"Don't you see what happened? What Xaden's done?" Aetos asks Sorrengail, panicking like the infantry soldier he should have been- 

Everyone snickered in amusement as Dain and Cath rolled their eyes. Cath would do more, every ounce of his being was wanting to do more, but with the way Tairn and Sgaeyl's eyes were narrowed on him, he didn't dare. 

"Oh my God! Another chapter told by you! This just keeps getting better and better!" Caroline said, excitement clear in her voice. 

-and insinuating that I changed the outcome of Threshing.

If I act every time someone drags my name through a pile of bullshit, I'll never get anything done. For the most part, I take note of the offense, file it away for future consideration, and move on. As Sgaeyl loves to remind me, dragons are not concerned with the opinions of the sheep... or most humans. 

"Most humans?" Caroline asked, glancing at Xaden. 

"Most humans." He repeated with a single nod. 

But Aetos's fingers dent in on the shoulders of Sorrengail's uniform, right above the bandage from where she took the blade from that limp-dick first-year Tairn incinerated, and unexplainable rage pumps into my veins like little shards of ice, cutting everything in its path. I slam my mental shields down just like I do every time I'm near anyone, let alone a memory-reader. 

Everyone continued to snicker, they couldn't tell if the anger was from the limp-dick, or if it was from jealousy of Dain or both, but either way it was funny. 

"Please, do tell me what it is you think I've done." I step into the moonlight that illuminates most of the flight field and sever the flow of power from Sgaeyl, letting the night's shadows fall back into their natural state so this asshole can see me clearly.

"You manipulated Threshing." Aetos takes his hands off Sorrengail's shoulders, and I decide to let him keep them. For now. 

"Jealousy looks good on you." Violet told Xaden who smirked down at her, amusement shining in his eyes. 

Seriously. Of all the laws I break around here, that's the one he goes with?

"What?" A few people asked, wondering what other laws he breaks. 

I almost laugh, but then the asshole puts himself in front of Sorrengail, like Violence actually needs his protection. He didn't see her out there on the field today like I did, or he wouldn't be hovering like a nanny. 

"And yet you still ordered me a bod  guard." Violet said, tilting her head at him. 

"One that will still stick by your side." Xaden told her, and she rolled her eyes. 

"Oh for the love of the Gods! I. Don't. Need. A. Body gaurd." She told him, leaning away in annoyance. "I love Liam, I do, but this hovering is driving me crazy. I can't even go to the bathroom without him waiting outside the door! If this keeps up, I'll rip my own head off. I need space. Okay? I can more than take care of myself, especially now that I remember my old life." Violet told him, irritation clear in her voice. 

"You stand outside the bathroom?" Bonnie asked, looking at Liam weirdly. 

"How else am I to protect her if she gets attacked?" Liam asked in confusion. 

"Oh for the love of God." Violet said, throwing herself back onto the ground, her hands over her face, and giving up. 

"Dain, that's..." Sorrengail steps out from behind him.

"Is that an official accusation?" Gods, please give me a reason to beat the pompous, Codex-loving shit out of him. Just once.

"He's nothing but an irritant. Have some self-control," 

"Like you're one to talk." Violet said to Sgaeyl, who narrowed her eyes at Violet, who didn't even bother to move her arms from her face to look at the dragon. 

Sgaeyl lectures, like her affection for the little gold dragon isn't what put us in this fucking situation. 

I keep my gaze locked on Aetos and off Sorrengail's wide, hazel eyes and the scrapes that mar her skin. I definitely don't let my attention wander down those tight curves⁠— 

"Yeah, it definitely wandered." Kol said and everyone nodded in agreement. 

Fuck, she's a distraction. One I can't afford, and yet one I've just been saddled with for the rest of my godsforsaken life. And instead of glaring up at me with that fire I can't seem to stay the fuck away from, it's fear making her eyes appear more amber than blue in the moonlight. 

Violet couldn't help the smile that made it's way up her face from under her arms, she loved hearing about this. She loved hearing Xaden's point of view on things. 

Fear for... Aetos? Something unpleasant twists in my gut.

"Did you step in?" Aetos questions, his voice pitching toward whiny.

"Did I what?" I lift my brow, letting all my loathing for his spoiled ass shine through. The pint-size morsel of straight-up arsenic 

"Arsenic?" Violet asked in amusement, lowering her arms for her face as she looked over at Xaden who was already watching her. 

"Don't you get it by now, Violence? You're my poison." 

nearly got herself killed on that field, and his concern is for protocol? "Did I see her outnumbered and already wounded? Did I think her bravery was as admirable as it was fucking reckless?" I make the monumental mistake of looking at her, and the rigid hold I keep on my temper slips. She could have died out there. She almost did. Right in front of me. 

"And I would do it again." She tilts her stubborn chin at me. 

"Well-the-fuck-aware!" Shit. So much for only slipping—my control just evaporated. 

"I love watching  your control slip." Violet said through the link to Xaden, who swallowed thickly, knowing she very much meant it. 

"What about you makes all of these men lose their control over you? I don't see anything special." Cat said, frowning as she looked at the girl. 

"That's because you haven't had sex with me." Violet said, shrugging. 

"Neither had Xaden at this point. Or Klaus back in Mystic Falls and yet you still have both of them wrapped around your finger." Bonnie pointed out. 

"Then, I don't know, maybe the fact I'm the only one willing to tell them to shut the fuck up." Violet said, shrugging. 

"Did I see her fight off three bigger cadets?" I narrow my eyes at Aetos. "Because the answer to all of those is yes. But you're asking the wrong question, Aetos. What you should be asking is if Sgaeyl saw it, too."

"You did not just bring me into this nonsense." 

Everyone snickered in amusement, Sgaeyl sounded like a tired mom and an annoyed best friend put together, making this all the more funny. 

"You sure as hell dragged me into it. Since when do you get all mushy over smaller dragons?" Not that the golden one isn't cute. But going soft on cute gets you killed out here, which is exactly what makes Sorrengail so dangerous for me. 

"And she likes being that dangerous." Klaus said, and Violet looked over at him in amusement. 

"I really do." She said in amusement. 

Aetos looks away nervously, as he should.

"His mate told him," Sorrengail whispers. Guess someone filled her in on Tairn and Sgaeyl's mating bond.

"Since when do you get emotional over human women?" Sgaeyl challenges.

"I'm pissed, not emotional," I correct her. "She's never been a fan of bullies," I confirm. "But don't mistake it as an act of kindness toward you. She's fond of the little dragon. Unfortunately, Tairn chose you all on his own."

"Fuck," Aetos murmurs, finally putting it together.

"My thought exactly." I shake my head at the squad leader. "Sorrengail is the last person on the Continent I'd ever want to be chained to me. I didn't do this." In one second on that field, my attitude toward Violence changed from maybe-I'll-kill-her-or-maybe-I-won't to protect-her-at-all-costs. 

Violet smiled to herself, now knowing she was right that day. He would never hurt her. Not physically at least. 

And not because she's brilliant, or beautiful, or infuriatingly capable of shredding my carefully crafted control, even though she's absolutely all of those things. No. I had no choice in this. Tairn made my decision for me. 

Violet hummed as she rolled onto her stomach, bending her head to reach up and undo the braid on her head, letting the braid fall onto her back. 

"What are you doing?" Xaden asked, watching every movement she made. 

"Letting my hair down. It's causing a headache." She shrugged, letting her hair out of its braid, and running her fingers through the curls that had formed because of it, before rolling back over and onto her back, her silver hair all around her head as she did so. 

"And even if I had." I step into Aetos's space, and to his credit, he doesn't retreat as I hover over him. "Would you really level that accusation knowing it would have been what saved the woman you call your best friend?" At some point, Sorrengail is going to have to recognize that the last year in the quadrant has changed her little friend into someone she doesn't actually know. 

"Well aware." Violet sighed. 

His silence is fucking delicious, saying more to incriminate him than I ever could.

"There are... rules," he stammers, trying his best to stare me down even though I have inches on him. Odd time to grow a spine, but good for him.

"And out of curiosity, would you have, let's say, bent those rules to save your precious little Violet in that field?" Her name tastes odd on my tongue, softer than the nickname I prefer. 

"I prefer it too." Violet told him, biting her lip slightly as she looked over at him. 

"This is cruel, even for you," Sgaeyl notes with a hint of amusement.

"It's unfortunate that it hurts her, but she's going to have to toughen up to survive our partnership, and Aetos can't be anywhere around us." 

"What's the supposed to mean?" Dain asked, glaring at the man who just stared blankly at him in return. 

"Oh, so we're not discussing that you were already moving when Tairn landed?" she fires back. "That had he not arrived, you'd be guilty of the very thing the colonel's offspring accuses you of doing?" 

"I moved on instinct to protect⁠—" 

"Let's not embarrass each other by letting you finish that sentence." 

I fucking hate when she does that. She's the only being on the Continent with a sharper tongue than mine. Well. Violence might give her a run for her money. 

"Oh honey, I'd give anyone a run for their money." Violet said, sitting up as her hair hit her back, before standing up to move to the other side of Andarna to grab her bag and get her water out of it. 

"I don't doubt that." Liam said in amusement. 

"Oh ha ha." Violet said sarcastically before grabbing a rock from the ground and throating it at him, which he easily deflected with one of his swords, but it still made a lot of people across the field laugh in amusement. 

Damn, Aetos still hasn't answered.

"That's unfair to ask him." Sorrengail walks straight up to me, putting herself beside Aetos as the rhythmic beat of dragon wings fills the air. Guess the Empyrean has made its choice as to if they'll let her bond both dragons.

"I'm ordering you to answer, squad leader." I lock my gaze on his. Come on. Show her who you really are.

Aetos swallows so obnoxiously loud that I can hear it, then squeezes his eyes shut. "No. I wouldn't have." 

I scoff. Fucking rule-loving coward. He doesn't deserve to breathe the same air as Violence. She's half his size and a thousand times braver. Talk about a disproportionate relationship. There's no rule in this godsforsaken college that would keep me from saving Bodhi's, Garrick's, or Liam's life... and now hers. 

"There's no rule or law in any world, in any time, in any place, that would stop me from saving those I love. Not even the Gods themselves could come down here and tell me to stop. I'd do anything for those I love. Anything. Sometimes you have to do what's right and damn the consequences." Bonnie told the man, shaking her head in disgust at him. 

Aetos swings his face toward Sorrengail, but even I can see the damage is done. She looks like someone just shredded her favorite book. 

"Not funny." Violet said with a sigh as she sat back down. 

Shit. What is that uncomfortable weight sitting in my lungs? Is that... No. It can't be guilt. I can't remember the last time I felt guilty about... well... anything that didn't involve a marked one. 

"She's changing you man. Next thing you know you'll be braiding her hair." Garrick teased, completely amused. 

"I much prefer when he unbraides it to be honest." Violet said, staring at Garrick who just continued to look at her in amusement. 

"It would have killed me to watch something happen to you, Vi, but the rules—" Aetos whines. 

"It's all right," she interrupts, lifting her hand to his shoulder.

And it's enough to turn the guilt to nausea, which I'm oddly thankful for.

"The dragons are returning." I note the obvious as they start to land, causing cadets to scramble out of the way. "Get back to formation, squad leader."

Aetos scurries away like the little rat he is. 

"Why would you do that to him?" Sorrengail damn near shouts at me, then shakes her head. "Forget it." She dismisses me, walking away without another word. 

I blink. Swear to Amari, the five-foot-four pain in my ass is the only person who ever has the nerve to dismiss me. I'm moving before my common sense can tell me to leave well enough alone. 

"You're the only person lucky enough to get away something like that, you know." Imogen said in amusement. 

"That's because I'm the only person who could give him an adrenaline rush just from talking." Violet said in amusement. 

"She's not wrong." Xaden muttered, shaking his head. 

"Because you put too much faith in him." I catch up to her in a matter of steps. "And knowing who to trust is the only thing that will keep you alive— keep us alive —not only in the quadrant but after graduation."

"There is no us," she retorts, barely avoiding a collision with another rider running by, causing my heart to jolt. Yesterday, I might not have cared.

Today, her blood is my blood. 

"~Sweet Home Alabama~" Caroline sand and this time the rock was aimed at her... She was not able to dodge it. "OW!" She hissed, rubbing her arm. "Easy! I'm human again." She pouted. 

"Oh, I think you'll find that's no longer the case." I grab hold of her elbow and pull her out of the path of another imminent collision. Is this what it's going to be like, trying to keep this woman alive? She'll stand up to three armed bullies to defend the smallest dragon, but she won't watch where the fuck she's walking? 

"Yep." Everyone on the field said with a sigh. 

"Tairn's bonds are so powerful, both to mate and rider, because he's so powerful. Losing his last rider nearly killed him, which, in turn, nearly killed Sgaeyl. Mated pairs' lives are⁠—"

"Interdependent, I know that," she snaps back, anger highlighting the blue in her eyes as she rips her gaze from mine, focusing on the movement of the riot as they land.

What in Dunne's name is wrong with me that I'm noticing shit like that? 

Everyone glanced at each other, they're both so stupid it hurts. 

"Now who's getting mushy?" Sgaeyl asks. 

"Attracted and mushy aren't the same thing." And I'm already pissed at myself for the first. I'm sure as hell not slipping into the second. 

"Something tells me you already slipped." Violet said to him, and he looked at her. 

"I didn't slip. I free fell off a cliff." He told her and she looked over at him. 

It was in that moment everything changed for her, she knew exactly what she wanted, and it wasn't just sex, or anything else that's usually their go to. 

She just wanted him. 

She leaned over and kissed him softly, and as much as she wanted to touch him, she kept her hands to herself, knowing if she moved even one of them it would turn what she wanted to be a sweet moment, and turn it into the worlds most dirty show. 

"Seriously, you two? If you two keep going at it like this, we'll never get this done." Ridoc said, sighing, even though he was very much amused. 

Violet pulled away, eyes shining as she fought every cell in her body to pull him back in, but she was trying to make some kind of point. "We're not doing anything. We can continue." Violet said, never taking her eyes away from Xaden as a small smile played at her lips. 

Both of them had felt it, but neither one of them wanted to say what it was. 

Not until the book exposed them for it first. 

"Each time a dragon chooses a rider, that bond is stronger than the last, which means that if you die, Violence, it sets off a chain of events that potentially ends with me dying, too. So yeah, unfortunately for everyone involved, there's now an us if the Empyrean lets Tairn's choice stand."

Her eyes flare and her lips part.

And I'm definitely not thinking about her mouth, not when I have bigger concerns like how to keep her alive. Not thinking about the best angle to kiss her, either. Or what her perfect ass would feel like in my hands. 

"Gross." Hope, Lily and Lia all said, disgusted. 

"And now you know the answer to both of those questions. So what new ones are circling in that beautiful brain of yours?" Violet asked. 

"What angle is best to fuck you? How many times can I make you scream my name before you can no longer speak? How many times can I make you lightning before you can't take anymore?" He listed off and she blushed, but smiled none the less. 

"Well, we can answer those tonight if you'd like." She said, her eyes shining. 

"I'd prefer to do it right now." 

"I know, but I don't think the kids, or my family would like it very much if we started doing it here and now."

"And now that Tairn is in play, that other cadets know he's willing to bond..." Gods, they're going to come after her. On the mat. In the halls. In the damned bathing chamber that I can't exactly patrol. I force my gaze away and exhale with enough force to actually call it a sigh.

"That's why Tairn told me to stay with you," she whispers, like she's finally grasping the severity of our situation. "Because of the unbonded."

"The unbonded are going to try to kill you in hopes they'll get Tairn to bond them."

Garrick heads my way, and I shake my head. Any news he has from last night's mission has to wait. 

"What mission?" A few people asked, confused, but they got no answer. 

"Of all the people in the quadrant, Tairn had to bond Sorrengail?" Life is about to get infinitely more complicated. 

"Feel free to question his motives," Sgaeyl suggests. 

Tairn let out a breath, his eyes narrowed at the wingleader, which amused Violet to no end. 

"Hell no. I prefer my head attached." He's one surly motherfucker. "Tairn is one of the strongest dragons on the Continent, and the vast power he channels is about to be yours. The next few months, the unbonded will try to kill a newly paired rider while the bond is weak, while they still have a chance of that dragon changing its mind and picking them so they're not set back a full year. And for Tairn? They'll do just about anything." I can't help but sigh for real this time. "There are forty-one unbonded riders for which you are now target number one." I hold up my pointer finger.

"And Tairn thinks you'll play bodyguard." She snorts. "Little does he know just how much you dislike me." 

"He knows exactly how much you dislike her and how often you stare⁠—" 

"I will volunteer for every cold-weather mission in existence if you⁠—" 

"Rude. As if your inability to control your own hormones should result in my discomfort." She mentally shudders. Ruthless and vicious as my girl might be, she draws the line at the cold unless we're flying for Aretia. 

The smile slipped off of Violet's face, and it morphed into a confused frown. 

"Aretia?" She asked, confused, "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" 

"Nothing." 

"I'm going to find out either way, you should really tell me before I get mad." She told the man, her eyes narrowed. 

"Can we not do this now?" He asked with a sigh and she nodded. 

"Sure." She said before getting up and walking away as she put her hair into a messy bun, moving to sit next to Hope and Klaus. She valued truth, and if Xaden wasn't going to give it to her, then what else would there before them to talk about? 

"He knows exactly how much I value my own life," I counter, my gaze roaming down Sorrengail's body. There's absolutely nothing to dislike about what I see. In fact, if Amari herself ever designed a woman with my downfall in mind... Well, fuck. Maybe that's exactly what Violence is— my downfall. Soft skin. Sharp mind. Fierce temper. Deadly with a dagger. Brave to a fault. And utterly unruffled. 

"Oh, trust me, I'm ruffled." Violet said, glancing at Klaus next to her, causing him to smile in amusement as Hope rolled her eyes. 

"You're freakishly calm for someone who just heard she's about to be hunted." What makes her lose complete control? What kind of man would she let unravel her? 

"Toxic ones." Caroline said, shaking her head at her best friend. 

"She's two years your junior and in your chain of command." Sgaeyl feigns outrage.

"And you're fifty years younger than Tairn. Your point?"

"It's a typical Wednesday for me." Sorrengail shrugs, and my gaze locks onto the flush in her cheeks, that delicate bloom of pink that tells me she's not as unaffected by me as she likes to pretend. "And honestly, being hunted by forty-one people is a lot less intimidating than constantly watching dark corners for you." 

Fair point. 

The gold dragon lands behind us, followed by the monstrosity Sgaeyl calls a mate, and I walk the hell away as quickly as possible now that Sorrengail's protected, heading across the field to where Sgaeyl waits at the end of the row with the other wingleaders' dragons. 

Garrick stands just off to the side of Chradh— his Brown Scorpiontail —and lifts his eyebrows as I approach. "So, you and the general's daughter..." 

"Not funny." I shake my head and ignore Sgaeyl's chuff beside me as General Melgren takes the front of the dais. My skin crawls, just like it always does when he's near. Fucking murderer. It's not hard to tune him out; I've practiced ignoring him for years. Besides, I don't need to listen in order to know what he's going to say. 

Everyone Marked One's jaw ticked, and Violet couldn't blame a damn one of them for it. She hated the man too. How could she not when she's been in their position before? It might not have been Melgren who took her family from her in her first life, but she's still had those she loved taken from her, so she understood the hate, and she shared it on their behalf. 

Tairn will get his way. She'll bond both dragons. Even the Empyrean isn't going to tell the second-largest dragon on the Continent no when he finally wants to bond. They want him back on the battlefield.

"Is this going to be a problem?" Garrick asks as Melgren prattles on.

"No."

"Right." The word drips with sarcasm.

"I'm fine." I scan the first-years who survived Threshing.

"I've seen corpses more fine than you," my best friend mutters.

"Of course corpses are fine. They have nothing to worry about." And I've just been handed Violet-fucking-Sorrengail to protect if I want to live. Which I do. Or rather, I have to. Especially since Melgren just announced that she gets to bond her dragons.

I lower my shields just enough to feel for the bond. The hard sapphire one I share with Sgaeyl is locked into place as always, but now there are two more. The onyx I recognize as Tairn, and the other, a glimmering strand of... silver, like the ends of her hair. 

"Wait, WHAT?" Everyone except the marked ones yelled in shock. 

"Did I not mention that?" Violet asked awkwardly. 

"NO!" Rhiannon and Caroline yelled at the girl who grimaced. 

"Oops..." She muttered awkwardly. 

Fuck. He really did bond her. Only a mating bond like Sgaeyl and Tairn's could link me to another rider whether or not I want it.

Sorrengail looks across the field at me, and I slam my shields back into place and hold up my pointer finger. She's now target number one around here, and my biggest liability.

"Guess we'll need to keep her alive," Garrick mutters as General Sorrengail steps forward to give her yearly speech about family even though she threw hers to the dragons. 

"Literally." Ridoc said, shaking his head. 

"Yes." How the hell am I going to keep her alive through all the first-year shit I'm nowhere near? I look across the field and spot Liam, my foster brother, standing in front of his new Red Daggertail as the dragons gift their riders with relics to channel magic. "Maybe I should move Liam into her squad."

"Liam?" Garrick questions.

"He's the best in his year." I nod as the first-years break out in celebration. "I trained him to fight, so I know he's capable of protecting her." Plus, he's as loyal to me as I am to him. 

"Always." Liam told Xaden who nodded back, silently saying it back. 

"Or you could give her a chance to make it on her own first." Garrick folds his arms across his chest and glances sideways at me. 

"Thank you!" Violet said, throwing her hands up, grateful at least someone thought she could cut it. 

"Any time." Garrick said, shrugging. 

There are a multitude of reasons he might be right.

"But if that's the route you choose, everyone likes Liam, so hopefully she will, too. It will make it easier for him to guard her."

"She'll like him." That unpleasant feeling flares in my gut again, twisting into a knot. 

"I'm not going to sleep with her." Liam said, amusement coating his voice. 

"Why the hell not?" Violet asked, a defensive tone in her voice. 

"Because I don't want to die." He told her, amusement shining through. 

Garrick grins. "Don't worry. He won't fuck her."

My eyes narrow at Garrick. "Why would I care if he..." The words die on my tongue as Aetos walks behind Sorrengail and reaches for her back. That asshole is unlacing her armor. He's got his hands on her skin. I breathe in through my nose and out through my mouth to quell the quickly rising nausea. 

"Oh. My. God." Everyone turned to Caroline who looked five seconds from exploding. In a good way at least. 

"Relax, he's lacing her back up," Garrick says, and I know without looking the asshole is still smiling. "See? She's already turning around."

Sorrengail turns in Aetos's arms, and he lifts his hands to her face. No doubt he's pilfering through her memories to see if I actually interfered. 

"That's not funny." Violet said to Xaden. 

"I'm not joking." Xaden said back to her. 

"He wouldn't. He just... he wouldn't." Violet told Xaden. 

"Oh yeah? And how would you know? He's not your friend anymore, right?" 

"Nothing to... Oh shit." Garrick's voice fades to a whisper as Aetos lowers his head and kisses Sorrengail. 

"Gross." 

Fire rushes through my veins and shadows spasm around me, distorting my vision for a second. Dain-fucking-Aetos has his mouth on my Violence. 

"I'm not property." Violet said, but her words didn't stop the blush on her face, causing everyone to snicker in amusement. 

Not mine. But that doesn't stop the knot in my stomach from unfurling, spreading like acid into my system, burning through my chest and making it hard to draw breath until that snot-nosed asswipe lifts his head.

"Damn. You all right over there?" Garrick asks, laughter lacing his tone.

"I'm..." I pin my feet to the field with shadows to keep from marching over there and feeding Aetos my fist. How fucking dare he kiss the mouth he wouldn't bend a rule to protect, when I would⁠— 

"Yes, what would you do?" Kol asked, wanting the answer. "My brother here would burn the world to the ground. And unless you would go to the same lengths, I see no reason that not only you should be with Violet, but that you should still be breathing." 

"What wouldn't I do?" Xaden asked, his eyes on Violet who was still frowning, she wanted answers. Answers she was going to get that night one way or another. 

"Yes, what would you do?" Sgaeyl asks.

Fuck me. What wouldn't I do?

"You're looking a little green." Garrick flat-out laughs, and I force air in and out of my lungs as Sorrengail steps back from Aetos.

He grins down at her, but... wait. She isn't returning the sentiment. No, Sorrengail looks like she just accidentally kissed her cousin and can't retreat fast enough. Talk about awkward. 

Everyone was flat out laughing at this point, this just kept getting better and better. 

"In twenty years, I don't think I've ever seen you jealous before. This is amazing." Garrick claps his hand on my shoulder.

Jealous. That's exactly what this hot, corrosive feeling is— jealousy. And now I'm linked to this woman for the rest of our lives.

I need to stay as far away from her as possible. 

"But you won't," Sgaeyl predicts, and I'd be tempted to raise my middle finger if I didn't think she'd bite the damned thing off as a reminder that she can. 

With the end of the chapter it was decided that was enough reading for now and that they would continue another time. And after say their goodbyes for now, and time starting up again, Violet walked off from them. 

"Violence-" Xaden said, walking up behind her, and she turned to him. 

"First Brennan and now the secret surrounding Aretia? Either you tell me now what the hell is going on, and I accept it and we can move on, or you let the book tell me and then I'll rip your head off. It's your choice, you better make it very fucking quick. And until you make that choice, and it better be the correct one, don't you dare touch me. And if you do, I'll rip your arms off, and beat Garrick to death with them." She said before turning around and walking away as the others walked up behind him. 

"I'd tell her whatever you're hiding." Jeremy warned. 

"She won't do it." Xaden said, although everyone could tell he didn't mean it. 

"Oh she will. And we'll help." Caroline said as she, Bonnie, Rebekah, Katherine, Hayley and Davina passed the group of boys. 

"Trust me, you don't want to end up on their bad side. Because apart, they're deadly. Together? They could kill every last person in the world, and still make their way into heaven. Do yourself a favor, whatever Violet wants to know, tell her. And before she gets angry enough to actually do as she threatened." Jeremy said before walking away as Kol, Klaus, and a couple of others. 

"I think you should tell her." Imogen said and Xaden's head snapped over to her. "Look, she's going to find out either way, better you tell her than she finds out from this stupid book." 

"If I tell her, she'll hate me." Xaden said, knowing he wouldn't be able to live with himself if that happened. 

"Better for her to hate you for a few days than for her to kill us all." Liam said, believing Jeremy when he said Violet would actually kill them. 

"Easy for you to say. Out of all of us you're most likely the only one she won't kill." Garrick scoffed. 

"Maybe, maybe not. But either way, she deserves to know." Liam told them. 

"Tell her." Brennan said, walking over to the group. "And if she can't handle it, I'll deal with it." He told them, watching his sister walk away.