Chapter 134

• SPECIAL CHAPTER: ALEXIS’S POV
• The Brotherhood tattoos were finished. You could almost smell the fresh ink still stinging under the bandages wrapped around each initiate's chosen spot. I watched the new members file out of the main hall, some nursing sore arms, others flexing to test the tender skin. The ritual was complete. They belonged to us now, marked permanently with the twisted tree that bound them to our brotherhood.
• But my attention wasn't on the boys shuffling toward the exit. It was on the group of girls crossing the courtyard outside, their Nightshade charms gleaming with that fresh sheen of connected magic. The sisterhood had finished their own initiation ceremony at the same time, and now both groups moved through the night air like opposing armies finally laying down their weapons.