Chosen Thief (32 page)

I glanced at Sin’s hooded, amused eyes then back to her. “I’m fairly sure that’s what I said. I’m pretty tired right now, so I might have forgotten to mention we left airholes in the walls
for those six officers so that when school started in a day or two,” I waved a floppy hand, “or whenever it starts, they would be able to shout and let someone know where they were.”

A beat of silence went by, then King Zeller choked on a grunt, turned, and walked into another room, leaving the foyer completely. He called deeply over his shoulder, “I’m just going to go call Mrs Papas.” More choking
could be heard, sounding more distant the farther he disappeared. “I’ll be back in a moment.”

“I think…” King Collins cleared his throat, his back turned to us. “I think all of you should go to your rooms while we speak of a suitable punishment.”

I snorted. “Or so you can brag about the ingenuity of your Prodigies while you laugh your asses off because none of you is hiding your humor at the
ridiculousness of our wrecked evening very well.” I held up a finger when King Collins tossed a glare over his shoulder. “But I will happily go to my room and await your studious punishment, my King.”

King Collins actually rolled his eyes. “For Christ’s sake, Caro. Just shut up and go to your room.”

“On it,” I murmured, grabbing Sin’s hand and tugging him along, stumbling a bit in my drunk,
tired state. I stopped halfway up the stairs when Leric stood from his relaxed perch, his expression entirely amused as he maneuvered in front of me. He was making me actually arch to stare up at him. “Yes?”

Silver eyes twinkled down at me. “What you did for London was admirable.” His hand lifted, and the back of his warm fingers gently brushed a bit of dust from my cheek. “Even in your current
state it was swift and controlled. Very effortlessly done.”

My lips twitched. “And the six agents we stuffed inside a wall?”

One side of his lips curved, a ruthless grin. “They were threatening you.”

“I didn’t really view it that way.”

“No, you didn’t,” he brushed more dust off my face, “but, either way, it’s the truth.” He lowered his hand, turning to the side to let us pass. “Plus, they
were careless, and the idle sometimes need a reminder to keep them aware of the dangers around them.”

“Very true,” Sin stated quietly, then surprised me by lifting me straight off my feet in a child’s hold. He carted me past Leric, his green eyes on mine. “And you, love, could heed those words.”

After a full week of being barred to our bedrooms, ‘grounded’ as they called it, even though I wasn’t sure how it was even Legal, our Rulers decided on a suitable punishment for the five of us. Apparently the Mage girl was London’s mate, Cia, whom he had hooked up with by chance that night, and all five of us were standing in an exercise room below the castle’s Mage section blinking
in surprise at the Rulers.

I pointed a finger at King Collins. “You’ve got to be joking? You couldn’t think of a suitable punishment so you went with the old ‘just beat it out of them’ theory?” Hell, I hadn’t worked out or trained physically since coming here more than a month ago.

King Collins actually laughed, waving a hand. “Oh, we went through many ideas, which is obvious because of how
long we took. There was the initial concern Leric might retaliate if you were hurt too badly, so that ruined a few of our ideas, but we’ve decided we can’t let him rule how we choose to teach and distribute punishments. You have not chosen the
Temple
, or whatever you keep speaking of, so we finally decided this one seemed the most suitable for the five of you.” He flicked his hand up and down
their line. “And it won’t be us doing the fighting.” He pointed to the sidelines. “It’ll be them.”

I blinked, then I glanced in that direction where the Elders stood in black workout pants. Elder Farrar, Elder Zeller, Elder Jacobs, and Elder Merrick. The latter of the four mutely stared me down like he always did. Just staring with those navy eyes of his. Instead of an unhealthy attraction to
Elder Merrick, I cringed away from his bulging muscles ready to pummel me. “Now I know you’re joking.” My wide gaze went back to King Collins. “Those four have been through two wars! As leaders of the wars!” I drew a line across my throat. “They will murder us.”

King Collins’s eyebrows rose as he placed his hands in his pockets, shrugging a shoulder. “Next time you’ll remember this when you think
to step outside boundaries you know you shouldn’t be crossing, making us cover for actions that would have placed you five in jail.” He lifted a black bag from the floor, whatever was inside clinking a bit. “You’ll be wearing these.”

As he opened the bag, dumping the objects on the floor in front of him, I shook my head instantly, backing far away, just as the others did next to me. I muttered,
“Ah, now fuck that.” I instantly grabbed Sin’s hand and Aria’s next to me, staring wide-eyed at the fucking silver shackles lying on the floor. “We are not doing this.”

“I’m with her,” Aria mumbled, gripping my hand tight. “You all can fuck off.”

“What the hell are you thinking?” London growled quietly, an actual menace in his soft tone. “Have you all gone mad to think we would let you punish
us like this?”

King Collins tilted his head toward the four Elders then jerked his head at us. “Hold them down.”

Oh, no. I was having none of that. I instantly opened my Core, eyes flaring brightly as I whispered through the cosmos, calling for a magic I had felt personally before. It was the quickest way out of this. In tunnel vision I saw the Rulers’ gazes instantly snapping to me even as
the Elders started stalking toward us, but I received an instant answer to my call for help through the ether. A sparkling white tether instantly appeared in front of my second vision in the cosmos. I mentally grabbed it, gripping it hard, as I barked aloud, “London, Cia, fucking grab on to me now!” The Elders stuttered in their stalk, then they were hastening their steps toward us, and I shouted,
“Now, goddamn it!”

Both hesitated for all of a heartbeat as we continued walking backward. Then they both lunged at me and put their hands on me, their trust in me, when Elder Zeller started to blur at us. I let my Core open completely. I glowed bright white and shouted, “Don’t let go!” Then Cia was screaming as I flashed us from the room, from the danger, everyone’s grip on me tightening brutally.
I saw their heads whipping about as we floated in space, staring at the beauty of the stars surrounding us, but I had to focus, carting so many life forces. All of their individual tethers were linked to me. Pulling at my own, I shouted. The agony of its weight sliced through me, draining me and making it fucking hard to concentrate. My Core flared in retaliation as I heaved the sparkling white
tether to my lips, tears streaming from my eyes, and I choked the request, “
Lead me.
”

Abruptly, all five of us were standing in a conference room inside the castle, the walls sparkling gold in a Mage privacy protection spell. That gave me a clue why the white tether had been so damn heavy. Reese stood directly in front of me, and his eyes widened when he saw the load I had brought through. My
Core shut down, the white glowing light gone, and he instantly caught me under my arms when I collapsed, gripping me carefully as everyone’s hands dropped from my body.

There were two stunned spirit Elementals I didn’t recognize sitting on one side of the table, staring at us. Leric immediately stood from his place on the other side, taking one look at my tear-streaked, pained face, and his expression
turned silently lethal. He growled at them, “Leave us!”

They instantly grabbed the binders and papers in front of them, nodding, and dashed from the room, slamming the door closed behind them. Roselle stood and locked the door. Reese lifted me, holding me gently as my body quaked in tremors, my lungs burning as I pulled in air. All the while Leric paced, the others I had brought through with
me quietly moving away from him to stand unobtrusively near the far wall. Leric’s glowing silver eyes shot to me, and he asked brusquely, “Are you all right?”

“Yes,” I murmured, teeth chattering as I gripped Reese’s arms tightly. He was the man whose magic I had called to for help, and received an answer.

Leric shot a finger at the other four, growling at me, “That was too many to pull through
when you haven’t been exercising your damn powers, and you goddamn know that!” He shook his head like a caged tiger, white hair flying about his tanned face. Then his glowing gaze landed on Sin and he demanded, “What the fuck threatened her badly enough to do this?”

Sin’s lips pinched as his green gaze scanned Leric’s face, and a moment later he stated in almost the most serious tone I had ever
heard from him, “I don’t believe it would be beneficial to anyone to tell you that information.” A pause. “I believe what was transpiring could have been a test. No one would have let happen what was supposedly planned. I think Caro may have…” He turned his green eyes to me, “Sorry, love.” He shrugged a shoulder, turning his eyes back to Leric. “I think she may have overreacted. Possibly Aria,
London, and Caro gave them exactly what they were testing for.”

I blinked in confusion, my head resting against Reese’s chest as I stared at Sin. Leric stood perfectly still, his arms crossed. His eyes were still glowing — he was still plainly fucking violent — but he dipped his head down, peering through his white hair at Sin, and asked him slowly, “And what exactly do you believe this possible
test concluded, if you’re unwilling to give me the finer details?”

Sin shrugged a shoulder in the face of malicious wrath and placed his hands in his pockets as if this was an everyday casual conversation. He stated bluntly, “Trust and strength and leadership. I believe the test concluded they’re ready to become the Rulers of their people while working together with trust.” He stared up at the
ceiling a moment, then he shrugged his shoulders again, peering back to Leric. “I’m sure it would have been more ideal to have tested all four Prodigies at the same time, but it wouldn’t have made sense to throw Brann into the mix since there was no reason for him to be punished.”

“What?” I hissed in all-out confusion, lightly pushing away from Reese. I tried to stand on my own, but I ended up
thumping against the conference table, gripping its edges to continue standing. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

Sin sighed, staring at me pointedly. “You’ve had multiple exposures to silver before, something that is not at all comfortable, to say the least. You saw the shackles and freaked out, telling them to go to hell. That made London and Aria react in kind, and
boom
,” his eyes darted
all about the ceiling, “with a little more intimidation, we were floating in the goddamn ether when you three wouldn’t be pushed around.” Green eyes to me, sparkling in wonder. “I wouldn’t mind going back there. That was a fucking trip. I think I saw Saturn.”

“There were too many rings. That wasn’t Saturn,” Cia stated absently, her voice just as soft as London’s. She stood inside his embrace
while an expression of fear and astonishment graced her features.

I rubbed my eyes, wiping away any remaining tears there. I was starting to understand, and what I understood made me feel incredibly furious, a nice little fire actually warming my insides. Moreover, I was beginning to feel incredibly stupid at not having seen the truth so plainly, shame stealing the air I had only just gotten
back. “Fuck,” I muttered, almost wanting to cry again but this time in embarrassment rather than pain. I rubbed my forehead. I had even said it had to be a joke. The Rulers were known for their viciousness, but only where it was truly deserved. And a silver-shackled beating by four of the most sadistic Elders was not deserved for what we had done. Head bent, hands over my face, I muttered under my
breath, “And now I feel like a goddamn fool.”

“You’re not the only one,” Aria mumbled quietly, having heard me.

“Sit down,” Leric stated gruffly, his warm palms landing on my tight shoulders. When I didn’t respond a moment later, they guided me to a chair. Elbows on the cool conference table, I kept my hands over my face, trying to get control of myself so I didn’t utterly disgrace myself by
shedding more tears. The adrenaline was done rushing through my system and now making my body tremble the barest bit, even as my insides clenched in mortification. I heard Leric snapping his fingers, ordering tersely, “Roselle, get her a cup of coffee.”

“I’ll get it,” London murmured quietly. “I could use one, too.”

“I should probably call King Collins and let him know where you five are,” Leric
rumbled, still sounding ticked off as his warm palms landed on my shoulders again. He squeezed once before releasing me, which was much appreciated because I didn’t want anyone touching me right now, and I sure as fuck didn’t want anyone’s sympathy as I regained my poise.

Sipping my gifted coffee that London had made extra sweet, barely under the control of my dignity, I peered silently across
the table at the Rulers where they sat, the Elders standing behind them. They had arrived fifteen minutes after Leric had called them. No one was really stating a word, even though the room was full. The table was completely occupied, with Sin sitting on one side of me and Aria on the other, London next to her, then Cia. Leric was also sitting on a chair but away from the table, Roselle and Reese
standing on either side of him. And, as I knew they would be, all of the Rulers and Elders were staring at me, having seen a glimpse of what I was capable of.

Finally the silence was broken when Leric cleared his throat, purring bluntly, “You all can stop staring at her like that. She can’t speak of it, but I can tell you what she did, although she was foolish because she hasn’t been exercising
her power, and this is nothing compared to what she can do. So you should throw this shock from your system as fast as possible, not only because it is incredibly offensive to stare at someone as you are, but also because I’m sure she will surprise you a hundred times over in the future.” He tapped his diamond ring on the arm of the chair, still appearing extremely peeved but no longer furious.
“Are you manipulative asses understanding what I’m saying? You’re still staring.”