Page 3 of Mayhem

“Stop egging Echo on. It’s bad enough that she’s got a plan to take out Nichlas to begin with,” Samael started. I opened my mouth to throw a retort before Samael shook his head. “Echo, just listen for a second. I get revenge. I get making people pay for their mistakes. We know all about shit like that.”

“You have never been fragile a day in your life,” Samael said against Runo’s mouth before pushing him back with one hand on his chest. “And stop encouraging her on. She’s already trying to make murder sound like an extracurricular.”

“It is an extracurricular if Aldrich gives her credit for it,” Runo said. His ocean-gray eyes slid back to the board, and the humor in them sharpened into something quieter. “The problem isn’t that she wants to kill him. The problem is that she gets dramatic when she’s excited.”

“I am not dramatic.” I paused, realizing I was about to get the speech of their youth or whatever bullshit. “Primrose, right. I know the whole spiel.” I threw my hands up in the air, gesturing wildly. “The four psychos of Primrose, taking out the citizens until you nearly got caught, offed some more people, and then took off. I know the story.”

Samael paused as Runo slid off his lap and perched his ass on the desk. “Echo, baby, you don’t get it, do you?” His words almost came out like a purr, a spark of fear running down my spine. I always forgot how terrifying my fathers were until they were looking me dead in the eyes. Runo was also the only one allowed to call me anything other than Echo as my biological father. “Kill whoever you desire. The more the merrier. The skill is in not getting caught. We’re very happy here and I don’t want to move. Do what you need to but do it wisely.”

“Of course. Who’s daughter do you think I am?”

I threw a grin at him, rivaling one of his devilish smiles. Runo’s smile widened while Samael looked like he was reconsidering several life choices. I spun the chair once more because I had learned nothing from the last ten minutes and because no one had physically stopped me yet, which felt like permission in a family full of criminals.

When I came back around, I pointed toward the front office. “Where are Father One and Father Two, anyway? I know Slash is technically capable of being silent enough to haunt a room, but Aeron’s usually shoving food at me by now.”

“Preparing dinner,” Samael said.

That made me pause. “What kind of meat?” I asked, because I was traumatized, not stupid.

Runo made a soft, offended sound and pressed a hand to his chest. “That’s disrespectful. Aeron does not serve anything other than animal meat.”

I narrowed my eyes at him.

“What he eats on his own time is for him,” Runo added primly.

The memory hit me before I could stop it: two years ago, one in the morning, me wandering half-dead into the kitchen for water and finding Father One and Father Four standing over what I had assumed was a roast until the shape of it had become much too recognizable.

Aeron had looked completely unbothered. Runo had smiled with his mouth full. I had turned around, walked directly back out, and learned one of the most important rules of living with my fathers: if it happened after midnight and nobody called my name, it was none of my business.

I grimaced and pointed at Runo. “I’m still mad about that.”

“You came into the kitchen unannounced.”

“I live here!”

“And yet...” Runo teased.

“And yet,” Samael said, cutting in before I could accuse Father Four of ruining roast beef for me forever, “you are going to the house, eating whatever Aeron gives you, and pretending for one full night that you have the survival instincts of a person who wants to see next week.”

“Gross. Why would I pretend something so unrealistic?”

“Because tomorrow matters,” Samael said, and the words took enough of the humor out of the room that I stopped pushing the chair. He leaned forward, his forearms braced on his thighs, all patience gone from his face. “Aldrich is not a warehouse. It’s not an alley. It’s not one of your undergrad favors where you can scare someone into giving you a name and disappear before anyone knows you were there. It has money, security, records, cameras, and people who will notice if a body drops in the middle of orientation.”

I clicked my tongue. “You say that like I was planning to be messy.”

“I say it because I know you.”

Runo huffed a laugh, but Samael didn’t soften. He tapped the Aldrich file once, drawing my attention back to the crest stamped across the top page. My enrollment was clean, my housing was set, my schedule looked boring enough to be believable, and every piece of access had been built to get me close without setting the whole campus on fire the second I walked through the gates. The sensible part of me understood that. Unfortunately, the sensible part of me was about the size of a raisin and had been outvoted by every other part that wanted Nichlas on his knees.

“I know the plan,” I said, quieter this time. “I go in. I learn the school. I confirm what we have. I don’t touch him until I know who’s around him, who’s protecting him, and what happens when he screams.”

Samael held my gaze for another beat before he nodded. It wasn’t approval exactly. Father Three didn’t hand out approval like candy. It was more of a temporary stay of execution for my bad judgment.

Runo studied me from the desk, his head tilted. “And if you see him tomorrow?”

My fingers flexed once against the arm of the chair. I smiled because that was easier than admitting my whole body had lit up at the thought of it. “Then I’ll be charming.”

Samael closed his eyes.