“Who?”
“Her father,” I tell him. Tobias lets me go and tilts his head to the side.
“No, I was there. I would have seen you do it?” but he also knew I wasn’t lying was just hoping I was.
“It was when I went back in,” I tell him.
“Darius!”
“So you fucking killed them?” Tobias snapped.
“No, her mother got away, and she is lucky she did because I would have killed her too, but,” I tried to explain.
“You killed her father?” he asks again and I nod.
“Fuck Darius! How could you keep this from me?”
“She already assumed I killed them, and I didn’t think. He was a fucking elder,” I let out a breath.
“He is also guilty for unleashing the fucking plague. You could have told me!” Tobias forever, my defender. I swallowed guiltily, I never killed him for what he did to Aleera but what he said to me.
“Fuck! Darius, she would be pissed knowing they were alive, but to find out you actually did kill them,”
“Her father, her mother is still alive,” I tell him, and he clutches his hair and curses.
“Anything else I need to fucking know?” he asks and I press my lips in a line.
“There is more, isn’t there?”
“You’re unbelievable,” he says, storming off toward the obstacle course. Tobias climbs the climbing wall, grabbing whatever it is and ripping it off, letting it fall to the ground in a heap.
“We agreed on no secrets, Darius! What else?” He snaps before jumping from the top and landing beside me.
“Darius!”
“Shut up,” I snap, squatting next to the torn apart creature or what was left of it. Tobias growls and walks off, and I see him pick up something on the other side of the wall before tossing it at my feet. It was a cow head. I take a step back.
“It’s a cow,” Tobias says, and I look at the climbing wall.
“Now, how did a cow get up there?” I ask, and Tobias growls.
“How else? It is a fucking prank. I am going to kill them,” Tobias says, storming off back toward the castle in a burning rage. I didn’t know who he was madder at, me or the recruits. Climbing the hill again, I get to the peak, and Tobias was further ahead when color caught my eye, making me peer up at the roof. My feet stop in horror as I gasped. I look at Tobias, unaware of what is right above him. Opening a portal, I appear beside him and grab his arm.
“What?” he snaps, and I point to the roof. Tobias looks up and takes a step back.
“Fuck me!” he gasps, and I look around at the trees and tap his shoulder. Tobias turns, his eyes also going to the trees. How we missed it, I did not know.
“That’s impossible. They are almost extinct,” he whispers.
“Apparently not. They were just waiting for their master,” I tell him, turning back to peer up at the roof.
“There are hundreds of them!” Tobias shrieks.
“Explains the dead cow,” I tell him, nearly choking on my spit.
“What do you think they want?” Tobias asked.
“Geez, I don’t know, Tobias, go ask one? What do you think they want?” I snap at him.
“Aleera!” We both say simultaneously.
“She has a fucking army of them,” Tobias murmurs. “Well, you better hope you don’t have too many secrets because she unleashes those things, you’re fucked,” Tobias says, storming off toward the castle doors.
“And I ain’t feeding them,” he calls over his shoulder. I looked up at the roof, and I could not see a single tile. Hundreds of phoenix’s all perched like a sea of flaming color, every inch of the roof was obscured by them.
But if this was after obtaining her power and marking one of us, what would she bring when she owned all of us? More importantly, if they could sense her, who else could?