Page 10 of The Tribes of Magic
“Ow! Has anyone ever told you that you’ve got really pointy elbows, Bronte?” Dutch hunched over, clutching his arms to his torso.
Bronte folded her arms over her chest, watching him with stern disapproval in her eyes as she tapped her foot against the rippled sidewalk. The clink of metal drew our attention toward the fence. Three guys in bright orange Cutter uniforms had the Brother’s face pressed against the chain-link fence. They’d bound his ankles and wrists with garden ropes. And one of them held the pointy end of his shovel to the Brother’s back.
“Good work, citizens. Now hold him there while we circle around.”
The Watchers turned and ran down another side street.
“See? There’s no need to get so worked up about the ‘vicious criminals’, Bronte. The General’s soldiers have this all handled.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that, Dutch,” I said.
There were new arrivals on the other side of the fence, and they weren’t the Watchers. A large contingent of elderly people had come to the Brother’s rescue.
“Leave him alone!” a woman in a faded pink dress shouted at the Cutters.
The tallest of the Cutters positioned himself between the angry crowd and the Brother. “He’s a criminal.”
“He’s a hero!” replied a bald man in a brown sweater vest. “The Brotherhood took care of people in need for years, and now you turn your back on them, just like that?”
“They tried to kill the Spirit Trees!”
The man in the sweater vest crossed his arms in the air in front of him. “Good riddance to the Spirit Trees and to all those supernaturals too! They’ve brought nothing but pain and suffering to us!”
“Do you think we should do something?”
The whisper came from Jack Johnson, one of the other Apprentices. I’d completely forgotten Ainsley’s team was here too.
“What do you suggest we do? Rush in headfirst?”
“Someone has to.”
All the Apprentices turned toward me.
“Hey, why is everyone looking at me?”
“Well, not minding your own business is kind of your MO, Savannah.”
Everyone nodded in agreement. I just sighed.
“They look like they’re about to come to blows. And that old dude in the sweater vest reminds me of my grandpa.”
“Your grandpa is a Brotherhood fan boy, Jack?”
Jack shrugged. “Grandpa says the Brotherhood helps the people everyone else has turned their backs on.”
“Yeah, because the Brothers want the public on their side.”
Not far away, just beyond the fence, the very same argument was raging. The Watchers charged into the alley to find themselves in the middle of a full-blown ideological battle.
“Gaia is divided. Just as Fenris has been saying all along.” I frowned as soon as I said it. I didn’t like to admit the vampire prince was right about anything, least of all this. “Hey, guys!”
The bickering Apprentices stopped and looked at me.
“We can’t let Fenris be right about us,” I told them. “We have to work together. We have to stick together and be better. We have to disprove all the Court’s worst fears about us.”
The larger part of Ainsley’s team gave me a look that I’d describe asfrosty—and that was being generous. I wasn’t themost popular Apprentice in the Fortress, particularly not with the other teams. They thought I was some kind of weird, troublemaking deviant.
At least Victoria spoke up in my favor. Granted, she probably only did it because I’d saved her from the Templars yesterday, but still…
