Page 74 of Splitting Secrets
I crane my neck to look at him, trying and failing to imagine him as a plumber. Before he realizes what I’m doing, I ask, “What about Lewis?”
“Lewis stayed in Nocturne Valley and started a family with one of the locals. They had three boys.”
Something occurs to me. I sit up in the bed, holding my finger up as I piece my thoughts together out loud. “Lewis was a Whitlock. Does that mean he was also a Mirrane?”
Finley nods, a cruel smile playing across his lips. “Ah yes, he was. In fact, he was the last Mirrane Supreme. The Midnight Syndicate certainly learned their lesson, crossing him.”
It’s wild to me that, like Raze, Lewis was only a part of the Syndicate to infiltrate them from the inside. Both men were so convincing, they climbed their way up the ladder into such important positions. The mirrors between now and the past are chilling. “I thought I had read somewhere that there were only six Supremes.”
He sits up and faces me with his legs crossed. “There are now. They keep an open spot there as a false honor to the Mirrane men, but it’s all for show.”
“So, what did Lewis do?”
“The Supremes of the Midnight Syndicate have always been anonymous. It was their way of manipulating the public into accepting them—pretending they were all equals, and such. Lewis was the first Supreme to be outed publicly by the other six. As they had done with us Landrys, they grew terrified of his gifts and how they differed from their own. His ability to force someone to see whatever reality he chooses was quite potent. I would hate to be on the receiving end of it.” He offers me a pointed look, silently conveying that I also should be careful around a Mirrane. “They created a campaign against them,instilling fear in the brainless sheep of Nocturne Valley until they demanded that they be culled.”
“But they didn’t get them all?” I guess.
“No, they didn’t. Lewis’s youngest son was able to pass their grotesque interrogations, surprising everyone when he walked out of there alive while his brothers had faced the opposite fate. Through sheer stubborn will, he had stamped down his gifts and convinced them all that he was a Null, the way his father told him to. When he heard what they had done to his other sons, Lewis walked into that meeting hall and had every single Supreme rip themselves to shreds before the entire Midnight Syndicate. It was a bloody, gory mess, from what I’ve heard. They killed him the following day.”
I can’t do anything but stare at him, my eyes wide and mouth agape. Lewis did that? The sweet, gentle teenaged boy who cared for Finley in the woods in my visions?
“The Mirrane men have all been trained to control their gifts from the day they begin to manifest. It’s a brutal ceremony, but has proven necessary through the years,” he adds.
My stomach drops. “What do they do?”
His tone is flat, like he’s telling me the weather or letting me know there’s a sale at the mall this weekend. “They beat the boys into mania for as long as it takes before they can stop their shadows from retaliating.”
“Raze went through that?” I squawk.
Finley shrugs one shoulder, his lips curved downward. “I’m sure he did, if he’s managed to survive among the Syndicate for so long.”
He changes the subject then, veering off the topic of Mirranes to tell me about the woman he fell hopelessly in love with and the four children they had. My mind still lingers on what he told me about Raze, though. On the pain and suffering that both our families endured at the hands of the Midnight Syndicate. It’sonly right that we’ve both ended up here, fighting them together for what we can only hope is the last time.
The thoughts haunt me long after Finley leaves and the house quiets as everyone else retires for bed.
39
Raze
Ravenshurst’s winter semester kicks off with nearly half the admission rate they started with in the fall. Hatchcroft’s face is permanently beet red, and I could swear that his hairline has moved back another inch. He looks like he’s going to spontaneously combust at any given moment. The few students who were brave enough to attend are under a new, stricter set of rules than ever before.
They are not allowed to congregate in the quad.
They are only permitted in the dining halls, the main library, or their classes.
And under no circumstances are they to leave the campus to enter Nocturne Valley or the woods.
Everyone knows about Sonny and her friends. They whisper their names under their breaths—too afraid to voice them aloud and be caught speaking of the enemy, but too curious not to gossip. I’ve heard some of the most horrific rumors being spread for the sake of entertainment and clout.
They’ve been so brainwashed by the Syndicate’s propaganda, they don’t even care that their freedoms have been stripped away or that they’ve been turned against their own friends. They truly believe that the university—this enormous institution that they arepayingto attend—has their safety and best interests at heart by taking away basic freedoms. It’s indoctrination in its purest form.
It takes a concentrated effort for me not to scream into their faces how backward they’ve got it, but I manage to bite my tongue.
Now that the Syndicate is convinced that their prisoners are being harbored by rebellion members, they’ve doubled down on their efforts to force us out of hiding. Random home raids have begun on top of the interrogations. Those who don’t comply are arrested and brought into the police department to be interviewed. Curfews have been implemented to ensure no one is out once the sun sets—which, in the winter, is around five o’clock. Businesses have been forced to modify their hours and schools have had to cut down their days to allow everyone time to get home by the time the police begin their patrol. Like the students, absolutely no one is allowed to go into the woods surrounding the town.
It’s hostile and backward and has done nothing to convince Nocturnians that the Syndicate prioritizes their safety over everything else. In fact, if anything, it’s sent them running into the arms of the rebellion.
They’ve brought every Primaris they can think of to comb the woods and hunt Sonny down, which has made visiting the safe house that much more difficult. Constance and Carter allowed her friends to take a ride through the woods that almost led a whole search unit back to the house if we hadn’t been able to redirect them. They certainly paid for that mistake.
