Unbroken Bonds (The Bonds That Tie #6)(50)
North has a waiting list ten miles long ready to start calling people to bring them in, and we mindfully inform them about what had happened to free up this space for them.
None of them cared.
Every single person we contact about coming into the Sanctuary is nothing but grateful and desperate to come. I think we could tell them that they have to face the shadow creatures to enter and they’d do it with a smile. The problem with the Gifted who’d left with my father is that they haven't lived through the worst of what the Resistance is doing out there. They took refuge somewhere safe and forgot what it was we were running from.
I only hope that life on the outside isn't treating them too badly.
Scared people could do stupid things, and I have no doubt that the tales of what the Dravens can do have only been exaggerated and twisted over the years. Especially as they’ve gone from a powerful family of Top Tier Gifted to the stuff of urban legends and nightmares of biblical proportions.
They’ve even grown since I heard them as a child. I remember seeing North for the first time as a kid and thinking to myself, ‘well, he doesn't look that scary’. Although, other people don't have the luxury of an entire lifetime of friendship to fall back on.
I get it, but it doesn't make any of this any easier. Watching my oldest and closest friends, the ones I share my Bonded with and have built an entire career and life around, struggle with the guilt of their actions sets my teeth on edge.
I wish I could go back to that moment and punch my father in the face as well.
“How many more families do you think we can fit? Did Gabe give you an updated timeline for the housing?” North mutters as he looks over the list again, and I shrug.
“The earliest ETA for the houses to start opening up on the southern block is next week. They're already pushing themselves hard to get it done by then, any faster and it won’t be safe for the workers.”
North lets out a breath and nods his head. “They're already doing more work than we ever thought was possible, and a hundred houses will be ready. Two hundred more families will be able to squeeze in if we can allocate them correctly.”
I move some of the papers and point out the demographic lists he’s had made. “If anything, we need to start thinking about expanding the school. All of these families have young children in them, they’ve got the priority here.”
North nods and starts shuffling through his plans until he pulls out a blueprint of the school with extensions. “It’s on my list. I will speak to Gabe about it and keep going from there. He's talked about it before, and we can figure out how best to put it into place.”
I nod and glance back over at Nox who’s created a small fortress of boxes and information in the far corner of North's office, shadow creatures slumbering in open archive boxes and on cushions around him. If it were possible to take photos of the nightmare creatures, I would take one and send it to Oli, knowing that she’d treasure it more than she’d ever admit. Since I can't, I concentrate and send her the mental picture instead. A smile breaks over my face when I feel her joy at the image, the way that it overtakes her and rushes into me, making my chest tighten up.
She loves those damn creatures and the vicious man they come from more than I ever thought possible.
“How many of the newcomers do you think are able to be trained as operatives?” I murmur quietly, and North shuffles papers again before pulling one out. I swear he has information about everything on his desk, every option and opportunity to be explored and discussed and picked apart before he makes any moves.
He’s too good of a man to be a councilman, they don’t deserve him. They never have.
“I have already told the Transporters to send this list to the Tac Training Center for interviews. I was going to head down there in an hour or so to start the process, but Rockelle and Hannity have already requested a meeting with me to discuss what's been going on.”
I shake my head at him. ”You shouldn't be dealing with any of that bullshit. Just tell them you've got bigger things going on.”
North takes his coffee cup and knocks back as much of the caffeinated liquid as he can in one go, looking as though it's been months since he slept. I'm going to have to threaten him with Oli soon to get him back into a sleeping pattern.
He's doing everything he can to not stress her out. If I threaten to tell her how badly he's taking care of himself at the moment, he'll get back in line, I'm sure of it.
“I think I'm going to dissolve the council.”
I startle, my head snapping around to look at North as my mouth tumbles open comically. Not much surprises me these days but that sure does.
“How are you going to do that? Why are you going to do that?”
North glances back over at Nox, but he is so far in his own world that we could be talking about just about anything without him noticing. “The how part of that is easy. There's only three sitting members left other than myself, and two of them are here already. The council is an outdated structure, something that was put into place by those who were abusing power anyway. We've said it for years, the categorizing of people by what their Gifts can do is disgusting. No one should have precedence over others just because of something they have no control over. Did you know that every single family that followed the General out of here was a Top Tier family? All of the Lower Tier families stayed. They're the only ones who understood what would happen to them if they left here. They've always been left to fend for themselves. I'm not just saying this because of their loyalty to us at this moment. I've been thinking about it for years. My father even discussed it with William, and I suppose my uncle is the reason I have hated this position so vehemently from the get-go. No one should be able to be born into this position of power.”