Frost & Flames | Soulmate AU 2 |

Fifteen

"Key's been my second in command since I took the position, basically, so I thought I knew her quite well. She came up to my office for a scheduled routine rundown of, well, how the League is running, and she just attacked me. She cut my arm clean off, I was sure I was going to bleed out. She left me there, I guess she figured I'd die by the time she came back, but it was enough time to get away. I headed for the closest team I could think of, which was the one in Baltimore. I was lucky they let me in before someone else found me." The story he tells is lot shorter than I was expecting, but I suppose people don't like to talk much about the ultimate betrayals committed against them.

"Why did she attack you, though?" Max asks.

Scofield sighs.

"The Keys are one of the original bloodlines of the first every League team. I am not part of one of those families. Janelle never gave me any indication that she was a purist, but she most certainly is," he explains. "Basically, she believes she deserves to be in charge more than me because she's from one of the original bloodlines and I'm not."

I shift a little uncomfortably at the talk of League bloodlines. My own ancestry was a topic of debate last year when I found out that my mother was a from the Blackwell line, making me a descendant of an original League agent. Being part of an original bloodline is normally a good thing, but considering my mother's family has a history of losing their minds and murdering people, it's quite the opposite. The only person on my mom's side who was spared was her little brother, who had been disowned by the family before the arrogance and violence managed to set in.

"Wow," JD says, sitting back even further in surprise. "That's crazy."

"The whole bloodline thing hasn't really meant a lot in the recent years, but something tells me her family's been pushing her to try to go for my position. Maybe they didn't mean doing so by, you know, murdering me, but that's probably what it was."

"So, the Keys are the new Blackwells?" I say finally. The room drops into an awkward silence. Everyone on my team turns to look at me as the two C-team agents politely avoid eye contact.

"Well, I wouldn't exactly say that..." Scofield says, clearing his throat. "They Keys have a reputation of being stuck-up and generally rude, not like the Blackwells, who are, well."

"Sadistic, mentally ill murders?" I finish for him.

He smiles sadly at me.

"For the most part. Joseph Blackwell proved this stereotype wrong, though, as I'm sure you're aware," he replies. His eyes start to twinkle. "I would include you, but what reason would I have including a Ford in a discussion about the Blackwells' reputation?"

I don't quite manage a smile, but the corners of my mouth twitch. At least the director of the League has my back.

"Right. Well. What now?" Max says. "She's called an assembly for the captains tonight. Do you want me to go on my own, or do you want to just crash it, all of us, and reveal the truth?"

Scofield considers this.

"I think it'd be best to do this quickly," he replies, scratching his head with his one remaining hand. "She's going to be sworn in after the assembly, so I'd like to reestablish my position before she gets the power to change anything."

"That's a good idea," Cecelia agrees, nodding her head. "All of us should go?"

"She knows I didn't die, or at the very least that I got away," Scofield replies, taking a sip from his glass of water. "She'll likely have guards posted, maybe dressed plainly, to make sure Max or I don't get inside without alerting someone. It's better to have more of us than risk being whisked away before anyone can notice something is off about what's going on."