Core (18 page)

Cale put a hand on Rory’s shoulder. “How are you feeling?” he asked, trying to change the subject.
 
It’s easier than explaining.

“I’m fine now,” he said. But his eyes were dark. “Cale, you should come back home. Drop this craziness. You’re driving Dad insane.
And me, too. Mostly me.”

Cale shook his head. “Rory, I can’t come home. And I can’t talk to you in public. I told you.”

“Then, talk to me in private,” he said.

“Rory–
”

“
–Cale.”

Cale sighed.
“Fine.” He turned to Ava and pointed his finger at her. “I’ll be back. Stay with Onna. Please.”

“Okay.”

He narrowed his eyes at her. “Stay with Onna, Ava.”

“Cale, I heard you.”

But it wasn’t enough. He took Onna aside, talking to her in red tongue. Ava didn’t know what they were saying, but he was speaking forcefully, almost as if he was threatening her. He pointed his finger at her, then back at Onna, then her again.

Onna nodded and rolled her eyes. “I got it,” she said.

“Onna, I’m serious.”

“I
 
got it
.”

Cale followed Rory to the back room. It was empty, as it usually was when Rory and his lady friends weren’t occupying it, when Rory wasn’t busy reenacting the choice that had stripped his birthright from him.

“Cale, we can fix this.”

Cale shook his head. “No, we can’t.”

He tried to distract himself from the ache that coursed through him, but there was nothing to look at except for Rory. Whatever healing he had embraced was being ripped away.

“Let me take care of this,” Rory said. “I’ll talk to Victor, get him to see straight. And I’ll reason with Dad. You don’t have to worry, Cale.”

Rory put his hands on his little brother’s shoulder in an effort to comfort him, to protect him. Cale felt like he was nine years old again. He remembered Sean, who was taller and older and bigger at the time, pushing him over in their backyard. Rory had pulled Sean up by the back of the shirt and tossed him into the patio table.

Standing in the back room of the Cave, Rory was the same big brother, his hands exactly where they had been nine years before. But Cale gently pushed them away.

“It’ll be easier than you think–”

“Rory, you’re not listening.” Cale didn’t know how else to point out Rory’s denial.

“I know it sucks right now, but–”

“Rory, I’m not
coming home,” Cale said firmly.

Rory stood still long enough for Cale to see the hurt in his eyes.

“Even if Mac apologizes,” Cale took a deep breath, “I’m not coming home. Ever.”

“But…
why?” Rory had to blink so that his eyes didn’t fill with water.

“Why?” Cale’s temper flared, not at Rory but at his father, at the grey court, at the stupid edict that had inexplicably wrecked his life in no more than five minutes. He struggled to keep his anger suppressed enough to give a clear answer.

“Because he disowned me, Rory.”

“He didn’t mean it.”

“Doesn’t matter what he meant.”

Rory swallowed. “Well,
at least give me something to do, then.”

Cale frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I know you and Cameron must have come up with something by now.”

Cale shook his head, but Rory growled. “Don’t tell me I can’t help. It doesn’t matter what you think, I’m still your big brother.” He shoved Cale, a li
ght flickering behind his eyes.

A knock on the door and Cale tensed. Victor opened, his lips turned down in a scowl. He stared at Cale, but still made sure to keep his distance.
Exile was a dangerous thing, even for someone like Victor. No one was willing to get too close to Cale.
If only Rory would understand that.

“You break my rules every ti
me you step through my doors.” Victor said it too coolly.

“We’re leaving,” Cale answered.

“And you won’t be back,” Victor finished.

Cale stepped past him and out of the door. The Cave was dead quiet, every dragon watching as Vic
tor followed Cale to the exit. Cale moved with deliberately relaxed steps. One spark, and the whole Cave would go up in flames. They had all come for a fight, and Cale could feel the frenzy of every dragon feeding off of the buzz in the air.

“We challenge you.”

Cale spun around, his eyes wide. Rory stood with his arms crossed over his thick chest. He was looking right at Victor.

The older dragon
hissed, smoke escaping his mouth, his eyes narrowing. “What did you just say?”

“Cale and I.
We challenge you.”

No one had fought Victor and his partner in years. He and his twin, Manuel, were the best
. It’s Victor’s club for God’s sake
. Cale tried to pull Rory back, but his brother snatched his arm free, still glaring at Victor.

“
You
 want to challenge 
me
?”

Rory looked around at the dragons that crowded the Cave. They were leaning forward, their heat filling the room. Rory threw his hands into the air and shouted in red tongue. “What do you say?”

The dragons roared, stomping their feet against the basement floor, lifting their drinks into the air. They came to see a fight, and the legendary Victor in the ring against the Exiled was more than they could have hoped for.

Victor glared at the brothers. Everyone knew he couldn’t back down, not after he’d been challenged openly. So they waited for his reply, urging him on with cries of their own.

“Someone wake Manuel,” he said through clenched teeth. He stepped toward Rory, his glare boring into him. And then, as if his eyes had suddenly been opened, he saw the blue tint of the dragon standing near the doorway.

The smoke that left Victor’s mouth changed from white to a thick, ungodly charcoal. “You bring this
 
zeiz
 into my home,” he spat when he said the word. “And you think I won’t spill your blood and have him drink it?”  He was only inches from Rory. “You have just made a mistake.”

Rory did not blink until Victor backed away and left the room, walking with his shoulders squared and his chin high. As soon as he left, Cale shoved Rory as hard as he could.

“Are you
insane
? Why would you do that?!”

Rory shoved him back. “I told you I’d help.”

Cale wanted to punch him in the mouth. He struggled to keep calm, a stream of dark smoke blowing through his nostrils. “Rory, the whole point of us trying to fight was to win the prize money. Victor can’t compete for money in his own tournament. Even if we win, we get nothing.”

“How was I supposed to know that?” Rory shouted.

“You don’t think!” Cale was beyond angry, his eyes rimmed in red. “You don’t
think
, Rory. You do everything on impulse. If you thought things through, just once, you wouldn’t have made so many stupid mistakes.”

“At least I didn’t
 
choose
 to betray my family,” Rory hissed.

Cale stopped, all the hot blood that had been boiling in his veins froze. He wanted to cry. He wanted to
scream. He wanted to kill him.

“The moment I was asked to choose,
 
I
 was rejected,” he said slowly. “If I stayed in that nest, I’d live my whole life knowing it would be that easy for my own father to throw me away.” He cleared his throat against the pain, hating that his voice caught on each sharp word. “I had no choice.”

Rory blinked. “That doesn’t make any sense to me, Cale.”

Cale sighed and buried his face in his palm. They’d had these arguments before, as kids. And it always ended the same way.  Cale put his hand on his big brother’s shoulder. “It doesn’t matter. I still love you.”

Rory sighed back. “I know.”

It was that easy. It was that hard. Always had been. Always would be.

“We’re going to have to do this now,” Cale said. “You know that, too?”

“Don’t pretend like you aren’t excited.”

Cale couldn’t help but return Rory’s grin. He looked around, ready to explain to Ava that he’d probably have his skull crushed for the sake of Rory’s impulsiveness. His smile slipped off of his face as he scanned the crowd.

“Where’s Ava?”

***

Onna put the car in park and killed the lights. Her hood pulled over her head, Ava was eyeing the vehicle that had parked against the curve directly in front of them.

“Cale’s going to kill me,” Onna said. “I should at least call him.”

“No,” Ava said. “He doesn’t have to know anything about this.”

Onna bit her lip as she thought. She couldn’t interpret facial expressions like Cameron could, but she had enough instinct to know Ava was stressed at the idea of talking to the man who sat in the car.

“Who is this guy, anyway?” she asked.

Ava didn’t answer. Instead, she opened her car door. “Keep an eye on him,” she said as she walked toward the sedan.

She tapped on T’s window, and he turned it down. Ava nearly gasped. Black and purple bruises circled his left eye and his nose had been broken again. It didn’t look recent, but it was still jarring. Ava recalled scratching him, maybe leaving a few minor marks. 
There’s no way I did that much damage.

“W
hat happened to you?”

“Got a vis
it from your boyfriend.” He moved his lips as though his words were bitter on his tongue.

“I didn’t know anything about that.”
 
When did Cale have time to do that? When I thought he was too heartbroken over the exile to get out of bed? 
She shuffled her feet. “And he’s not my boyfriend.”

“What is he, then?”

The only friend I’ve ever had? My dragon? 
 “He’s just a guy.”

T’s hands were still on the wheel, as though he was about to take off down the street at any moment. “Well, that ‘guy’ is the best fighter I’ve ever seen. It’s like he’s not even human.” He
coughed into his jacket sleeve. “You should be careful.”

Ava laughed. “I should be careful of
 
him
? He’s never even come close to hurting me.”

T frowned. It took him a few moments to gather his breath. Ava had never seen him that disheveled, that frazzled before. He looked like he was searching for words.

“Ava–” he stalled, licked his lips, and tried again. “Ava, I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened that night. I was just….I was so pissed.” His eyes flicked up at her. “I mean, I’ve always…you know I care about you. I just lost it for a minute.”

Ava scoffed. Her memory of that night was clear. She’d given him plenty of chances to stop, including when she yelled it at him. “I don’t care what excuse you giv
e me, T. I’ve had enough of those for one lifetime. Can I borrow it or what?”

He sighed, letting go of the steering wheel. “Get in and we’ll talk about it.”

“You must be joking.”

“Can I at least buy you something to eat?”

“No.”

T
’s anger flashed in his eyes. “So you want me to lend you a thousand dollars, but you won’t have dinner with me? And you won’t even tell me what it’s for?”

Ava knew it was a long shot asking him for the money. But Miriam had nothing, the O’Hara’s couldn’t let their mother know they were hosting an exile, and stealing
it from Jim would do no good; he was broke too.

“Look, if you can’t be cool about it, forget it,” she said.

She was about to walk away when T grabbed her wrist. His voice was low as he spoke. “Just get in for a minute so I can actually talk to you without you running off.”

This was a stupid waste of time.
 Ava pulled her hand free and walked as calmly as she could to Onna’s car. 
Don’t let him see that you’re afraid. Just be cool.

T slammed his car door behind him as he made his way to Ava. He grabbed her arm again, wrenching it toward him. “Exactly who do you think you are?” he asked, drops of spit landing on Ava’s face. “Do you have any idea how many girls get on their knees and beg me to touch them?
For God’s sake, I’m willing to
pay for it
.”

But
Ava broke his hold on her, stepped down hard on his instep, and drove her palm up into his already broken nose. He cried out in anguish, clutching his face, but he was still faster than she was. He rushed forward, grabbing her by the waist, swinging as he tried to bring her to the ground.

Before Ava could defend herself, Onna grabbed T by the back of his shoulders and thrust her knee upward into
the base of his spine. He was rendered immobile as Onna held him there.