Page 30 of Calling Quarters

“I’m not even sure how we got out of that. I was next to dead.” Rhyse shook his head.

Enzo and Lux silently nodded their agreements.

“Something showed up at my altar that night and fed me power,” I admitted, and three pairs of eyes shot over at me in irritated bewilderment. I avoided their glares and took a seat on the other half of Rhyse’s log.

“Why the fuck didn’t you tell us this before?”

My shoulders lifted in a pathetic, noncommittal shrug. The truth was, I had no idea why I didn’t tell them right away. We’d barely had a chance to talk much since that night, but I could have found a way.

I wasn’t going to expose Storie as the entity and put a bigger target on her back, though. Not until I could figure out the truth about what has been happening between us.

“Never really had a chance. But it was the only reason I was able to get you guys out of there.”

“So, now we’ve got secret entities feeding us power while someone else tries to steal our magic away?” Lux wondered aloud. He followed Enzo’s lead and began pacing, his hand scratching at his overgrown beard.

“We’re fucked,” Rhyse repeated.

This time, no one disagreed.

“We need to make a plan. Starting with playing nice with our fathers.” Lux sent a look at Enzo, who rolled his eyes. “We don’t know their true agenda and we can't trust a word they say. We just need to lay low while we gather any information we can about what happened. If they find out that we're sniffing them out, they'll only act faster.”

“So, we're just supposed to roll over while those assholes take everything out from under us?” Rhyse scoffed. “It's like you said, they're opportunists. They're not smart enough to pull off something like this alone.”

“As of right now, now one is going to take our side against theirs. They're playing politics with the coven and the town, and we've got bigger things to worry about.”

“Yeah, like what is feeding Remy power while the rest of us wither away?” Enzo's feet finally stopped moving in front of me. His tone was harsh; accusatory.

“I think there's more to this than we're being told.”

Storie's face popped back into my mind. I was nearly positive she was my Counter, yet I had no urge to kill her. In fact, I wanted to do the opposite. I'd wanted to grab her up from the sand and carry her back to my bedroom to see how far we could push ourselves past the pain of being near each other and discover what was on the other side of it.

“That's why we need to be smart and not turn on each other,” Lux pushed.

“Then he shouldn't be keeping things from us.” Rhyse flexed his enormous bicep and pointed a finger at me.

“I'm not keeping anything. I just told you what happened and if it weren't for me, you'd be dead.”

“Let's just lay low and keep looking for our Counters. Any information we can find on them will lead us to ending this.” Lux looked to the three of us for agreement.

“How do we know that everything we've been told about our Counters isn't a lie?” I voiced the thoughts that have been swimming around my brain since Storie drove into town, regretting it immediately when they each looked at me like I'd lost my mind.

“Why would you say that? If there's one thing we know as Quarters, it's that our Counters are our biggest threat.” Rhyse held his palm up and a small orange flame burned bright against his skin. After a few seconds, the flame flickered out and his eyes slid over to mine to prove his point. “Ours are the first that haven't been found, and we're the first to have our magic wane.”

“Yeah, but who told us that? Have any of you ever read the words for yourselves in any of our studies? Maybe this is all related.”

Lux shook his head. “That's true. I've only ever heard about it from our fathers and grandfathers, and they've proven that they can't be trusted. This could be their failed attempt at weakening us.”

“Are you seriously entertaining this?” Enzo interjected. He regarded Lux the same way they had all just done to me. Silence lingered between us, and he remained still in front of me while the gears in his brain worked overtime until he shook the thought from his head. “It's not just Quarter knowledge that Counters are our one true weakness. The entire coven knows. That seems like too elaborate of a lie for those assholes to come up with.”

“Maybe, but it's not completely impossible.” Lux's fingers worked through his beard again.

If I were truly loyal to them, I would have spilled everything about Storie right then and there. I would have explained how I felt since we first made eye contact and how I've been working behind their backs to get closer to her and evaluate the threat she posed.

It started off as a noble cause. I wanted to make sure she couldn't hurt any of us, and they hadn't taken me seriously the first time I brought her up. But it morphed into something completely different when she projected into my space and saved us all from being turned to dust. When I felt her skin against mine and it burned hotter than any fire Rhyse could conjure up, somehow leaving me wanting more.

If I told them about her now, they'd hunt and torture her. Just as they've been trained to do with a Counter. But I couldn't allow that. Not yet. So, like a spineless coward, I remained silent and let them think I was just as clueless as they were.

Our meeting ended with us agreeing to stay under the radar for now, just as Lux suggested. We'd be our coven’s punching bags as they got over Mabon being cancelled and allow our fathers to believe we were dutifully obeying them and unaware of their agenda. But each of us was tasked with finding out more.