A Beast Among Gods (The Mac Tire Chronicles) by Garnet Davenport (big screen ebook reader txt) 📗

us. His expression was determined, and his stride was fast. As he got closer, I could tell we were in for a fight.

“What are you doing? Are you crying? You’re such a baby.” He sneered. “Yeah, baby.” His voice taunted Jamie. “Baby. Baby.”

“Why don’t you back the hell off?” I growled low as I kept my head down.

“Fu—”

I rose and snapped my hand out and around his neck. My face only inches away from his. “I said back the hell off. Didn’t you hear me? Or are you just too stupid to understand?”

His eyes were wide as he tried to take in a breath. No guards tried to pull me off him. In fact, several of them stood smirking at the scene unfolding in front of them.

Finally, as he started to turn red, trying to tear at my hand, I dropped him to the floor where he coughed and gasped to get air back into his lungs.

“I said back the hell off.” I growled and then sat back down and scooped another bite of Salisbury steak with my spoon into my mouth.

As I finished eating, one of the guards came forward to get everyone’s attention. “Everyone to Rugger’s Hall,” the guard announced.

The boys started to file out. Jamie got up and came to my side. “We’ve got to go.”

He waited just a little longer until I started to join in at the back of the line of boys. “Why are we going to Hugger’s Hall?”

“It’s where they tell us who isn’t coming back.”

I rolled my eyes at the idea of it. But as I watched some of the boys file in and sit auditorium style in chairs lined around a stage, I began to wonder. Some of the boys looked overly nervous and some extremely smug. I wanted to crush that boy’s face in who decided to make everyone else miserable. He was just a bully. I sat next to Jamie, and he folded his arms around his frail body.

“Don’t be worried,” I said.

“Me? I’m more worried about you. The stories that I’ve heard if anyone even remotely tries to help someone else… it’s horrific,” he said as his eyes finally fell on mine. That was when I saw the true nature of what was going to happen.

“I don’t want you to be worried about me. I won’t be backed into a corner,” I said, feeling very determined.

He looked down and away from me as he very quietly said, “You’re the first friend I’ve made in a long time. I’m not going to let anything to happen to you.”

That was when a man came onto the stage and started to speak. “It is with great honor that I am introducing our Chief Commander of Military Intelligence, Franco Fabrizio.”

Everyone started to clap for this horrible man. The man who killed my mother and everyone I’ve ever cared for. I sat there with my arms sitting loosely on my thighs. He would get no applause from me.

“Thank you. It is an honor to produce such fine young men. The war is getting worse. With the night attacks and constants raids, we need to be able to strike fast and hard at our enemies.”

What the hell was he talking about? I’d never heard anything about night attacks or raids. I’d lived for nearly a decade in complete isolation, learning how to control my temper and working through my rage while learning about the mac tire history. Aodhan had taught me so much from our walks. He would have to have known something happened. I wanted him to look for me, but it was my fault Diane and John were dead. Why would anyone come looking for me?

As my father left the stage, someone else came up and started reading off a list. Looking around, I saw so many nervous eyes waiting to hear their name be called. I hadn’t cared. I’d rather be dead than to be here with him.

“William Fabrizio.”

There it was. I slumped down in my seat and crossed my arms over my chest.

“Jamie Dawson.”

Whispers wrapped through the auditorium. Everyone was looking around. I looked to my left to Jamie, who had sat next to me. His jaw had completely dropped, and his eyes were bugging out of his head.

“Di…did he just… was that me?” he asked.

“Is that your last name?” I answered.

“Mm-hm.”

“Then that’s you.”

“How?” he said and then looked over at me. “It’s because of you. It has to be. I would have never… you saved my life. You have my loyalty.” He took his right fist and brought it to left peck.

“Yeah, okay,” I said, blowing off the sentiment.

➣ Chapter 10

Getting Too Close

There were a handful of boys that didn’t make it through the trials. They were escorted out, and their place was empty that night when we ate. I hadn’t gotten a chance to know who they were. They couldn’t have been that bad of people but just the fact that they were here, and wanted to be here, meant I didn’t want to get to know them.

“It’s weird, right?” Jamie said, leaning in toward me from across the table.

“What?”

“They’re just gone.”

“Why do you even care? Didn’t they torture you?”

“Well, yeah.”

“So, who cares?”

“I guess no one,” he murmured.

Yeah, I felt bad, but what was I supposed to do? And now I felt bad for what I said. But it was too late to take it back now.

“Look—” I started.

“No, it’s all right. I don’t want you feeling sorry for me. I’ll be fine,” he said and then got up to take his tray to the trash.

I hadn’t meant to make him feel like I didn’t care. I wouldn’t have made him push himself if I hadn’t. But anytime someone gets close to me, they die. I can’t let it happen again. On top of that, I want to make sure he wasn’t just kept here because of me. It’d just be harder on him the further he gets.

“William, you’re needed