Page 69 of Carry Your Debt

“Exactly what it sounds like. Intensely physical cognitive and psychomotor training designed to create the perfect archivist for his information empire.” Shoving each one of those memories back down with a sharp, bile-filled swallow, I add, “One that was unfeeling, uncaring, and most importantly—unbreakable.”

Apollo’s eyes look remarkably like his father’s dark, icy ones when he asks cautiously, “Is that what you meant about someone being able to make you‘feel fear’?”

I nod. “He had them train my fear to always take a backseat—so that if someone were to get a hold of me, I wouldn’t break just because I was scared.”

“But—why?” Apollo grounds out. His cool tone is heating back up again with the warmth of his repressed anger.

“Because of the information I hold for him.”

“Which iswhat?” he prompts.

“Everything. Every piece of information that Sebastian has ever gathered and wanted to keep a secure record of. Every detail of every person important enough to have ever lived and ranked in the Underworld. Every known birth, every death, every marriage, every deal, every trade in theImperium.All his contracts, all details of his holdings and fiscal reports. All the meeting minutes. Anything he needs recorded. I keep a record of all of it for him.”

“The Librarian,”Hades rasps.

“Yes. The keeper of every last, little dirty secret of his.”

I squeeze my hands around my kneecaps, holding my breath through the tense silence that ensues. Bracing for their next question about my past.

Sabine Winters is dead.

But instead of demanding I explain to them why I seem to be wearing a dead girl’s name, Apollo sits forward, elbows propped on taut thighs. “You said at the Symposium that he sent you here to do a job? What was his endgame?”

I tilt my chin, relaxing just a margin. “He sent me in to recruit for the next generation of Gray Men, with strict instructions to return with at least 300 new potential Suits by the end of the academic year. You four…you were non-negotiable.”

“All four of us? Not just me?”

I lift a shoulder. “I guess he assumed you came as a package deal.”

Ares grips the couch again. “What did he want so many recruits for?”

I scratch a finger along my brow, considering where to start.

“He’s had designs on this half of the Sovereignty for years—way before the Green Knight’s death left the Crown up for grabs,” I say. “But while the Suits were busy icing out all the other Southern gangs, Mobs, Bratva, Mafia families, Triads, syndicates, cartels…the one-percenters were busy setting up chapters in every state. The Strange Aces didn’t have half the connections or reputation that the Gray Men had, but theydidhave the numbers.”

I purse my lips, knowing full well that was behind Sebastian hunting me down on that icy morning in Lexington five years ago. “He was pissed at the oversight, and it rankled him that Patrick Mahoney chose to set up his MC’s HQ right across the river. Like a giantfuck you. Before all this, Sebastian had been hellbent on making a run for Governor, just so he could do the most damage to Roxborough at the local level before he went after the Senate.”

“So he’s just using the Academy to make up the numbers?” Ares says, working his jaw. “Was all the talk about the ‘brightest young minds’ more bullshit?”

“Even if he managed tofiscallyrun this city into the ground, it all comes down to a basic manner of manpower, yeah. He’s outgunned. But he wasn’t lying about wanting to poach potential politicians and moguls and scientists. He’s built his empire on puppet strings and insider knowledge; he still needs fodder for his information machine.”

“That’s a lot of trade secrets you just so willingly handed over,” he sneers. By the sound of his roughened voice, he’s still very much questioning my motives. “Are you also the reason we’ve got dead girls showing up in the Academy bathrooms all of a sudden?”

I blatantly ignore that last jab. They don’t need to know all the ways I’ve fucked up, just the basics of why I’m here. “Sebastian asked me to, remember?” I remind him. “But that’s not the only reason.”

I push to stand and Ares straightens with a scowl. Apollo just watches me carefully from beneath dark lashes when I take a step forward.

“The Gray Men used to value discretion and shadow work above all else. But greedalwayswins, and even before this announcement, my Crewmates and I saw the writing on the wall. The Suits are desperate for the Crown—Labors or no—and they’re heading down a path that we don’t want to follow. Your father has started picking up on that resistance, and it’s only a matter of time before the Gray Man starts cleaning house.”

“So what’s next, then?” Apollo asks, spreading his hands before him.

I have to bite my lip to hide the little rush of excitement the idea of having their full cooperation gives me.

Clearing my throat, I pull my phone out, opening up a new group chat with the four of them. “Come to this address on Sunday afternoon.”

“What’s there?” Apollo frowns down at his own screen as I make my way to their dorm’s front door.

“We need to prepare for the release of the roster and the announcement of the first Labor.” I pause with my hand on the handle. “And you can meet your older half-brother properly this time.”

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