Page 23 of Scion of Chaos

“I don’t think we’ve officially met. Nemea, is it?” she asks. Her mother, a dark-haired woman with a severe expression, strides forward and grabs her by the elbow, keeping her from coming closer.

“You don’t know what she’s capable of. Stay back.”

Heat flares at my back and Benedetta moves to my side. “She’s not dangerous, Cassandra. Not unless we antagonize her. It’s our job to help her understand her power, same as any other student at St. George. If you can do it for me, you can do it for her.”

Cassandra curtly shakes her head. “You don’t understand—you weren’t here when we fought the beasts trying to take April away.” She moves in front of her daughter, her voice tight with emotion. “They would have succeeded if Deva hadn’t arrived to stop them.”

“Give her a break, Cassie.” Andrew saunters up, far more relaxed than his wife. He shifts his gaze to me, eyes narrowing briefly. He’s Bloodline like the rest of his family, but like most Bloodline, he can’t shift into an animal form. I still get the faintest whiff of musky animal from him beneath the scent of fresh-cut wood that typically lingers around a lot of the ursa who reside on the island. My instincts tell me it’s ursa blood, and I take a deeper breath.

Other aromas filter into my sinuses, and I grow dizzy for a split-second trying to process all of them. The most prevalent is the spicy cinder scent that I’m sure must be the dragons, then a brighter, slightly floral scent that I immediately associate with Benedetta, who still stands close to me. And I can pick out each of the three Bloodline scents too: the earthy musk of Andrew’s ursa blood, a softer charcoal scent from Cassandra with an underlying crispness… is that nymphaea? Thinking back to this afternoon and what I thought was Clio’s perfume, I think that must be it. April’s scent is warm and sweet, part earth, part char, like slightly overbaked cookies.

Before I can completely process this amplification of my senses, a sneeze tickles my nose and I turn away, burying my face in my elbow before it blasts forth.

“Bless you,” Andrew says.

“Thanks,” I say, smiling at him and shaking my head at his proffered handkerchief.

He continues sizing me up. “You look harmless. If I can hazard a guess, you were just exercising your nature and things didn’t go as planned. Same thing happened to me a few years back. It’s why those Pandemonium thugs were chasing me to begin with. My one regret is that they thought they could use my daughter as leverage.”

“Pandemonium thugs?” I ask.

“Old friends of ours. Enemies now, I guess,” Stuart, one of April’s dragon mates, says. “We used to be bodyguards for the singer in residence at the Pandemonium Resort in Las Vegas. The owner and his chief of security went a little overboard when they caught Andrew counting cards. It didn’t end well for them.” He crosses his arms and tilts his chin into the room. “Is there somewhere we can all sit and chat for a bit? This is turning into a bit of a delicate situation, so I want to make sure we’re all comfortable.”

He eyes me warily, and I get the sense what he wants is a location that’s moreenclosedin case I get it in my head to bolt. My stomach sinks like a stone. I’m definitely in trouble based on the looks Stuart and the other two white dragons are giving me. At least Gray looks more concerned than suspicious, but he always struck me as the nice one of April’s dragon mates.

Benedetta walks ahead of us to a solid, shadowy wall of stone that blocks off a wide set of stairs which was hidden from view while we were seated earlier. She descends, and I wait to see what the others will do. Razik, Errol, and Salem follow immediately after, but April and her entire crew stand waiting.

“After you,” Cassandra says, mistrust flowing off her in waves. Jesus, I can’t win with this woman. I amsoabout to get voted off the island.

I turn and walk down the steps, expecting the cold darkness of a cave, but find the stairwell warm and well-lit with more flaming sconces. It ends in a vast, open space hewn out of the stone cliff. Stone columns are situated every thirty feet or so, with more flaming sconces attached, along with a multitude of beautiful works of art. Several walls feature shelves with more art. The room is divided by metal folding screens, but it looks like this entire cave makes up their living space. Razik and Salem head in, stationing themselves by a large stone slab of a dining table while Errol waits with Benedetta just inside the entry.

“There’s more seating in here for everyone, at least,” Benedetta says with a hint of apology.

“I’ll go fetch us some refreshments,” Errol says, giving me a warm smile and a nod before turning and striding to the kitchen.

I enter the room, marveling at how much work this must have taken, though with enough skilled ursa and dragon craftsmen, perhaps it wasn’t as difficult as it seems. But even the kitchen is devoid of anything resembling electronics. Errol flips the latch on a stone door and swings it open, revealing food and drinks within, and retrieves a pitcher and brings it to the table. Then he returns and fetches enough glasses from the glass-fronted steel and stone cabinets to serve everyone.

I stare for a moment, then head for the chair Razik holds out for me.

“How does that fridge even work?” I ask, settling in the seat.

“I can absorb heat from my environment,” Benedetta says, gesturing down to her bare feet on the stone floor. “It took some practice, but I learned how to focus enough to divert thermal energy from one place to the other. Since this entire place is basically one enormous rock, I can control all the thermal energy inside it. Basically all the lights are what keep our food cold.”

“Rad,” I drawl, staring around the place with new interest.

I’m distracted when the rest of the group enters and take seats around the table. I’m at one end, the focus of all of them, which is not the least bit uncomfortable. I’m grateful when Errol sets a dewy glass in front of me, and I take a long swallow of ice-cold water so I don’t have to meet anyone’s eyes just yet.

I’ve got to get it over with, though. I set down the glass finally and sigh. “All right, lay it on me. Do I need to pack up my things and catch the ferry off the island this afternoon?”

“Gosh, I hope not,” April says. “Nemea, I founded this school for people like us. You’re here because you belong here. We just need to figure out how to keep you safe while still helping you learn to control your powers.”

“Keepmesafe? I thought you wanted to keep everyone else safefromme.”

She exchanges a glance with Cassandra and Andrew, who are both frowning. Goosebumps rise on my arms despite the warmth of the room. “What aren’t you telling me?”

Benedetta and her three Shadows shoot confused looks at April too. Razik leans forward in his seat. “If she was in danger, we should have been informed. We might have handled things differently.”

April looks sheepish. Cassandra just clenches her jaw and crosses her arms. “When you relayed to us the conclusion that Nemea is a chimera, everything changed. We haven’t had time to decidewhatshould be done yet, but that fact alone puts her at great risk.”

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