Part 24 (1/2)
Dead silence fell across the table. Sydney bit her lip. Couldn't these people see Tynan O'Shea's anguish? Why wouldn't they help him? Sydney hurt for the man and his soul searing loss. How could they refuse this poor man something as simple as the truth? Besides, if the odds were so seriously against Bram, Caden, and the others, wouldn't they want another warrior?
”Lucan is injured,” Sydney finally said, testing the waters.
Every head at the table whipped in her direction, especially O'Shea's. His gaze fixed on her until she felt pinned as surely as if he held her to the ground. Oops, maybe I shouldn't have said anything.
”And they're fighting Mathias as a group, human?”
Sydney frowned. How did he know I was human? Not important now. Instead, she caught Bram's gaze, silently asking why he wouldn't want to tell O'Shea the truth. Finally, the blond wizard sighed.
”Fine. Unofficially, yes. We have formed a group, the Doomsday Brethren, designed to both keep the Doomsday Diary safe and fight Mathias, who has returned from exile, and the Anarki. If you take the information about the Doomsday Brethren to your grandfather, I will deny it to him and the rest of the Council with my dying breath.”
”Why would I end a group that can help me avenge Auropha and prevent this tragedy from befalling another family? I'm relieved you're taking action. I know the Council will do nothing to quell Mathias.
They'll merely deny his existence, despite news like this.” O'Shea pulled a sc.r.a.p of paper from his pocket. Sydney would have recognized it anywhere. It was her article from Out of This Realm about the battle in the tunnel. She gasped.
”You read my article?” The words slipped out before she could stop them.
”This and the others in the series.” O'Shea crossed the room, grabbed Sydney's shoulders and hauled her out of her chair. ”You're the reporter? What else do you know?” Suddenly, Caden stepped between them. ”Take your hands off my-the woman.” Tynan pinned him with a contemptuous gaze. ”You are a MacTavish, clearly.”
”Caden, Lucan's younger brother.”
The distraught man held Sydney tighter. ”Until someone gives me information, I'm going to keep asking her questions. She's talking, at least.”
The murderous look O'Shea tossed at Bram chilled Sydney. He was deadly serious.
”She's already told you all she knows,” Bram drawled, looking totally unconcerned. But she sensed the tenseness in his shoulders, the slight pull of his mouth.
”Let me fight with you.”
Caden spoke up then. ”Let her go and get lost. There's more here than wand waving.” Tynan raised a dark brow. ”Meaning?”
”In for a penny, in for a pound,” Bram grumbled. ”Mathias is 'recruiting' Anarki involuntarily, using human soldiers for his army once he rips their souls from their body. They don't wield magic and seem impervious to it, so the only way to defeat them is through human methods. Ever punched a man? Fired a gun? Sliced someone in two with a sword?”
The angry intruder looked around the room, seeming to gauge whether everyone else knew these things as well. He released Sydney. ”I'll learn.”
After pausing, Bram shook his head. ”No. I can't risk it.” Duke interjected, ”A handful of weeks ago, few of us knew any of those things, either.”
”I can teach the lout quickly, should he learn to curb his temper,” Marrok added. ”An emotional warrior is a sloppy one.”
”I'll curb it. Just . . . d.a.m.n it, let me fight.” Tynan curled his hands around the sides of an ornate dining room chair, his knuckles turning white.
”If I let you fight beside us and you're killed, your grandfather would do everything in his power to see me separated from the Council and my head severed from my body. No.”
”You need more warriors,” Caden argued. ”I'm not staying. Lucan . . .” He shrugged painfully. ”He may never fight again. Shock comes, Shock goes.”
”Shock Denzell?” O'Shea asked, incredulous. ”His family has always supported Mathias. Isn't he on the other side?”
Bram didn't answer. He turned to Caden instead. ”Your point?”
”Mathias is quickly swelling his ranks with all these soldiers he's conscripting. You have a wizard willing to fight. You allowed everyone else here to fight with the understanding that their safety was on their own head. Why change the rules for him?” Duke pointed to Tynan. ”We need him as much as he wants to join. It isn't as if we have more appealing options.” Sydney winced. It was the blunt truth.
”I absolve you of any and all blame if something happens to me,” Tynan a.s.sured.
”Your family won't.”
”Burn the body, then. They'll simply think I disappeared. The great Bram Rion has ways to protect his precious reputation, I have no doubt. But don't exclude me because you're afraid of an old man like my grandfather.”
Oh, that was ugly. Animosity was thick in the air.
Marrok stood suddenly, clutching the hilt of his sword, always strapped about his hips. ”Have you brought your wand?”
Tynan looked at Marrok as if he'd gone mad. ”I never go anywhere without it.” With a quick nod, his long, dark hair brus.h.i.+ng his shoulders, Marrok said, ”Come with us. I will test your fighting prowess, and Bram, your magical skills. If you have apt.i.tude, mayhap you can join. Bram?” Bram's face told Sydney that he didn't like being boxed into a corner, but saw the logic. ”If you possess skill with a wand and can demonstrate the ability to learn human combat, I'll consider it.” Tynan nodded eagerly. Bram shot Marrok a rancorous glare and followed him. A moment later, the back door slammed. Duke rose next and crossed the room, exiting after them. Then Ice. Olivia and Sabelle followed.
Suddenly, Caden and Sydney found themselves alone. She rose and took a few steps toward the hall-until Caden wrapped his hand around her arm and pulled her back.
She whirled to him, certain that what was about to happen would make a great story. ”I want to see what happens next.”
”And I don't want you involved any deeper.”
She had always been independent, and that would never change. Besides, while this was a story that could make her, it was one people should read as well.
”Unlike you, I'm not one to bury my head in the sand.” Sydney jerked her arm free and turned to stomp away.
He grabbed her arm again. ”What does that b.l.o.o.d.y mean?”
”These people need you. And you plan to turn your back on them because you think it's not your fight? I never knew Marines were afraid.”
Caden's blue eyes narrowed. ”Is that what you think? I'm not afraid of fighting. If I survived two tours in Iraq, I can survive this, I a.s.sure you.”
”Then explain why you won't fight with your people.” His grip loosened, and he pulled away. ”I left England and everyone magical I knew at eighteen. All this wand waving and the like, it isn't normal.”
”Normal? You've already transitioned. You can't change that. What magickind can do is so extraordinary . . . amazing. Humans would kill to have your abilities. A gift like yours can help take down a madman. And you want to walk away from it?”
He crossed his arms over his chest, mouth thin with anger. ”Why don't you want to follow your parents and join the academic crowd?”
Sydney hesitated. ”I just didn't. It didn't fit me.”
”Precisely!” Caden threw his hands wide.
If anyone tried to force her into that tediously dull and pretentious academic scene, they'd have to drag her kicking and screaming. She didn't fit there. Square peg, round hole. But this wasn't about a career.
This was his heritage! She sensed Caden's reticence was deep.
He wasn't being completely honest with her. Given that, how could he possibly claim she was important?
He'd demonstrated that he felt responsible for her, but his unwillingness to truly share himself said he didn't love her. And it hurt.
”They need you,” she said quietly.
He shook his head. ”They need someone pa.s.sionate about their cause. That isn't me.”