“Fuck you.” Nora stood up quickly. “I bat for both teams and you’re right, none of us owe each other an explanation, but if you fuck things up with Mae, I’ll gladly take over.”
Logan’s jaw was working as he glared after her. He looked at the other two at our table. “Anyone else want to try to stake claims on my girlfriend? Maybe I’ll call up Adam and ask him if I can borrow a couple of their gravesites.”
Girlfriend? My hands shook as I grabbed my plate and cup and stood from the table, excusing myself quietly. I tossed the stuff in the trash and walked out of the dining hall. I found Nora a couple of feet away, typing furiously on her phone. When she heard me approach, she put it away and looked up at me. Her brown eyes were shining.
“I’m sorry,” I said quietly.
“If you start apologizing for him now, you’ll be doing it the rest of your life,” she said. “He’s an asshole. I love him to death, but he’s an asshole.”
“He is.”
“He’s never been mean to me before. He always defends me to everyone.” She smiled a little. “He must really be crazy about you.”
I shrugged. I knew how I felt about him and it scared the hell out of me. I didn’t want to jump to conclusions on his end. Not this quickly. I looked at the painting across from us and took a step back. It was my father, wearing a tuxedo, standing behind a woman sitting in a chair. I walked over. It was Ella Valentine. Clear as day.
“I hadn’t seen this before,” I whispered. “Is this . . . are they part of the board? Is that why they’re in the painting together?”
“How much do you know about your father?”
“Not nearly enough apparently.” I turned to face Nora, heart pounding. “How much do you know about him?”
She hesitated. “Come, I’ll show you around.”
“Logan already did. I’m pretty sure I’ve walked this entire thing twice now.” I looked back at the painting.
“Yet this is your first time seeing this painting,” she said.
“Yeah.” I looked at her again.
“Let me give you a tour of the paintings then. I don’t blame Logan for not wanting you to focus on those just yet, but it’s your family. You should know these things. Trust me, I learned about all of it the hard way,” she said. “My mother’s part of The Eight. Well, The Lab Initiative now. You’ll see her on these walls as well.”
“Hey, are you ready to go?” The voice was Logan’s as he walked out of the hall. He walked over to us, his gaze on mine first, and then on Nora’s. “I was an asshole in there.”
“That’s the closest I’ve ever gotten to an apology from you, so I’ll take it.” She smiled. “I want to show Mae the paintings.”
“No.” There was a finality in his voice.
“I want to see them.” I frowned at him. “What does it matter if I see them today or five weeks from now?”
“You’re already fragile, Amelia.” He stepped forward, bringing a hand to my face. “Come home with me. I have to be at the rink in an hour.”
“I want to stay.”
“I don’t want you to see them without me being here.”
“I can handle it,” I assured him. “Nora will be with me.”
“But I won’t be.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“I won’t be.”
The concern in his eyes as he looked at me made me smile. I brought my hand to his face, scratching his beard, which he’d let fill out but kept meticulously manicured nonetheless. Suddenly the girlfriend comment felt right. When we were together like this, I couldn’t really imagine being anything except for his. It didn’t mean there wasn’t a long conversation to be had about all of it though.
“I’ll call you when I’m on my way home.”
“I’ll take her,” Nora said behind me. “She’ll be in good hands, and don’t worry, I don’t mean it in a sexual way.”
Logan chuckled. He leaned in and kissed me once, twice, three times, before he finally pulled away and let go. He idled for another minute looking at me with everything he wanted to say but couldn’t and I knew because I felt the same, my chest heavy with an emotion I’d never felt this potently.
“By the way, we’re camping here tonight,” Nora said as Logan finally started to walk away.
He turned. “Where?”
“Edge of the woods.”
“Isn’t it hunting season?”
“They won’t come near our tents,” Logan said, shooting me one last look that spoke of longing before walking out.
“Hunting season?” I asked.
“It’s what we call recruitment. The Swords are still recruiting.”
“How do you know so much about them?” I asked as we started walking.
“Hm. I’ll have to draw it up for you. It’s the only way I was able to understand it.” She looked at me. “It’s like a huge brotherhood, split up into a lot of parts. We didn’t used to know much about the other ones before they went public. The Swords share our land though because in an interesting turn of events, when The Eight acquired this house back in the day, the woman’s husband bought the lot next to it,” she looked at me. “The octopus scientist married while she was in college and her husband was a Sword. Instead of hiding it from each other, they were up front about it and he bought the lot beside ours, which used to be a rundown church. He acquired it from some monks. Monks still live there, by the way. They don’t dress in red cloaks though.” She flashed me a smile. “Also, my twin brother, Will, is a Sword. That’s probably the explanation I should’ve given from the beginning. We tell each other mostly everything, so I know a lot.”
“That does explain a lot,” I said. “I used to think Linc and I told each other everything but he didn’t tell me about The Eight.”
“Don’t take it to heart. It’s difficult to explain this to someone who’s not in it. My only wish is that you’d gotten here freshman year so I didn’t have to do this crash course.”
“Yeah.”
She stopped at the foot of the stairs right in front of the main door and took out a key ring. She had three skeleton keys on it and they were all labeled. She started up the stairs that led to that one gold room. I hesitated.
“I thought we weren’t allowed in there?”
“Only the board members and key master have the key.” She dangled the three keys. “Lucky for us, I’m one of those.”
“What about the other building? The first one I went to when I was summoned?”
“The Sphynx.” She grinned. “We acquired it a couple of years ago. It belonged to The Sphynx society originally, but they’ve tapered off. There are talks of some kids wanting to bring it back, but I’m not sure there’s any truth to those rumors.”
“When do you use it?”
“Only to summon. We don’t want to bring people here unless we know for sure they’re going to be initiated.”
I followed her to the top of the stairs, she paused by the door and turned to face me. “For the record, you’re not allowed up here, so pretend you never saw any of this.”