Page 89 of House of Malice
“Are you sure?” Jolene asked. “I’m sure the club has many members, and probably not all of them like each other. Maybe there are some witches who would love to see Galliermo and Alatar fall.”
Val nodded. “It is a possibility.”
“We don’t know when Alatar and Galliermo joined the club,” Andro said. “It might have been after Gondalez went there. He might have secured allies before them.”
“Also a possibility,” Val said.
“I think you’re wasting your time here,” Rogue said, surprising them all.
Alecto looked his way, pulling herself out of her grim thoughts.
“Care to elaborate?” Val asked, arching an eyebrow.
“You are obsessing over the club as if that will help you deal with the Dean,” he said. “It won’t. Uncovering the past won’t help you deal with the present.”
“We need to understand our enemy before we can take him down,” Val said, crossing her arms. “How do you propose we stop the man from coming after us? What if he’s not even the one behind it all? What if there is someone else?”
“You’ll drive yourself crazy thinking this way,” Rogue said. Alecto couldn’t believe how vocal he was. He’d barely said a thing to them since his return, carrying out their orders like a thoughtless puppet. “You have the Dean on your hands, so deal with him. If there is another enemy, you will deal with it afterwards. Right now, the bigger picture is the least of your problems.”
Val pursed her lips.
“I think we should go to our guardians and confront them,” Jolene said. “This is getting out of hand. We can’t go against the Dean alone.”
“Fuck our guardians,” Alecto said, and they all looked at her. “They have been nothing but despicable, annoying, cruel bunch of fuckers who think they are better than anyone else and who absolutely do not care about us. They only care about the House and keeping their power.”
“Alright, someone’s in a mood.” Val smirked.
“I’m fucking serious,” Alecto said, raising her voice. “Do you think they care if the Dean fucking kills us? Clearly not. They barely reacted when we found out Blaze had been poisoned. I bet they already knew what was going on. And they did nothing. They told us to keep focusing on the lectures and the fucking Game.”
Alecto was so angry, it was hard to breathe. “And now we find out they’re members of some sort of pervert club?” She almost shouted the words. “Absolutely fucking unbelievable.”
She huffed, crossed her arms, and leaned back on the sofa.
“I’m sorry, love,” Jolene said, her voice gentle.
“Yes, our alumni are pretty fucking despicable, that much is clear,” Val said.
“We should go talk with my mother,” Blaze said. “I want to get to the bottom of this. I want to hear her tell me what is going on and what the Hel they are thinking.”
“Do you think she’ll speak with us?” Jolene asked. “We already tried my auntie, and she warned us to not speak with the other alumni about it.”
Blaze’s gaze was blazing fire, his jaw tight. “Oh, believe me, my mother will talk. I’ll make her talk. She’ll have no other choice but to tell me what the Hel is going on.”
“If you think you can make that happen, go for it,” Val said.
Blaze nodded and said nothing more.
Alecto knocked on the door. A moment later, Jolene opened it and smiled.
“Hey, what’s up?” She moved away from the doorway to let Alecto into her room.
Alecto entered. Jolene had all the windows open and music playing from her gramophone.
“Listen, about the proposal,” Alecto said. “Have you told your aunties yet?”
Jolene bit her lip and shook her head.
“Why not?” Alecto asked.
