Page 85 of The Order: Rise of the New Empire

"Helping with construction. Mason is generally the one who takes on instructing the cadets. My hope was to have you and Aaron take on leadership roles, but it would seem all three of you have been best with our... Forest situation."

"Forest situation?" Aaron questions, brining over a tray of food, his eyes heavy from lack of sleep. "More like a full-blown fucking nightmare," Aaron sighs.

"And where is Kaiden Blackburn on this fine evening?" I question, the farthest thing from a smile touching his lips.

"At the cabin, wading through the waters like a psychopath. He refuses to leave that damn place. He thinks his sister will just show up like she did for Fallan," Aaron grovels, Bekah the first one to scoff.

"Not like Kaiden will ever find out where this place is," she snaps, both of our eyes averting her way.

"Don't look at me like I've spoken any lies. You both know he is easily compromised in light of his sister's situation. Just as much as Xavier is at this point-"

"Something is changing within Kaiden," Aaron sighs, his hand running through his hair. "He's different, distant."

"Everyone is changing," I sigh. "Everyone has to change if any of us want to make it out of this alive."

"A war is closer than all of you think," Bekah mutters, staring at her plate of food. "It's just a matter of who leads the charge on the other side. The Prophet?" she questions, jabbing at her food. "Forest?" she continues, pointing her fork at both of us. "Or Xavier-"

"Xavier wouldn't-"

Pausing, Aaron looks at the woman's raised brows.

"At least I think he wouldn't," Aaron sighs, doing his best to try and get a grasp on all of this.

"Stop fucking moping," Mason snaps, grabbing an apple from Bekah's tray, the older female cadets in the group gigglinguncontrollably in the man's presence. "Speaking of the what if's only makes things worse," he whispers, being waved over by one of the other instructors at a nearby table.

"Get some food, Silas; you did well today," Mason urges, getting the young Marked cadet to join the others.

Silas has been trailing Mason like a shadow, attached to the hip with the man, taking as much knowledge from the man as he can.

Here, Mason is a leader, one meant to shape the damaged minds of the youthful Marked.

They look up to him, and, in return, they follow his every word.

"You are a real fucking peach today," Bekah snaps, glaring at Mason.

"Give me a reason to smile."

Nodding his head toward the man waving him over, Mason excuses himself from the table, ignoring all of our looks of question toward his shit attitude.

"What's his fucking deal?" I question, lacing my fingers with Bekah's, her head shaking with annoyance.

"The more I learn about Mason Veron, the farther I get from understanding him. He is one isolated mother fucker, that's for sure," Bekah gripes, all of us watching Mason speak to his mutual, his hand tugging up his shirt as he wipes away the sweat from his face.

Numerous tally mark scars work up his side, each one cut in a perfect straight line.

"What are those?" I question, nodding my head toward Mason, Bekah's eyes gravitating toward Masons mangled skin.

"Have you never seen his hash marks before?" she questions, as if I am foolish for not noticing them sooner.

"Clearly not," Aaron answers for me, smiling at the youngsters glancing his way from the cadet's table.

"They are tallies," Bekah whispers, lowering her voice to avoid the sharp ears of the Marked from picking up what she is saying. "For a little while, before he had turned Shifter, he was used as a puppet to war. The enemy side grabbed him, using him for.... their own torture. The tally marks are a roster on how many people had a go at him. Given the marks regenerative properties, the people that tortured him were careful, pulling out fingernails, stabbing nonvital organs. It took his team forever to recover him," she whispers. "Almost everything healed, but the scars, the scars were created with a metal. The same metal Mason was so eager to pull from the waters."

"You're telling me Mason is older than-"

"Forest and Xavier? Yes," Bekah whispers. "He's been around for a while and has a whole damn mind full of secrets."

Fidgeting with his fingers, Aaron breaks his silence.

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