Page 14 of Marked

“History, huh? Do you guys know each other?” Thurel asks, making me drag my gaze back to him. I don’t know if it’s in the way he asks the question, or the true meaning he’s seeking, but it makes me take a step back, startled, unsure if I can trust these guys.

“That’s none of your business.” My fist clenches around the knife. Robin catches the movement and curls his lips into a snarl.

“I know you,” he says, the words surprising me as he glares at me from a closer distance. They shouldn’t. After all, we’re all students. But running around in cloaks and masks makes reality turn a darker shade, that’s for sure. “You’re in third year, right? Romain.” I shrug, but Robin nods his head. “Yeah, that’s you. You’re that guy who had his friend carved up by—holy shit.” He spins his head to his friend, surprise written all over his face. “That was him. Oh yeah, you know each other. I mean, Edouard is bad news, but the way he got after that guy? I’d never seen that before, man.”

The memory makes me shiver. I remember that moment like it was yesterday. The shock when I found Pierre in his room. I know that I shouldn’t have worried so much after what he tried to do to me, but when he failed to attend class for two days, I did. Looking back, it was my unattended presence, including forcing open his door when he didn’t reply to me calling for him, that had ultimately saved his life. Motionless, that’s how I’d found him on his bed. Deep slashes on his exposed chest showed the brutality of the attack. His shirt, rippled to shreds, had turned rosy-pink from where it had soaked into the blood.

And I…I had just stood there, frozen. Nurses had performed first-aid and I’d just stood there. They’d tended his wounds and bandaged his carved-open skin, and I’d just stood there. Later, they had taken him away and sent him to hospital, and I’d just stood there. Thinking of the shape of his carved skin on his torn shirt and exposed skin.

The symbol of a star was Edouard’s signature. He used to love when I talked about them. The solar system has always fascinated me, and he could listen to me for hours. Yes, looking back, I should have realized he had come at Saint-Laurent for me. But I…I believed that if I ignored his presence and casual seat at the center of the table in the canteen, the proof that he’d become part of the elite of the elite, he wasn’t really here.

How utterly stupid of me.

“This here is the biggest grump you’ll meet,” Thurel laughs, clasping Robin’s shoulder with his hand. “Come on. So it’s Romain, right? Let’s find an easy way out of this maze. We have another hour to go.”

My muscles tighten and I halt my tracks. “Why would I come with you?” I ask, eyes darting between both guys. “If you aren’t participants, and you’re not out here to eliminate me either, then who the fuck are you?”

“We are your brothers,” Thurel says.

I snort at that. “My brothers? I don’t have any brothers, I’m an only child.” Biting my tongue with that piece of over-shared information, I snarl when Thurel gives me a genuine pitiful look. Then he visibly pipes up.

“Well, soon you won’t be anymore. Tonight’s your night and the brotherhood of the Alpha Fraternarii is eager to meet you.”

“The brotherhood of the…come again?”

“Your Initiation,” Robin clarifies, smirking. “I hope you like fucking.”

“Robin!” Thurel calls out. But those words are enough to make my chest clench, and the pit of my stomach fills with dread. I huff out a muffled snort. “You’ve got to be kidding me. I knew he’d be back just to torment my life even further.”

He tries to disgrace you. Like he always has. In front of Maman. In front of Father Benoît.

I know that. I fucking know that. Then why does it hurt all the same?

The tip of my knife splits open the delicate skin of my palm and I wince at the sensation. It sharpens my senses, makes me see all those things clearer I won’t allow myself to admit.

Robin grunts. “He didn’t tell you what’s going to happen next? What the hell were you guys talking about out there for over half an hour?”

I frown. “Were you watching me?”

“Well, it was hard not to watch when he had his hand in your pants and made you come.” He grins. “You guys look hot.”

“Robin…” Thurel warns, but Robin just shrugs and brushes a hand through his light, longish hair.

“Whatever, it’s just the truth, is all. Right, Romain?”

“Yeah, well—” I’m not sure what I was actually going to say, but a huge, dark shape appearing from the shadows nearly makes me jump out of my skin. “What the hell?” My eyes widen with terror, and then I’m standing face to face with an enormous, dark horse.

“So you are Romain?” A cloaked guy with black hair and a similar black mask exclaims. He eyes the knife, still clutched in my palm like a lifeline, then drags his gaze up to meet mine, giving me a wolfish grin. “Ohh, you’re going to dish out the same thing as he does? This is going to be fun.” The horse snorts, scraping its foot impatiently into the gravelly sand.

Somewhere in the background, someone cries out, the guttural sound vanishing into the warm forest air as soon as it appeared in the first place. Robin stares at Thurel, who visibly shivers, then smiles apologetically. “Sorry,” Thurel mumbles, “I still can’t get used to it. Who was that?”

“Silver Mask,” the rider says, staring into his phone. “Two participants are eliminated.” He looks back at the guys. “I think it’s time we make a move inside, don’t you think?”

“What the—” I start, but they continue their conversation as if I’m not there.

“Where’s Olivier?” Thurel asks.

“Who’s—”

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