Page 20 of Dead Wrong

“Lenny?”

The shadows crept closer, but I surged forward, grasping at Lynette’s hand. It was ice-cold in my grip.

A heaviness seized my limbs, and my knees nearly gave in as the ground swayed under my feet. The pressure in my head spiked again, my vision blurring.

Her lips were moving, more soundless words, her eyes pleading as she clung to me.

“I can’t… I can’t hear you.”

The shadows were nearly on top of us now, swallowing my lower half in a chilling embrace. I held onto Lynette as best I could, but with a final tug from the dark, she was ripped from my grasp, and I tumbled backward into endless shadow.

“Again, Tobias. With feeling.”

Mother’s voice was calm, but the contempt radiating off her was like a miasma, thickening the air inside her office till it was suffocating. Rows of heavy books lined the walls, and the portrait of mother hanging behind her desk stared down at me with the same look of disappointment.

I did as she instructed me, pressing out the aura of my magic until it butted against the presence beside me—a boy with wide, violet eyes and fuzzy lupine ears that rose from the crown of his head. The boy bristled at the contact, his tail of purple fur puffing up to twice its normal size and his lips trembling as he stared back at me.

Taking a short breath, I gave the order, the heat from my magic spiking.

“Kneel.”

A burning sensation ignited in my throat as power suffused the word. The boy didn’t move in response. He merely watched me, his dark, orb-like eyes reflecting my own tortured expression.

I had failed. Again.

Mother clicked her tongue. “No, no, no. This will not do, Tobias. Again.”

“Could I have a moment to?—”

A sharp sting bloomed across the back of my legs, and I swallowed the words. Mother flicked the end of a thin whip back into her hand with a smooth flourish, her expression frigid.

“Again.”

I blinked away the building tears, taking a deep breath as I expanded my aura once more, wrapping around the other boy. His eyes—lavender at the edges—stared back, not in defiance but… disappointment?

He didn’t seem that much older than me. Even with his pointed, furry ears and the claws protruding from the ends of his fingers, our similarities far outweighed the differences.

Except, of course, he was an Unseen. Part of the lower class of Magi. And I was an Adored. It was all the difference that mattered to most.

Especially Mother.

“Kneel.” My voice cracked around the word as another surge of heat filled my throat, but the Unseen didn’t budge, his sad eyes trained on me.

Mother’s hand gripped my shoulder, her long nails biting into my skin even through my shirt. “You are not trying hard enough, Tobias.”

I didn’t argue. I knew better than to talk back to Mother. People had disappeared for far less around the chateau.

She bent at the waist, leveling her cold gaze with mine. “You know why this is important, yes?” The stench of her perfume was cloying, her face close enough that I could feel the heat of her breath.

“Yes,” I whispered, wishing I could look away.

“Our family has a duty,” Mother continued. “And even though you are a male, that doesn’t excuse you from that duty, do you understand?”

I nodded.

“That’s a good boy. Now, show me your strength.”

My hands clenched into fists at my side. The aura of my magic expanded from me, wrapping around the Unseen boy tight enough that his posture straightened. This was my chance—to show Mother that I belonged to this family. That I could be useful, even though I was only a male.

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