Page 11 of Created in Chaos
I lift my brows. “Is Nova’s name on the summons?” I pluck the heavy package out of his fingers.
“Nope.” He pops the P. “Why do you think they are excluding her?”
“I don’t know. You’d think they would have brought her into the fold from the get-go.” I break the seal, and small chunks of wax fall into my lap.
The weighty paper unfolds with a scratching sound, revealing flowing cursive penmanship scrawled across the page.
Morningstar,
Your presence is required this Saturday at 12am.
Refusal will mean forfeiting your founder’s duty and is punishable by the creed.
Rory Umbra
“They certainly mean business.” I toss the letter into Lucian’s lap, unimpressed with their summons. I’ve never cared about the Cadieux Creed the way my brother has, but they are doing a damn fine job of dragging me into the politics of it all and making me want to wipe the rest of the families from the island just like Lucian planned.
He snorts in amusement, then crumples the thick paper up in his fist.
“Are we going?” I question.
“Oh, we’ll be there,” he replies.
“What about Nova?”
Lucian strokes his hand over his jaw, thinking. “We should take her with us,” he says.
“What if they try to take her from us?”
“By force? It wouldn’t happen.” He’s so sure of himself, he answers almost before I’m done speaking.
“What if she chooses to go with them?”
“We’ll have to make sure she won’t.” Our eyes lock, and the thing that passes between us is dark. Both of us are willing to do whatever it takes to keep Nova Devlin, and that should be alarming, but it’s not.
NOVA
The days blur into a lazy haze of food, television, and flirting…not necessarily in that order. I’ve almost gotten used to the casual touches, but it’s kind of hard not to when you’re surrounded by two of the most tactile people I’ve ever met, and that’s not just with me. It’s like the brothers are in perfect sync with each other, moving in harmony and finishing each other’s tasks. Calling them close would be an understatement of epic proportions. It makes me wonder if Lucian’s thorny edges would have been a little less lethal if Nox had been with him the first time we met.
I don’t know how many times I’ve gotten caught staring at both of them, my mind going a hundred miles an hour as I try to reconcile how I could want to be here at all, let alone indulge in their banter.
Lucian is still bossy and crass, but seeing him interact with Nox in a similar fashion has proven it’s not always coming from a bad place. Nox, however, is charming and thoughtful, the kind of guy who’s dangerous to a girl’s heart because you know how easy it would be to fall for him just before you catch a glimpse of something lurking underneath all that charisma that makes you think twice, only to realize you’ve already fallen. At least that’s how it is in movies and books anyway.
Sometimes, when his guard is completely down, I think I might see a glimmer of Nox’s secrets behind his sweet veneer. It’s like a void, an emptiness that flattens his gaze with apathy, but then he snaps out of it just as quickly, and I’m left wondering if I just imagined it altogether.
The one constant, however, is Lucian. He’s still a jackass, albeit a little less of a hostile jackass, but I’m not sure how I would handle him any other way. Our battle of wills over the last few days has given me a strange sense of normalcy, which I’m craving, since it feels like everything in my life is in shambles.
I’m waiting for him to return now so I can press him to finally tell me everything he knows about what happened that day in the bathroom. I’m tired of being in the dark, being sheltered from my own life, and if he doesn’t confess today, I’ll probably lose what’s left of my sanity.
The repeated calls and texts from Astrid are only serving to confuse me more. She acts like she cares about me, but I’m having a hard time believing her, especially when I know she’s keeping so many secrets from me.
Nox told me about the meeting this evening. It all seems so ridiculous and overdone, like some made for television movie I’d catch on Lifetime about secret societies and people with too much time on their hands.
I can’t ignore the chill I felt when he showed me the robes they are expected to wear, and if I accompany them as they’ve asked—or demanded, really, in Lucian’s case—I’ll have to wear one too. The heavy black fabric gave me a flash of a memory, but I don’t know if it’s real or if my dreams are morphing my perception of reality. I do know that the fear that threatened to swallow me when I saw the cloak was very real. I made Nox take them out of the room as soon as Lucian went to the bathroom, and it wasn’t until then that I felt like I could breathe. I don’t know how I’m going to put that thing on without suffocating, or how I’ll be able to look at everyone else wearing them, but I’m going to force myself, because I’m tired of not knowing what the heck is going on around me.
A door slams somewhere in the house, and I jolt. My ribs ache, causing me to hold my breath for a long second. I listen for the pat-pat sound of Gertrude’s boots on the wooden floor, but it’s the heavier footfalls of Lucian approaching, so I pretend to relax into the couch. My eyes are already glued to the doorway, waiting like an eager puppy, before he breaches the entryway.
“Hello, lamb.” His deep, rich voice coils around the words in a familiar yet honeyed greeting.