Deposed by Sofia Daniel

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“Stop lying!” Henry bellowed.

I flinched and wrapped my arms around my chest. How could they believe I would allow something so personal on the internet? I glanced at Edward, hoping he would be the voice of reason, but his glower told me he believed me just as guilty as my stepfather. “B-but you framed me—”

“That was Frost, and you know it,” Blake growled.

My stomach tightened, and my gaze flickered to his fathomless, dark eyes. The weight of his stare crushed my defiance to dust.

Drawing back my shoulders, I said, “If you hadn’t withheld so much information from me, none of this would have happened.”

A wall of malevolent silence was my reply. Because I was right. But I was in their territory, outnumbered, with nowhere else to go, and completely at their mercy. I cleared my throat. “What do you want from me?”

“Total and utter obedience,” said Henry.

My stomach dropped, and I took another step back to the door. “What?”

“We own you.” Blake stepped closer, his dark eyes shining with malice.

“No, you don’t.” The words came out a bare whisper. “I’ll—”

Henry placed a finger on my lips. “If you don’t do what we say, we’ll release everything we know to the rest of Elder House and leave you to their tender mercies.”

Blake walked around me and stood at the door, blocking my only route of escape. “Do you know how furious everyone feels by Carbuncle’s supposed betrayal? No one can believe such a well-loved member of staff could leak information about students he served diligently for a decade.”

“But they’ll believe us if we tell them you sent the journalist who forced Carbuncle to spy for the Correspondence,” said Henry.

“You—”

Edward folded his arms across his chest. “You framed an innocent man.”

All my trepidation vanished, replaced by righteous anger. “He was corrupt! You saw what he did with that girl.”

Henry stepped forward. “Then you should have reported him to the police, not used him as a scapegoat for your own crimes.”

I edged back at the vitriol in his words. Blake stood mere inches behind me, his body heat warming my back. “You’d tell everyone I framed Mr. Carbuncle?”

“What do you think they’ll do to you when they find out?” Edward asked through clenched teeth.

My body stiffened. They wouldn’t be so vindictive… would they? I took another step back. My ass skimmed Blake’s hardening crotch. “I don’t understand.”

Blake’s arms wrapped around my waist. “Here’s how things will work between us. Unless you do exactly what we say, we’ll release evidence into the Mercia-Net that proves you were the leak, and not Carbuncle.”

A whimper reverberated in my throat. I still remembered that terrible gauntlet from my first term, and if

I didn’t want to become the target of every student in the academy, I would have to subject myself to whatever the triumvirate wanted. “Wh-what kind of things will you demand of me?”

“Nothing too onerous.” Blake’s hand settled over my belly, sending shivers running down my back and between my legs. “Despite everything, we still want you.”