Lead Heart (Seraph Black Book 3) (9 page)

“Who?” Cabe asked quietly. “Silas? You… you saw him? You…” He frowned, walking to the base of the painting I had just done on the ground.

It wasn’t exact—a result of all the spilt paint and my less-than-refined technique of spreading the paint around with my hands—but the hang of the head, the strong line of the shoulders, the muscles bunched up in pain… it was all unmistakably Silas. Cabe’s mouth dropped open and recognition sparked in his golden eyes, lighting up something that rebelled against belief, flocked toward hope, and shrank from reality all at once. I knew the look; it was one I wore often. He turned back to the walls that he and Noah had been in the process of covering and his eyes grew even wider, the dread inside him seeming to win against his other emotions. Noah didn’t move closer, but I could tell that he wasn’t far behind Cabe in his understanding of the situation. His pale eyes moved slowly from my still-shaking legs to the red box on the ground and to the wounds on the walls before settling on my paint-splattered hands.

“You’re bonded to them,” he spoke faintly, but his jaw was set. He didn’t need convincing. He knew.

I turned toward Quillan and found him staring at me, instead of Noah. This seemed to be the real reason that he had brought Cabe and Noah in. He wanted them to start seeing things and realising things for themselves. We had both underestimated their inability to go against the false beliefs that had been planted inside their heads, so the only way to get them to discern the truth was by playing on their emotions and allowing them to naturally come around to the conclusions we needed them to. Unfortunately, I wasn’t convinced that
this
conclusion would help us, because it had the potential to put an even bigger barrier between them and me. If they knew that I was bonded to their brothers, they would try even harder to stay away from me out of respect for their family.

“How did we not see this earlier?” Cabe asked. “How did we not even consider this as a possibility?”

His expression had turned completely inscrutable. That wasn’t a good sign. Cabe was absurdly good at hiding his emotions—so good, in fact, that he never appeared to hide anything at all. His true feelings were always carefully tucked behind whatever emotion he
wanted
to display, so when there was no emotion on his face whatsoever, it hinted at the immensity of what he was hiding.

“Only you can answer that,” Quillan replied, casting me one last look before walking out of the room.
Again
.

I watched him, flabbergasted, as he disappeared. Not wanting to be left alone with Noah and Cabe while Quillan’s words still hung heavily in the room, I quickly hastened to the doorway.

Almost there… almost…

“Where do you think you’re going?” Noah asked, side-stepping until he was blocking my path.

Cabe seemed hesitant to join his brother, which was a first, but he eventually stood beside the other, notching their shoulders together as though I might actually attempt to squeeze between them.

“I’m late,” I said, my eyes cast downward. “I need to… to… damn, I’m covered in paint.”

“Tariq said I should carry this around.” Cabe extracted a cloth bundle from his bag and handed it to me. “So that’s
one
mystery solved.”

“It sucks, not knowing everything, doesn’t it?” I pulled on the drawstring of the cloth bag, peeking at the change of clothes inside. “Thanks.”

The change of clothes was actually a precaution that we had started taking after one of Amber’s pranks the year before, but I didn’t bother correcting him.

“You’re welcome. How long have you been bonded to Miro and Silas?”

You should know, you were there.
“A while.”

“Why wouldn’t they tell us?” Cabe was clearly troubled. He didn’t like the idea that he and Noah had potentially handed their brothers’ Atmá over to the very people they should have been protecting her from. “Seriously, why didn’t we figure it out earlier? And what about your boyfriend? Why does the Klovoda think that you’re bonded to someone else?”

“Only you can answer that.” I borrowed Quillan’s line, seeing the sense in his reply.

“Prove it,” Noah retorted harshly, the light blue of his eyes growing cloudy with temper. He wanted me to show him the mark that I shared with Quillan and Silas, but I couldn’t do that without revealing the second
mark.

“When you’re ready. You’re not ready to see it yet.” And there was a good chance that they wouldn’t be the only ones to see, since wherever I was, there was bound to be a camera not far away, waiting to capture something suspicious. Not that the messenger hadn’t already seen my second mark. He had been aware of it ever since the car accident. I could still hear his ghostly words as I woke up on a steel table in one of Dominic’s properties, completely naked.

“
We’re cut from the same cloth, Lela, don’t forget that… and now… now I know your secret…
”

Fighting free of the memory, I set my teeth together, my next words sounding forced and angry. “Get out of my way, please.”

“No can do.” Noah folded his arms, his body relaxing into something chillingly close to nonchalance. “We can’t let you leave this room looking like that. Jayden’s men are in the hallway outside the lecture hall, they’ll want to know what the hell we did to you.”

“Shut the door at least. I’m not changing in front of you.”

“You have no choice.” Cabe was now acting as oddly unaffected as his brother. They were going to try to see my mark whether I willingly showed them or not. “We don’t trust you, so we’re not taking our eyes off you. None of this makes sense, and until it does, we’re not going anywhere.”

“Fine,” I spat, moving away from them. “Whatever.”

I knelt next to a bucket of water that had clearly been intended as a wash bucket for all of the painting implements, and began to splash water over my arms and face, washing away as much of the paint as I could manage. I turned my back on them and pulled my shirt over my head, turning it inside out to use it to dry myself. I could feel their eyes on me, equal parts curious and uncomfortable. They seemed hesitant to surround me, which allowed me the freedom to quickly pull a fresh shirt over my head before Noah walked around to stand in front of me. I scowled at him. He almost looked apologetic for a second, before folding his arms and resuming his staring. I quickly pulled off my jeans and almost laughed outright when Noah averted his eyes. They were stuck between respect and distrust, and it seemed that respect was winning. I pulled on the full-length tights and flicked a look over my shoulder, surprised that Cabe’s eyes had been trailing down my legs. He blinked back at me, and then seemed to grow angry. His eyes narrowed, his arms clinching tighter across his chest.

“I’m done here.” The short statement sounded more like a reprimand. He turned to leave the room. “You’re on Seraph duty for the rest of the day, Noah.”

I glanced back to Noah as I pulled on my sneakers. “What’s his problem?”

“You, usually. Are you ready?”

“Yes.” I avoided looking around the room as I walked out and dug my phone out of my bag, checking the time.

There were several missed calls from Poison and Clarin, and it seemed that I had been locked up for half the day. I swore quietly, because I was still in possession of their timetables. I texted them to let them know where to meet me and then ran the rest of the way up the stairs, hoisting my bag over my shoulder as I passed. Noah followed after I explained to him where I needed to go. He impersonated a silent shadow as I ran to the café bordering the college’s sporting complex. It was raised up behind the main college buildings, looking down over a hockey field on one side and a football field on the other. The indoor complex was behind the café, and I felt the pull to disappear into the world of sweat and strain. I wished that I had a regular sporting activity like football or hockey. Gymnastics had been interesting, but it hadn’t held my interest past the initial need to learn about it. Maybe I would try running, or swimming. Either way, my body was in desperate need of physical exertion.
Soon
, I promised myself as I slumped down behind one of the outdoor tables, turning my eyes toward the football field. Noah sat beside me, his body-language uncomfortable, his shoulders turned slightly away from me.

I watched the people on the field running through training drills, barely paying attention until one of them in particular caught my eye.
Since when did Danny play football
? I frowned as I watched, observing how well he seemed to get along with the other guys, even though he was a freshmen.

“Since when did Callaghan play football?” Noah muttered, forgetting that he was angry with me as he leaned over the table to squint at Danny.

I shrugged. “I haven’t spoken to him in a while, I wouldn’t know.”

“Because you bonded to my brothers?” Noah didn’t draw back, but turned his eyes from Danny to me, giving me the full weight of his skepticism.

“No.” I shook my head. “Because I was busy being locked up and starved by Dominic Kingsling, and then kidnapped by Weston, Kingsling and my dead father—who isn’t dead or my father.”

“So you were still dating Danny even when you were bonded to my brothers?” Noah pressed, completely ignoring the point of everything I had just uttered.

“Yes.” I sighed. “But they weren’t dates. Well, the first one maybe, but not the second one.”

“And Silas didn’t kill him…” It wasn’t a question, because we could both see Danny with our own eyes. Happy, healthy, and very much alive.

“No,” I confirmed.

“Right,” Noah drawled out the word sarcastically.

“Why didn’t you tell Amber the truth about Kingsling?” I asked, hoping to change the subject.

“I wasn’t there, was I.” He folded his arms, leaning back in his chair to regard me.

“You don’t trust Miro? I’m sure he told you what happened.”

“He might be protecting you.”

“Shut the hell up, cousin,” Poison appeared behind Noah, her book bag knocking into the back of his head as she passed him.

Noah didn’t seem perturbed, but he did reach out as she passed, grabbing the back of her bag and yanking,
hard
. It slipped off her shoulder and her books tumbled out, some of them hitting the table, some falling to the ground. Poison only grumbled in retaliation, which was a testament to how strong Noah truly was. Even Poison didn’t want to pick a fight with him.

Me, on the other hand
…

“What the hell was that for?” I snapped, standing to help Poison with her books. She waved me off and I turned on Noah instead, shoving against his chest so hard that his chair ground against the floor in an attempt to slide backwards.

He smirked and then stood, grabbing a hold of my wrist. “Hand over their timetables,” he said, shaking my wrist a little to stop me from trying to wriggle it out of his grip. “Now. We have somewhere to be.”

“I don’t have anywhere to be with you.” I tried to ignore the way my body leaned toward his, the tight grip of his fingers sending a pleasant shiver down my arm.

I knew that feeling
.

The strain was back.

Perhaps it was because I had used one of my abilities for the first time in months. I had possibly even
overused
it.

“Yes you do.” He pulled again, causing me to stumble sideways. He turned a little, pulling my arm behind his back and catching me against his torso. He leaned down, his voice sounding in my ear. “Give her the timetables. You really don’t want to pick a fight with me right now. Keep in mind that you’re remaining with us
because
of me, Seraph. Cabe wanted it, so I’m allowing it. That doesn’t mean that I won’t change my mind and drag you straight to the Klovoda if you push me too far, because I will.”

I nodded slightly, despite how badly I wanted to hit him again. I wasn’t going to call his bluff. Not when he was in the mood he seemed to be in. I quickly handed over the timetables to Poison, who was keeping herself uncharacteristically quiet. It seemed to be a theme of hers and Clarin’s: they didn’t hesitate to make it their business whenever anyone else tried to mess with me, but they refused to interfere whenever one of my pairs was involved. Perhaps it was an unspoken Zevghéri rule.

Noah dragged me away, pulling his phone out of his pocket and sending off a text. I assumed that he had messaged Cabe and that I was about to be cornered by the both of them, but I was surprised when we ended up in a full lecture hall. Cabe was leaning up against the back wall, out of sight of all the students, who were facing the front as they listened to…

Quillan
?

Quillan’s steady speech halted, his eyes tracking us as Noah dragged me over to Cabe, before he quickly gathered himself and continued speaking. Noah walked me down to the back row of seats, sitting down and pulling me into the chair beside him.

Cabe followed, sinking into the chair on my other side. “Are we putting this to the test?” he whispered.

Noah grunted quietly. “You read my mind.” And then his hand was on my knee.

I glared at it until Cabe put his hand on my other knee, and then I understood. At the front of the room, Quillan was still trying to ignore us.

“Can you two please stop molesting me?” I asked calmly.

“Do you feel molested?” Cabe replied, his eyebrows arching up in question.

I wanted to say
yes
, but his hand had inched up higher, his long fingers brushing lightly against the material covering my legs. I swallowed instead, forcing down the rush of feeling that the strain had whipped up inside my chest. It felt like his skin was on fire, and the fire should have been singeing through the material to burn my skin. There was the barest tremor in Cabe’s grip, but Noah’s hand was heavy and firm.

“Why are you trying to get a reaction out of him?” I asked instead, hating that my voice sounded so raw.

“He says you’re his Atmá.” Noah leaned in, switching his hands so that his free arm could snake across the back of my chair. His other hand gripped my knee tighter and pulled slightly until my right leg was turned out, pressing into his. “We don’t believe him. You won’t show us your mark, so we’re going to force a reaction out of one of you.” His bright eyes glimmered for a moment, travelling over my face. “Either him… or you… do you know the kind of pain it causes a pair to see someone touching what belongs to them?”