Page 30 of Daughter of the Ninth Line: Part Two

The hounds had been with me so long that I could hardly remember a time when they weren’t by my side. If they believed that Avalon was my Soul Tie, I owed it to them to try, right? Owed it to myself?

I stepped into the auditorium and looked around at the other seated conscripts. This was my last year, as well as Vox’s, andeventually, there would be a new wave of conscripts, who’d take over the mantle of the Kings of Boellium. It was a quirk of fate that both Vox and I—Heirs to the two most powerful Lines in Ebrus—were both in attendance at the same time, starting in the same year. When we left, there would be a power vacuum that I didn’t envy, and I hated the idea that Avalon would be caught up in it. That she would be unprotected.

She didn’t realize that the closer she got to the Heir of the First Line, the more jealousy and political bullshit would put her life in jeopardy. And she’d be alone.

Lucio had one more year, and I trusted him to watch her. My other cousin, Carell, would arrive next year, but she wasn’t as strong as Lucio, let alone me. There was a chance that the First Line conscripts would walk all over them. Hell, there was a chance that someone truly powerful from the Fourth Line would rise up and take control of the whole school. Unlikely, but still a possibility.

“Take a seat already,” the instructor snapped, and I moved toward my family, my Line. I searched the rest of the room for Avalon, though, but she didn’t seem to be here yet.

The instructor stood behind the lectern to start his presentation, when she stumbled in, her face red and her lips puffy, her hair looking freshly fucked.

When Vox walked in moments after her with a smirk on his face, it didn’t take a genius to know that they’d been together, fucking, only moments earlier. It didn’t matter that they pointedly didn’t look at each other. It didn’t matter that they sat on opposite sides of the room. If I sucked in a lungful of air, I could pick up her scent, and it contained traces of Vox’s. He’d come inside her, and his seed was still leaking out down her thighs.

I growled long and low, and it echoed around the room. I could swallow it back, but I didn’t want to. I wanted to howl inpain at the fact that she was with someone else. Braxus eyeballed me, before his gaze landed on Vox, like he was contemplating ripping his throat out for me.

He must be communicating with Alucius too, because I suddenly got an image of her looking insanely self-satisfied. She’d been right. Avalon Halhed was my Soul Tie, but she also wanted nothing to do with me.

So what the fuck did I do with that?

I felt her eyes on my face, and I could almost hear her heartbeat from across the room. I stared at my feet, trying to calm my raging beast. This wasn’t the time or the place to lay bare my Line’s secrets. Breathing out through my nose, I waited until I had a firm hold on myself to look back up.

Vox Vylan was looking at me, and the triumph on his face made me want to rip his throat out. It was going to be a long class.

Two torturous hours later, Lucio followed me out of the auditorium. He had a frown on his face that meant he was going to try and have a heart to heart, but honestly, I had no idea what to say to him. How did I tell him that I’d found something so revered by our people, but that my Soul Tie was fucking someone else? That she didn’t feel the same pull as I did?

So I didn’t say anything. I gave orders. “I want to have a party. Make it bigger than the First Line’s. Actually, let’s have it on the beach. I don’t want it restricted to the Upper Lines either. Invite everyone.” I didn’t want to have to be in close quarters and smell his scent on her skin. It had been fine when she’d just hated me and felt nothing for Vox, but I wasn’t sure I could cope with the idea of them having sex now. Of him fucking my Soul Tie.

Shaking my head, I pushed the thought down. “Make it a party no one will forget.”

“Fuck yeah,” Lucio hooted and ran off, properly distracted. If there was anything Lucio loved more than fighting and fucking, it was a good party. It would keep the whole Line distracted, and that meant no one would be looking too closely at the fact I was about to have a meltdown.

Why would the Goddess give me a Soul Tie from another Line? Someone who had no chance of understanding that for me, she was it. She was the only person I would ever love, the only person I could ever fuck again, without the beast inside me trying to rip out from my flesh?

I needed to run. I needed to let the beast free and speed through the woods of my home. I needed to talk to my mother.

Instead of any of those things, I turned back toward Boellium’s library. I couldn’t have the girl—not yet, anyway, though I wasn’t about to give up—but I could get to the bottom of the mystery of her family. The mystery of her.

The Ninth Daughter of the Ninth Line. She didn’t think it meant anything, but in my soul, I knew it was important. I didn’t know how, and I didn’t know why, but I would.

Nineteen

Avalon

The buzz around the Third Line’s party consumed most of Boellium for the next week. Viana and Acacia were giddy with excitement, as were the rest of the Twelfth Line. From what I could gather, the Upper Lines held parties regularly, but the Lower Lines were never invited. Forever separated by not just the social divide, but the main landing of the atrium.

I’d been down in the bowels at least three times this week, just so they could try and dress me up like a child’s doll. Not just Viana and Acacia either—the whole Twelfth Line seemed to be invested in what I should wear. However, the party was tonight, so it was decision time.

“The blue. It brings out her eyes,” Elkie insisted, holding a dress up in front of her. Not for my approval, despite the fact I would be wearing it, though I definitely had a vote. They were a democracy through and through, especially once they’d decided I was a helpless lamb when it came to fashion. Honestly, they might be right.

“The purple—it’s the color of royalty, which she might eventually be if she gets it on with Vox Vylan,” someone called from behind me, I flushed red. I was already getting it on withVox Vylan, but there was very little chance of me ever becoming his wife.

“We’re just friends,” I told them all for the thousandth time, but Elkie just gave me a knowing look and patted me on the head like I was some sweet summer child.

Someone was holding the purple dress in front of me, switching between that and the blue, when there was a knock at the door. Acacia strode over to answer it, then took a quick step back.

Standing stiffly at the door was Vox’s cousin, Shay. There was something inherently edgy, maybe a little wary about Shay, like she was always waiting for the next attack. She looked around the dorm room, but waited patiently over the threshold.

“May I come in?” she asked, unable to keep the haughtiness from her voice. There was no doubt that in every way, the First Line and the Twelfth Line were different. Their social standing, their hold on their magic, their community—it was all in stark contrast.

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