Page 52 of The Honor Society

“She’s bad at faking.” I shrug.

“And you know that as Proctor or as⁠—”

I cup a hand over his mouth. “Careful.”

He pulls my hand down, a sheepish look crosses his face. “Sorry boss, forgot myself.”

“Well remember yourself and sit down, we have shit to go over. It only makes sense that Famine was asked to stay close to Death.” Oh shit. “They aren’t leading Famine to Death, they’re trying to see who Famine already protects. That changes things. And they were testing me to see if I’d protect Famine. More importantly, they were testing me to see if I knew where Death was.” I hand him the note Charlie received.

He stares down at it. “Yeah, that’s not his handwriting.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I have eyes.” He says slowly. “Smart. He even has people writing his serial killer letters for him now. I hate that guy. I’ve met him on two separate Convocations, nothing can convince me he’d be a good leader.”

“Reasons being?”

“Reasons being he’s killed every successor who as much as breathed in his direction and has successfully rid The Honor Society of two Chancellors by way of two very dead Proctors.”

That information doesn’t sit well with me. “That had to have been a long time ago, Rhodes has been in power.” I do the math. “Shit, don’t tell me Rhodes is on Death’s side?”

“Okay, Rhodes isn’t on Death’s side.”

“Cool lie, thanks.” I pour heavily into my glass and lean against the counter. “The Chancellor can’t move without me, nor can he really do anything but he can at least help keep Death alive long enough to move some chess pieces or get close enough to Famine to sway the vote.”

“So certain about mine and Conquest?”

I roll my eyes. “Locked in. You’re loyal to the death, so is Jude, and no way do we want Edward anywhere near The Chancellor’s throne.”

“Why did you take it?”

“What are you talking about?”

“The job, as Proctor, why did you say yes? You could have walked away.”

“That’s not how this job works first off. Second, I owed it to The Proctor bleeding out in my arms, and third—” I sigh. “I realized how fucking good I was at it. Keeping people in line. Killing. Digging up debts, keeping the ledgers. And if not me, who else? At the time I had no one. I wasn’t afraid to die because I wasn’t afraid to leave anything behind.” My eyes fall on Charlie. “None of that matters now anyway.”

“Right.” He scratches the back of his head. “If you say so.”

We both know that I have something to lose, something that would destroy me.

“Anyways,” Jenner clears his throat, grabs himself a glass and moves his hand towards the bottle. I roll my eyes. “Thanks boss. So, all this being said, we need to move her.”

“Who?”

“Lilah.” He takes a sip. ”Damn that is good.”

“No. Not yet. It just confirms that she’s Death.” Shit. I eye Charlie. I can’t ask that of her and it just puts her in more danger. Jude would just confirm it and the whole original point of Jude taking up his family name was to keep Lilah safe, that was before, this is now.

Wow, it’s about to get painful.

“Make the call.” I set the glass down. “Get Rhodes here. Now.”

“That’s risky.”

“It’s the last play I have, Jenner, and he’s the only one not fully on the board.”

“Hell of a depressing welcome party.” He yawns and pulls out his phone. “Yeah, Rhodes, The Proctor would like to see you. Now. No, I highly doubt he will give any shits that you are currently at a gala with the mayor, you could be sleeping with the president and the instructions will still be the same. Your ass needs to be here in less than fifteen minutes or you’ll be in direct defiance of Code 0219 which immediately calls to action the—” he smiles at me. “Good choice. He opened the Syrah…” he hangs up. “Didn’t know he was more of a Red Blend guy, may want to go grab another bottle. It’s going to be a long night.”