Gabriella Poole: Blood Ties (Darke Academy)

‘Then Cassandra,’ murmured Sir Alric quietly, ‘will give you one.’

Cassie shot him a grateful look, but her expression hardened as she studied the row of Elders.

‘Brigitte and Vaughan have made fools of the lot of you,’ she said coldly. ‘They’ve been taking prisoners from the Confine and feeding

them to the Living Soil for years. I can show you the place where it happened. You can determine how true it is for yourselves. If you can

face it.’

‘Indeed?’ drawled the actor. ‘And you can prove this?’

‘If you don’t believe me,’ retorted Cassie, pointing, ‘ask him.’

All eyes in the room swivelled from Cassie to the handsome features of Sir Alric. He cleared his throat.

‘Cassie came to me with her story last night. Needless to say I was as shocked as the rest of you, but I did visit the place she described. I

am afraid what she has told you is true – there are human corpses under the ground there. I have also been to the Confine.’ He paused. ‘It

was empty. I fear there can be little doubt that all those who were being held there have been fed to the Living Soil, here in New York.’

No one moved; no one spoke. The supermodel had paled, and even the senator had her eyes shut and her hand over her mouth.

‘My God …’ whispered the old cardinal.

Sir Alric gazed steadily at Cassie. ‘Cassandra, I can assure you that none of the other Elders were aware of the abomination you

witnessed. I hope you believe that.’

‘I’m trying to.’ Cassie clasped her hands tightly behind her back, digging her nails into her palms. ‘But even if that’s true, even if you

didn’t know about the Living Soil, you are all still responsible. You voted to send Jake to the Confine, along with God knows how many

other people whose only crime was to know too much about the Few. But you never bothered to check on them, did you? You didn’t want

to know – out of sight, out of mind. So Vaughan and Brigitte were able to do whatever they wanted with them.’

Nineteen pairs of eyes were focused on her. She clenched her hands tighter so they wouldn’t shake.

‘And what’s more – your Confine? It’s a jail. I don’t care how fancy it is, it’s a prison for innocents, and that’s wrong. You want to protect

the secret of the Few? Well, here’s the deal – you work out another way to do it. I want the Confine closed. Now. And if I ever hear of

anybody else vanishing, if anything happens to Jake Johnson, or any other innocent person, I’ll be the fat lady in the Few’s last act. You

hear me? I’ll be singing at the top of my voice. I’ll go to the cops. I’ll go to the FBI. I’ll go to CNN and Fox News and the New York Times and

the Washington Post and, damn it, I’ll go to the National Enquirer.’

Breathless with fury, she forced her voice to calm. There was redness in her eyes. Just enough: she mustn’t let it go too far … The power

bubbled like a physical thing, just under her skin, but now she was controlling it, rather than vice versa.

‘I don’t care how influential you are, there are still plenty of influential people who aren’t Few. I’ll go to them, I’ll tell them everything. I’ll

tell all the normal people. Because there still are some, you know? Normal, decent individuals who don’t have to steal their life-force from

other people.’

‘And you,’ the Hollywood actor reminded her silkily, ‘are not one of them.’

‘No,’ she spat. ‘But I remember what it was like. I remember who I was. Comes of being a mongrel, I guess.’

‘If we go down, you will suffer with us, Miss Bell.’ The senator’s voice was frigid.

‘Maybe so, senator. But I’ll do it anyway. And I know what you’re thinking: that you could just put me in your precious Confine. Lock me

away. Well …’ Cassie forced a grin, summoning all her chutzpah. And that wasn’t so hard when she could already see that at least half of

them were visibly afraid of her. ‘… You can put me in the Confine, but can you keep me there?’

Calmly reaching out with a tentacle of force, Cassie gently lifted the fountain pen from the senator’s numb fingers and snapped it neatly

in two.

The senator let out a choking gasp. The rest of the Elders seemed dumbstruck.

How’s that for control, Sir Alric?

And was she mistaken, or was there just a hint of pride in his granite eyes?

Sir Alric Darke rapped the silver gavel, very gently, so that it made the sweetest of ringing sounds.

‘So, ladies and gentlemen, shall we put it to a vote?’

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Cassie lifted her phone as it vibrated silently in her hand. Yet again she studied the glowing display.

1 New Message

from

Patrick Malone

Once more her thumb moved to the keypad. Once more it gently pressed Delete.