Fitch asks, trying to calm the situation, and the Burton impostor waves him off dismissively before storming from the room.

Well then.

“What was the point of even calling a meeting?” Grave mumbles under his breath, and the answer is clear. He simply wanted to know what we knew with regard to topics he deems important. The fact that he just left instead of directing us into a training session only confirms it’s not Burton anymore.

The rest of the members disperse, including Leila, who lets Grave lead her out.

“What do we do now?” Eldon asks, looking as helpless as I feel, and it’s Raven who answers.

“We need to reach out to Rhys.”