King Hall (Forever Evermore 1)

“We wait,” King Nelson said instantly. “I hate it, but we wait.”

“Bloody hell!” Pearl shouted. “We kill his ra**st ass. Right now!”

“I could have his throat ripped out in less than a half-hour,” Ezra murmured in a whimsical, quiet manner, gazing at the window and even taking a step toward it, but King Venclaire slammed a hand down on Ezra’s shoulder, stopping him.

Holding his Prodigy’s gaze, his grip tight on his shoulder, King Venclaire growled, “King Nelson is correct. We wait.”

“What the hell are you guys talking about?” Jack hollered, his feet pounding the floor as he marched toward the door. “He f**king hurt her!”

King Fergus sidestepped in front of the door, placing his back against it, effectively blocking Jack’s path. “We can’t hurt him tonight. Who knows who saw him enter that house? I wouldn’t worry about the students, but surely a neighbor was watching the party unfold.” With obvious forced calm, he murmured, “Patience, Jack. I’m not saying we won’t get revenge, because we will, but we wait.”

“What if he goes to the Com police?” Pearl ground out. “What if he tells them Lily attacked him?”

“He won’t do that,” King Kincaid replied, pacing the room, a growl repeatedly erupting from him. “That little f**ker was there for only one reason. He won’t press charges because he’ll want another shot at her, and he won’t get it if she’s in jail.” He paused in the middle of the room and nodded. “We wait.”

All of my friends stood motionless, fuming, while my body started shaking as the adrenaline finally began wearing off, with my thoughts confused about what to do.

Antonio rubbed my arms, his gaze flicking between my friends and I, and said quietly, “You four have grown up so much this year, so I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, but you still have a lot of growing up to do. The Kings are correct. If a Com congressman is killed, or disappears, the same night he’s seen leaving a Mys party it will only wreak havoc on our community.”

He smiled. It wasn’t a nice one. “You need to learn that sometimes revenge is best served cold.” He kissed my temple, and stood, telling the Kings, “I’ll watch the Congressman. Let me know when you need information.” They nodded, and he left the room.

To be exact, he left us with four angry Kings with no other outlet but us, and we had definitely caused trouble tonight, again, disobeying their rules. It was safe to assume that babysitting was in our near future. Possibly, our entire future, by the looks on their faces.

The four of us yawned, dragging our feet as we exited through the back entrance of the school, done emptying our lockers and now heading down the hill for our first session with the Kings in Awakening training. The party had been Friday night. It was now Monday morning.

King Kincaid had been correct. Philip Masterson had not pressed charges. In fact, I had received a bouquet of flowers on Sunday, sent anonymously, during one of our punishments of cleaning the Kings’ houses. They had been roses. Black roses with a single red one in the middle. That was Philip’s way of saying he still cared.

We were exhausted because not only were we ordered to clean the huge mansions all by ourselves, but we had also had, yes, babysitting duty on Saturday and Sunday night. I was actually a smidge thrilled I wasn’t mated because Gideon and Nikki weren’t exactly pleased with the situation, their mates gone all night and day. Poor Jack and Pearl had to deal with that, too.

None of us spoke, moving like the dead as we headed outside. That was where the majority of our class time with the Kings would be held during this preparation. Apparently, there was the slight possibility we might blow something up in the beginning, so it was a precaution to take our training outside of King Hall. The sunlight hit us as we exited the building, and we flinched at the brightness, holding our hands up to shade our eyes as we moved past the track to the wooded area.

The four Kings were talking quietly amongst themselves just past the tree line in the shade. Oddly, they were dressed in t-shirts, jeans, and boots, looking amused as we trudged toward them. They had told us they had something “special” planned for Philip Masterson when they deemed it the right time, so their minds were off that issue and back to enjoying our state of fatigue.

“Set your things over there,” King Nelson pointed to the side.

We stood in place and, as one, let our laden book bags, heavy with our lockers’ remains, slide off our shoulders, and we chucked them where he had indicated, glaring.

“Perfect,” he said cheerfully, ignoring our attempt to irritate him. “We’re going to begin simple.” He paused, smiling. That didn’t bode well. The man rarely smiled. “Today, you’re going to learn to touch one another while exuding your power.”

I blinked. Well, that didn’t sound so bad, and it was ironic they were ordering us to touch one another. Especially him. The stodgiest of the four.

My shoulders slumped in relief. I glanced at Jack with a small smile. He wore the same look of reprieve. All of us were nervous. Because of me.

First, we had no clue if I could even funnel my power into them as Shifter. Second, when we got to vesseling, we had no clue, other than what an old journal said, if I could do that either. And third, our “final” for this class at the end of the month, was to transform each of one Mys group — only a smidge earlier than the real Awakenings — to make sure we had the kinks worked out before doing it en masse, and again, we had no clue if I could do that.

So yeah, we were nervous.

King Venclaire clapped his hands. “All right, listen up. Each one of you is going to put only a small portion of your power in your hands. Only a bit, that’s very important. You will stand in a circle and, one at a time, you will grab the other’s hand until you are eventually all linked in a connected circle.” He paused. “Think you guys can handle that?”

We glared. Um, yeah.

King Kincaid rubbed his jaw. “Let’s keep them out there.”

The other Kings peered around their environment, and nodded.

King Venclaire herded us back out into the blinding sun, and then he strolled back to the shade, where he and the other Kings leaned against tree trunks.

“Does it matter who we stand next to?” Pearl questioned loudly.

“No, the order doesn’t matter,” King Fergus shouted so we could hear him. “Just one at a time with the smallest dose of your power.”