Chapter Twenty-Three

Riot

I pace around the living room waiting for Atlas and Valentin. There has been a fucking breach in our home, and I'm about to fucking murder everyone.

"Where have you two been? I've been texting you both for hours," I bark out as they saunter through the door.

Valentin looks disheveled. His hair is damp and messy around his face. He leans against the doorway in wrinkled jeans and a T-shirt that looks like it shrunk in the wash. "I went for a drive after I dropped Maureen off at The Nest. What's going on?"

"And you," I point to Atlas who has that shit grin on his face that he wears when my anger amuses him. "Don't tell me you got distracted talking to ravens again. I told you to use your sigil to keep an eye on our firecracker."

He shrugs. "She was with Val."

Fucking hell. "Someone is running their mouth about what we do here. Specifically the night Maureen was on the altar."

Valentin's eyes flicker with rage. "The fuck?"

Atlas's smirk falls as he flexes his arms. "Who? I'll cut their fucking tongue out and feed it to my snake."

"I don't know. But it wasn't any of us, or her. It had to be an initiate," I say.

"About to be a dead fucking initiate," Valentin snaps.

One of the most sacred vows we take is silence outside these walls. Whatever happens here is for our eyes and ears only. The thought of one of our own airing our secrets all over campus makes me fucking sick. And murderous.

"I've called a meeting to get to the bottom of it. And after tonight, no one enters our sacred room except us three. Not until we know our secrets are protected." I grab my case of knives before heading down to the altar room.

Valentin and Atlas follow me down the stairs, their footsteps heavy as our anger collectively builds. I can feel it buzzing off of them. I imagine it must be the way they felt that night I murdered those douchebags in Wickford Hollow. They could feel my anger through our sigils all the way from Raven's Gate.

With the three of us walking in step, our rage and fury is palpable, explosive, and all-consuming. I wrench open the iron door. It makes a loud screech as it scrapes across the cement floor. From the second we enter; I can practically taste the fear that bounces in between the initiates. They know I don't call impromptu meetings unless I'm fucking pissed and about to kill someone.

I stalk to the center of the room and slowly make eye contact with each one of them. "I demand loyalty. Obedience. Secrecy . All three have been violated in one single act." I take my knives out from their case and arrange them by size on the table. "Everyone in here swore an oath. And you know if you break that oath, the consequence is death."

They all stare straight ahead, afraid to look at the vengeance in my eyes. I pick up the largest knife and begin circling each initiate. The blade is almost as long as my forearm. I relish the way the worn leather hilt feels familiar in my palm as I twirl it around.

Atlas picks up one of the smaller knives and without warning, charges toward one of the larger initiates. He grabs him by the collar and looks him dead in the eye. The man begins to shake. Atlas and he are the same size, but Atlas is actually crazy.

He jabs the tip of the blade into his cheek. "Was it you? You have the balls to spill our secrets?" The man shakes his head furiously and whimpers. Atlas waves the blade in front of his face. "Maybe I'll cut out your eyes. Can't talk about what you can't see."

"P-please, no. It wasn't me. I would never," the initiate sputters out.

Atlas smirks and drags the tip of the blade down to his mouth. "Or maybe I'll cut out your tongue so you can't fucking talk no matter what you see."

With the group hyper-focused on Atlas, a young initiate doesn't have to time react when I come up behind him. I yank his head back and hold my knife to his throat. "Or maybe it's this one. What do you think, Val?"

Valentin has a knife in each hand when he comes toward us. "I say we kill all of them just to be sure."

The whimpering turns to full-on crying from a handful of them. While others lift their chins higher in a pathetic attempt to look brave. Too bad for them, I can see the puddles of piss pooling at their feet.

"Who's going to break first?" I taunt.

Atlas moves to the next guy and smacks him in the forehead with the flat of the blade. "There's a traitor in this room. Is it you?"

This one doesn't move a muscle as he stares straight ahead, his head held high. He's also the only one who hasn't pissed himself. I circle him. "Your name's Zeke, right? Weren't you harassing our girl at the Swallow a few weeks ago?" I glance over at Valentin while waving my knife in the guy's face. "This is him, right?"

Valentin nods. "That's him."

"I didn't harass anyone," Zeke snaps with a little too much bark for my liking.

Atlas smacks him on the forehead again. "Are you calling Valentin a liar?"

He shakes his head. "No. Sorry. I didn't know she was your girl."

There's an uneasiness about him. He's one of the newer initiates and has been nothing but obedient. He keeps to himself and follows all the house rules. But there's a nervous energy bubbling below his calm exterior.

"When Val relayed what you did, I let it go because I truly believed you didn't know she belonged to us. But now one of you is running your mouth about our girl. About what they witnessed. But you weren't there, so you're off the hook."

I turn back to address the group as a whole again. "In fact, there were only ten initiates in the altar room that night—the oldest and most trusted. And yet not so trustworthy apparently." I point to the ten new initiates, including Zeke. "You're all dismissed. But if I find out you know something and aren't talking, there will be a fucking reckoning."

They shuffle out, nodding and mumbling promises as they exit the room. I snicker and turn back toward the remaining initiates.

"Which one of you thinks it's okay to talk about our girl's pussy, hmm?" I tap my knife on each of their shoulders as I stalk behind them.

Valentin rears back and slaps a short chubby initiate across the face. "Someone start fucking talking," he screams into his ear.

The betrayal is sickening. It casts a shadow on Nocturnus, unlike anything I've ever seen. The stench is putrid and stains our souls. "Some of you have received the rare privilege of a sigil. The ravens have accepted you as we have. And this is how you repay them?"

Atlas sucks in a sharp breath and slashes his knife across the face of the initiate closest to him. "Fuck this. Let's kill them all and start over. I'm sure there are plenty of eager souls who would gladly take their places."

Valentin nods in agreement and grabs the guy on the end.

"Wait," he begs.

I motion for Val to stand down as I walk toward them. "Do you have something to confess?"

He looks down at the ground, his lips trembling. "I-I wasn't there that night."

"Then why the fuck are you speaking?" Atlas growls.

My stomach knots and a chill snakes up my spine. "But there were ten elder initiates. You are one of them. What do you mean you weren't fucking there?"

I feel like I'm having an out-of-body experience as my worst fucking nightmare comes true.

He swallows hard and keeps his gaze on the ground. "I-I couldn't find my phone anywhere that day. I never got the message about the ritual. Someone must have… replaced me."

Fuck. I knew it.

I exchange a knowing look with Valentin and Atlas before giving them a nod. A collective gasp rings out when the blood splatters on the remaining nine initiates' faces as Valentin slices open the missing initiate's throat.

I glare at all of them. "Find out who did this and bring him to me."

"And clean up this fucking mess," Atlas snarls. He's never been so unhinged before. But our firecracker makes all of us crazy. He's just as obsessed with her as I am.

We leave them there to deal with the body and head back upstairs. Taking a life isn't frivolous, just necessary at times. We give and we take. The ravens demand it. But once we have Maureen's sigil bond… we'll be the ones truly in charge.

"Maureen's not returning any of my texts," I hiss.

"I think I pissed her off earlier. She'll get over it," Valentin replies.

"She better," I snap. "I think we should do the claiming ritual after the Winter Solstice tomorrow night."

"I'll go find her and make sure she's okay." Atlas smooths his pale blond hair back off his dampened forehead. He really did get worked up down there. Fuck, this girl has got us all spinning.

Maybe I don't hate her as much as I hate her family. But I can't let my cock cloud my judgment. There are liars all around me and she could still very well be one of them.

But once she takes the mark of Nocturnus, once we brand her with our sigil… I fucking win and get justice for every Graves man and woman who came before me. I will spread their curse like a fucking disease and make sure that the Blackwell bloodline is forever tainted.