While I’m in Aria’s head and she’s practically at my mercy, I can’t bring myself to claim her. Not yet anyway. She’s not ready. There’s still a part of her I haven’t been able to reach and I’m pretty sure Thien holds the key to that part of her.
“What are you thinking about?” Qi asks.
“Aria.” I answer.
She pulls away from me with pain in her eyes, but she understands. “What about Aria?”
“There’s still a part of her I can’t reach.”
“I can’t believe she said no to you.” She scoffs. “She’s strong.”
“Which is precisely the problem.” I sigh. “I need her to give me her undivided attention, but I don’t want to sleep with her. Not yet anyway.”
“You’re afraid she’ll kill you once she finds out what you’re up to.” Qi laughs.
“You saw what she did to Thien. I need her on my side and at my mercy, that way once she finds out, even if she wants to, she won’t lift a finger to hurt me.”
“Speaking of fingers, I can smell her all over you.” She traces her fingertips across my abs. “You know, if you really want to get to Aria, eliminating Thien as an option could work.”
“And how would you suggest I do that?” I ask. “Killing him would make Aria hate me. He’s too smart to get someone pregnant again, and he’ll probably use this time to win Aria back now that we’re at odds.”
“Then take her back and finish what you started.”
Qi is right. Thien won’t allow Aria to be single for very long and the moment he gets his hooks in her all my hard work will be undone. A text from Thien interrupts my thoughts. He’s heard from the republic. Qi and I shower, get dressed, and we make our way downstairs to join everyone else.
“Please tell me we get to do something other than go to school or sit around this house.” Willow sighs.
My eyes dart over to Aria who’s already watching me. I curl my lips into a slight smile and nod to her. Hope sparks to life in her eyes and she’s back on the hook again. All I need to do now is reel her in.
“Gavin is after the second weapon.” Thien announces.
How the hell did he get that kind of Intel so fast? The only way they could have that kind of information is if it’s coming from the inside. My brother has a traitor in his midst and I need to find out who it is before they discover what hand I played in all of this.
“How do they even know where the second weapon is?” Aria asks.
“We don’t know, but Marcum has given me his coordinates. He wants me to take a team and intercept.” Thien replies. “The other half will stay and guard Asher who’s on his way over right now.”
“Great.” Everyone groans in unison.
“Look, its just until we can get an alchemist to bind the weapons so they cant be used without the permission of the Magistrate.” He explains.
“Well when do we leave?” I ask.
“In ten…half of you will remain here and the other half will come with me. Harmony, Silt, Sky, Peace, Crux and Tech, you all stay here. Despair and Scythe, you’re in command until I get back.” He instructed his team.
Thien ended the meeting and I gave my team their instructions. I asked Qi to stay behind with some of the others and she stormed out of the room. If I didn’t need her so much she would’ve been dead a long time ago.
Once Asher shows up, we make sure he’s secure and then the rest of us ascend into the sky. I texted Gavin before we left to let him know the Republic was on to him and that he had a traitor in his midst. To flush him out, I instructed him give each one of his trusted men a different objective. Then I waited.
Thien’s phone vibrated and he motioned for us to land on a rooftop so he could answer. It’s Marcum. He’s calling off the mission due to new information. The information regarding the second weapon is a diversion from their real target, The Royal House of Superious. They’re going after the Magistrate and we’re to go home to await further instruction.
Once we make it back to the house I text Gavin to let him know which of the objectives have gotten back to us and instructed him to do nothing until I could get to him. Next I texted Qi and told her to get ready. She’s going to be my alibi for the evening.
“Can we talk?” Aria asks. She motions for me to follow her and I follow her up to her room, closing the door behind us.
“What’s up? I’m kind of in a hurry.”
“If you’re trying to break me, you’re doing a damn good job of it.” She sighs.
“Break you? Skittles, I don’t have time for this. Save this conversation for when I get back and I promise you I’ll give you my full attention.” I assure her. She nods and I hurry out to the front where Qi is waiting.
We take off on my motorcycle and wait until we find a secluded area to create a vortex that takes us straight into Gavin’s hideout. “Thank you for the heads up brother…and for taking care of that other problem too.” Gavin hugs me.
“Where is he?” I ask.
Gavin motions to the glass containment cell suspended from the ceiling and I motion for him to bring it down. Chance Pruitt. He’s been a friend of my family’s since we were kids. I open the container he’s in and he hurls a spark at me. I hold up my hand and stop it seconds from impact, suspending it in air. With a wave of my hand I send it back to him. It hits him in the shoulder, searing his flesh. He cries out in pain and grabs his shoulder.
“Have we not been good to you and your family?” I ask.
“I-I didn’t give them everything.” Chance stammered. “I didn’t give them you.”
“You gave them enough.” I glare at him.
Gavin walks up and whispers something in my ear. I smile and nod to him. He brings Chance’s wife and two young sons into the room. “Don’t hurt them! I’ll do whatever you want, just don’t hurt them!” Chance shouts, panicked.
“I wish you had something I actually want.” I reply.
Chance charges at me and with a wave of my hand I send him flying into the wall. I motion for Gavin to bring me his family. His wife is so hysterical she has to be carried over to me.
“Noah, please! I’ll do whatever you want! Just don’t hurt them!”
“Oh, I’m not going to hurt anyone.” A wicked grin spreads across my face. “You are.”
Chance walks over to me against his will. Gavin hands me a dagger and I place it in Chance’s hand. “Start with your wife, then I want you to move to your oldest son and then your youngest. Once you’ve killed them all I want you to slit your own throat.” I instruct him.
“No! Noah, please!” Chance pleas. His requests fall on deaf ears. I take a step back and watch as Chance hacks his wife and his children to death until their shrill screams no longer fill the air. I make he keeps control of his mind so he knows exactly what he’s doing, but his body obeys my commands. He turns the blade on himself and ends his own life.
“Let this be an example to anyone else who should feel the need to cross me.” I warn them all. “Find the second weapon. Now.”
They all bow and pledge their loyalty to me. I motion to Gavin to follow me into an office, out of sight, and slam him into a wall. “Noah, what the hell?” He’s caught off guard.
“This won’t work if you’re not focused. Get rid of the girls, wipe their minds and focus on finding the weapons. The longer you take, the more time you give the Republic to catch up to us.” I warn him.
“I’m going as fast as I can.” He assures me. “I’m not you. Noah.”
“That’s for damn sure.” I scoff. “Look, do your best Gavin, just do it faster.”
He nods and I hug him. Qi and I head back to the house before anyone gets suspicious and I stop her just short of going into the house. “Is something wrong?” Qi asks.
“I need you to be upset when we walk into the house. I’m going to tell Aria we got into an argument and then I’m going to promise her I won’t see you again.” I explain.
“For how long?” She asks.
“As long as it takes.” I reply. “And I’m not asking you, I’m telling you.”
Reluctantly, she nods and tears form in her eyes. We walk into the house and I’m irritated to find Aria and Thien talking, but I knew it was coming. I just wish he wasn’t so good at diverting her attention back to him. Playing her part, Qi goes upstairs to her room and slams the door, bringing everyone’s attention to me.
“Everything okay?” Sparrow asks.
“Girls.” I shrug. I walk past Aria into the kitchen and her eyes watch me every step of the way. She follows me into the kitchen and watches while I pull out some grapes, rinse them, and start eating them.
“What happened?” She finally speaks.
“You.” I answer, tossing a grape in my mouth.
“What about me?”
“Everything.” I wash over her with my eyes. “Your eyes, your lips, your body…the way you taste…everything.”
“Does that mean you want to fix things between us?” She asks.
“Unless you’re too busy fixing things with Thien. You two looked pretty cozy out there.”
“We were just talking.”
“Are you done?”
“Done what?”
“Talking.”
“Yeah.” She nods. I reach into my pocket and slide a pack of skittles in front of her. She smiles and picks it up off the counter. “Do you have an endless supply of these or something?” She laughs.
“A magician never divulges his secrets.” I tease.
“Magician huh?” Her eyes sparkle as she stares at me. “I guess you’d have to have some kind of magic for me to want you back after what you did.”
“I didn’t do anything wrong. We weren’t together.”
“Because you decided to leave with Qi.”
“You put the ‘out’ on the table Aria. You can’t fault me for taking it.”
“You were supposed to-”
“What? Fight for you?”
“YES.”
“I told you, guys aren’t wired like that.” I scoff.
“Yes but you also said its unless we tell you to.”
“Are you telling me to?”
“Yes.” She nods.
“Duly noted.” I smirk, sliding her some grapes. “I’m sorry for hurting you. I don’t know if you know this, but I can be a dick sometimes.”
“I think I’ve pretty much got that part figured out.” She laughs.
Her smile brightens up her face. For the next couple of hours we reminisce about our younger years together and all the trouble we used to get into. It made what I knew I would eventually have to do to her that much harder to think about.
ns 15.158.61.46da2
