NOVEL NEXT Book 10A - The Auction - Chapter 3
They were all in my room
The rooms weren't that big, which meant that Mitchell Zarboe, who went by Shelly, was sitting in one corner of the room on the floor while Ether Klix, Fray Harror, Ren Zavel, and Jenne Vilou. They'd found a single armless chair somewhere, and that was where Justia Publian was sitting with Aelin Zeb curled up on her lap, asleep on her shoulder.
Of the seven of them, only Shelly and Jenne were awake. The meek tank from our secondary team stood up when I walked in, which got the charcoal-haired woman to look at the door. The golden Caster was curled up on the right side of the bed by Ren, with Ether sandwiched between Ren and Fray, so she was able to slide out from under the covers easily.
While Shelly and Justia were still in their day clothes of jeans and button-up shirts, Jenne had on almost the exact same outfit as Aelin, which was an oversized white t-shirt that almost covered the pink shorts that they were wearing.
I backed away from the door as the pair walked out into the hallway. I wasn't the most thrilled that they were the two who were awake. I was pretty sure that Jenne was loyal to Trent in the same way that Oz, Fray, and Gesai were loyal to me. All three of them had seals over their hearts that looked similar to mine, with the exception that I had all of their weapons that denoted them on mine, while they only had mine and Rix's. Actually, they should also have Ether's and Pixie's now that those two had been added as anchors to the seal, but I hadn't inspected the full seal on Fray or Gesai since that'd happened.
The reason why I thought that was because I had a way of subconsciously charming women to become infatuated with me. The only women it didn't work on were the ones that I considered off limits or the ones that were connected to someone else. I hadn't started thinking of Jenne as off limits until recently, and I didn't believe that Trent would have brought someone onto the team and not be aware that they were connected to someone else. Considering that her aunt had been spying for Trent on the Six, the Nobles that governed Mive, it was a logical leap that she was part of his spy group too.
Shelly was a different story, and it wasn't just because he was the only guy on a team with women from my harem. Faer Zarboe, his older sister, had been part of Gesai's year, and his parents had tried to get her on Trent's team. She had gone so far as to try to get the Tank on Gesai's team killed to get the slot. While the plan failed and Faer got a slap on the wrist, it showed just how far the woman would go to try to get what she wanted.
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Faer was the heir to the company Gadgets and Gizmos within the Cathedral Ward, but that position could be challenged by Shelly if he built up enough of a reputation while on Trent's team. Which meant that Faer had actively started to make moves to inherit the company early. Once she did, she would try to get Shelly married off to another family for political connections and pull him off of the team so he wouldn't be able to challenge her. Their parents were resisting, but at the first sign of trouble, they weren't going to fight what could be a losing battle.
All of that meant that Shelly wasn't going to do anything to make waves or that might get him in trouble. While I could respect that, what I had in mind was something that I knew he wasn't going to participate in. But I knew that I could trust him to keep an eye on everyone and try to keep them safe, which I appreciated.
"How long have they been out?" I nodded at the door Jenne had just closed.
"Two hours." Shelly didn't have to look at his Crystal Band, or as most people called them, his CB. The crystal on a leather strap that Adventurers wore on our wrists stored items, held information, told time, and was a communication device all in one.
"Did it work?" Jenne kept her voice low even though the door was shut. She glanced down the hall where Miel was talking to someone in hushed whispers.
"I think so." I looked at Shelly. "I'm going out to look for Rix and Pixie. Can you stay here with Justia and the others?"
The brown-eyed, charcoal-skinned blond nodded. "Who all are you taking with you?"
"Jenne." I tilted my head towards the golden Caster. "Gesai and Oz." I touched the two arms of the two women that were standing on either side of me. "And probably just Ether. Ren might go with us, but I need Justia to look after Astrid, which means Aelin will want to stay, and I'm pretty sure that Fray isn't going to want to go with us."
"Where do you think that you're going to be able to find a lead that Klix or the Scarlets won't find?" Gesai let out a breath I hadn't realized she was holding.
"While Klix can scare people into talking to her, that's just it." I looked at Jenne. "The people who have the answers we need are going to see her coming and disappear. We can go places that she can't."
"Like where?" Jenne folded her arms across her chest. She raised an eyebrow as her green eyes held my gaze. "You sound like you have somewhere in mind."
"Yeah…"
"You're not going anywhere." Miel interrupted me. Her ivory face was clouded as her red eyes glared at me. I could tell that I wasn't the target for her ire, but that didn't decrease the intensity. "My mother has decreed that you're all staying here."