out.
“You’re stealing my clothes? With my blood on them?” Was he going to take the t-shirt to the Brethren to prove to them that I wasn’t human? The hackles on my back rose and I felt hot inside. I’d known he hated me but I hadn’t thought that he’d really put the whole pack in jeopardy just for a little revenge.
Tufts of dark hair began to spring out on his cheekbones. “Keep it. I don’t need it,” he bit off and pushed past me down the corridor. Fear and fury rose inside me and I was about to go after him with a vengeance when a door on the floor above slammed shut and I heard a couple of Brethren coming out and talking loudly. Resignedly, I watched him disappear round the corner. This was definitely not good. I considered whether I should go and tell Julia what he’d done. That felt a bit like running off to the teacher but he must have worked out some way of getting round the geas to tell the Brethren who I was - and that put everyone in danger. He was getting far too dangerous for his own good. I looked down at the t-shirt. I was going to have to dispose of it before I did anything else. It hadn’t occurred to me that leaving it in the dorm was a bad idea but clearly I was going to have to be a lot more careful from now on.
I went straight into the bathroom and found some bleach in a little cabinet. I poured it liberally over the shirt and stuck it into sink, watching the brown red colour slowly disappear. Betsy wandered in, wearing pink frilly pyjamas and yawning loudly.
“Now you’re cleaning, Mack?”
I told her what Anton had done and she looked alarmed. “I know he doesn’t like you, babe, but I don’t think he’d tell them you’re human. Besides anything, the geas would stop him. And with Julia confirmed as alpha, she can stop him from doing anything at all.”
I stared down at the sink. “Please don’t call me babe, Bets.”
She rolled her eyes. “I mean it, Mack. We still don’t know enough about how the Brethren would act if they worked out what you were. Anton might be a wanker but he’s loyal to the pack.”
“Then why was he taking my clothes, Betsy?”
“I don’t know,” she answered softly. “But Lynda likes him and I think he likes her. I’ll get her to hang on his coat-tails for the next few days and make sure he doesn’t do anything. Maybe he’ll confide in her.”
My fists clenched. “I do not need him screwing things up at the moment. There’s enough to do and enough to worry about as it is.”
“Yeah, especially with that spooky portal that the mage uncovered.”
I looked at her. “Portal?”
“Oh, yeah, you were asleep all day. He did some kind of uncloaking spell. It turns out that there’s a portal on the beach, not far from where John died.”
“A portal? As well as the seven stones? And you’re only telling me about this now?” My voice was rising to a screech.
“Jesus, Mack, give me a chance. No-one’s gone into it because we don’t know where it leads to. Even the mage can’t work out where it goes. The Brethren are staking it out in case anything else comes out. They reckon that’s where both the terrametus and the woman came from.”
“Iabartu.”
“Huh?”
“The woman is called Iabartu. She’s some kind of demi-god.”
“How did you….?” She shook her head, “Never mind. Most of what you do is a mystery to me, Mack.”
I ran water into the sink to rinse off the bleach. “Does Julia have a plan?”
“I think she’s letting the Brethren make the decisions for now.”
Fuck that for a game of soldiers. This portal was clearly where the action was going to be. I wrung out the t-shirt and dumped it in the bin. At least now I knew where to go next.
“You’ve got a scary look on your face, Mack.”
“Get Lynda to stick with Anton, as you said. I’m going to head to the beach.”
I started to walk out the bathroom. Betsy called after me. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? By all accounts you were half dead yesterday. The Brethren have got things under control.”
“I feel fine. And I know things they don’t. If you see Julia, tell her about Anton and where I’ve gone,” I flung back, then picked up my backpack and made sure