Page 7 of The Order: Rise of the New Empire

Rolling her eyes at the statement, she shakes her head, glaring toward the stage.

"Yeah? You going to stay this calm when Andrew Blackburn comes waltzing on stage?" she questions. The man's name is like bitter medicine in her throat. "First, he gets your father killed, betrays his kind, and then ensures you get a public beat down, leaving a plethora of scars on your back," she hisses, the real reason for my beating far from her and Andrews's mind.

The Prophet wanted me to show my fealty.

What better way than humiliation and the permanent reminder on my back of who I belong to?

Getting Andrew and Adam to film and execute the action blindly only adds to the layers of deceit planted for Forest to find.

She may have thought she was clever when all of her mind was intact.

But what now?

Now, all that remains is a girl.

One who thinks she is just like all the rest, struggling to hide a secret she used to wear with pride.

If only Dove knew.

If only Dove knew the lengths I would go for her-

"Seems your Little Dove is watching, Fallan," Valerie whispers, the nickname the Prophet has forced me to call her a punch to the gut every time it is said.

Peering at me from against the wall, she watches me with a clueless observance, too absolved from the world around her to consider my hate as anything but one derived from the divide in our society. All of the memories floating around her mind, once tied to Xavier, are now replaced with my image, driving the flow between our false bond.

Can you feel my presence, Forest?

Her eyes stay focused. Nervous sweat shakily rolls down her face.

Are you questioning once more why I watch you as I do, holding your false mother's Cure-All in my pocket like a red flag?

Shifting uncomfortably, she looks me over. You'd never know she had the power she did when she ended Dove's life.

If you told me this was the woman that killed Dove, I would laugh in your face.

She looks delicate, so very breakable. I would give anything to slash my blade over her throat-

Grabbing my chin to get me to look at her, Valerie eyes me. Her scarred hands are rigid against my skin.

"Don't look now, but an Official was making his way over to her. I figured you didn't want to be caught staring."

Raising my brows, I pull her hand away from my face, getting a good look at the Official she felt the need to shield my gaze from.

What the fuck is he doing here?

Was my warning in the hallway not enough?

Speaking to her without a care in the world, he leans against the wall, her fearful gaze no longer directed toward me. Dyed with a rich light blonde, the color hides his grey. His charismatic smile lights up his face. Her focus is only on him.

As if he paid no attention to mine and the Prophet's warning, he carries on a conversation with the woman. Forcefully clenching his hands, he bites back every urge to take her away from this rally and make her his once more.

Feeling the cool metal of her engagement ring press to my chest, I fight back the urge to wrap the chain around that pretty neck of hers and pull as tight as I can.

Watching him be the source of her laughter, her eyes light up, her thoughts, though swarmed with the fleeting images of me, still so very invested in his presence.

He swore to stay away.

His promises to the Prophet triumphs whatever the hell this little act is.

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