The Star Tower had taken over the surface.

  There were still factions that held some of the other dorms, but Derek’s group had managed to get control of not only the Star Tower but also two of the other seven dorms as well. Most of their people had taken over the salvaging of monsters from the first floor, which had given them control of the food supply.

  Patrick was furious.

  “You’ve got five hundred people to feed and you’re hoarding all the food for only the people who will swear loyalty to you!” The balding man raged at Derek. “This isn’t how I set things up when we went down to the second floor!”

  They’d taken this meeting to the second floor of the administration building. Ula, Frederica, Oakley, Eldri, Raelyn, Circe, and Kingsley were also there. Each one sitting around the table as Patrick chewed out Derek.

  The blond Caster wore an apologetic face as he held up his hands. “Patrick, my man. I’ve been on the second floor with you for the last week. I assure you, while I was here, things weren’t run that way.”

  “I’ve talked to five people already who say differently.” Patrick glared at the younger man. He pointed out the window at the square that they had been summoned to. “Don’t try to lie to me and tell me you didn’t know what was going on. And now we’re all up here having to deal with this mess when we should be down there organizing things for the third floor!”

  “I’m sure those people are just jealous of me and trying to poison you against me.” Derek glanced over at her. “Red, I could use a character witness. Tell him about how helpful I’ve been with you.” He put both of his hands together. “You know I’m a good person.”

  “The only reason you were assigned to help me with making jewelry was because you were the only air Caster on the second floor.” Penelope shook her head. “I wouldn’t call your character ‘good’ either.” She leaned forward in her chair. “How many of the women in this room can you name?”

  “Boss, Barbie, Stats, Florence, and Robin.” Derek grinned as he pointed at Ula, Frederica, Eldri, Raelyn, and Circe in order.

  “I’ll show you a Barbie…” Frederica stood up. Oakley caught her arm and guided her back into her seat.

  “He’s not worth it.” Oakley shook his head. “Don’t let him get under your skin.”

  “You should listen to your boy toy.” Derek winked at the other man. “Oakley knows what matters.”

  The vein on Frederica’s forehead bulged, but she remained silent.

  “Not only can’t you tell us a single woman’s name, you’re proud of the nicknames you’ve given to them.” Penelope folded her arms across her chest. “That tells me—”

  “Penelope.” Derek smirked, then looked around the room. “I got one right.” He didn’t wait for anyone to respond before he continued. “And so what if I can’t remember your names? Names aren’t something that I can remember easily.”

  “You called both the guys in here by their names.” Penelope pointed at Patrick and Oakley. “So it seems that it’s just female names that you can’t remember.”

  “Because I’ve been around them so much.” Derek countered. “And if the girls had regular names like Sarah or Jane, then I’d be able to remember them too, but why do they have to have weird or archaic names?”

  “Each of the people here are in charge of part of the infrastructure of camp.” Patrick cleared his throat. “They’ve each shown that they are willing to selflessly serve.” He pointed at Penelope. “Even Pen is working with people despite being a shut-in.”

  Not what it’s called. Penelope suppressed grumbling out loud.

  “He’s part of a generation where it was commonplace to call someone like you a lot worse and it was considered a form of endearment.” Jeru held up his hands as he floated in front of her. “I’m just saying, he doesn’t know what to call it, so he’s trying to pay you a compliment the only way he knows how.”

  I get that. I’m just on edge because of this whole trial. Penelope turned her attention back to Patrick.

  “You have a knack for leading. No one here can deny that.” Patrick looked around the room. “But we have a responsibility to take care of ALL of these people and that includes you and the rest of your selfish lot.”

  “We’re not selfish!” Derek shot to his feet, his chair rolling back and hitting the wall. “We prioritize our own, but we share with the others when there’s extra!” He looked at the others who were still seated, minus Patrick. “How is that any different from how all of you acted down on the second floor?”

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  The blond Caster let frustration seep into his voice as he continued. “You have elixirs that can give people levels as well as stats. Did you share them with everyone freely?” He shook his head. “NO! You hoarded them and only let a handful of people in this room cap out their stats and only did that after you’d already hit the level cap so all that free experience went to waste!” He pounded his fist on the table. “You could have leveled my entire team and then we could have helped during the boss fight instead of having to watch from the sidelines!”

  “Derek.” Patrick glared at the younger man. “Sit.”

  “No.” Derek stood up straight. “I’m not going to sit down and let the nine of you judge me for wanting to protect my friends when that’s exactly what you’re all doing!”

  Circe leaned back in her seat and whistled. Black tendrils sprouted out of the floor, pulling Derek’s chair back behind him, then wrapping themselves around his arms and legs and pulling him down to sit in the chair.

  “Let me go! You trigger-happy—”

  A tendril wrapped around his mouth, cutting off the rest of the insult. Rage filled his green eyes as he glared at Circe.

  “I don’t think anyone wanted to hear that.” Circe smiled sweetly as she looked at Patrick. “Pat, you were saying?”

  “We limited access to the elixirs because there was a limited amount and we needed the right people to have them.” Patrick gestured at the short, black-haired woman. “And Eldri needed most of them for enchanting so we could make sure everyone had gear that maximized their stats.”

  “We also didn’t keep anyone from the food.” Frederica glared at Derek.

  “Or keep people from coming down to the second floor.” Ula leaned forward in her chair. “Yes, I went down to the first floor and talked to your guards. They weren’t aware of who I was and tried to stop me from going through the portal down to the second floor.” Her brown eyes narrowed. “They insisted it was on your orders and turned their weapons on me.”

  Derek strained against his bonds. Muffled protests were silenced by the gag.

  “That’s another thing.” Patrick walked around the table to look out the window down at the square. “All the weapons were supposed to be rounded up and taken down to the second floor with us. The only things left on the first floor were daggers and a few swords for processing the monsters as well as a pair of hammers to help with construction.” He turned around to look at Derek. “Imagine my surprise to learn that all of the weapons we’d left behind were in the possession of people who claimed loyalty to you and were being used to bully the other people.”

  More muffled protests were silenced by the gag. Derek dug his fingernails into the upholstery on the arm of the metal rolling chair.

  “The Star Tower has been put on notice.” Patrick turned back around. “It’s not in charge anymore and we’ll be leaving a team of level tens that we trust to make sure you don’t try to monopolize things again.” He sighed. “We’ll also be making sure that anyone who wants to go down to the third floor with us will be able to.” The balding man walked over to the end of the table where Derek was restrained. He put his hand on the younger man’s shoulder. “I can’t fault you for wanting to take care of your people, but when there was plenty to go around, there was no reason to ration food or stop them from coming down to the second floor.”

  Derek strained against the bonds.

  “Circe.” Patrick looked over at the brunette. “You can let him talk, but if he decides to throw out insults again…” He looked back at the blond man. “You can put the gag back on.”

  “Fine.” Circe wiggled her finger at Derek and the tendril wrapped around his mouth receded down to his neck.

  “Blah!” Derek turned his head and spit. “That tasted like the inside of a monkey’s—URK!”

  The tendril around his neck tightened, then relaxed.

  “We don’t have a jail we can lock you up in, but frankly, I think you’ll be more helpful out there. You’ve got a lot of people who look up to you.” Patrick shook his head. “This isn’t an us versus them game. Show me that you can be a team player and we’ll revisit leveling you up.” He shrugged. “Maybe for the fifth floor.”

  Rage burned in Derek’s green eyes, but he took a minute to compose himself before he spoke. “I’ll show you we can be a team player.”

  “Good!” Patrick slapped the other man on the back. “Circe, you can let him go.” He made a shooing motion with his hand. “Pen will show you out.”

  Derek shot to his feet and hurried to the door. Penelope got up and followed him into the hallway, then down the stairs. When they reached the landing, he turned around to face her.

  “Thanks a lot for backing me up in there, Red. I thought we had something, but I guess it was just me who was feeling it.” He sneered.

  “Derek…” Penelope walked around him and opened the door. “I don’t know what delusion you’re under that makes you think that there was ever anything between us that was more than a working relationship.” She took a deep breath. “But I will never trust you farther than I can see you.”

  “You all will regret underestimating me.” He bumped into her as he walked through the door, but she didn’t budge. “I didn’t deserve to be treated like that and one day karma is going to pay you back for betraying me in there.”

  Penelope shook her head as she closed the door, locking him out. I think I liked it better in the last loop when he was dead.

  “You could always take care of that.” Jeru chuckled. “Burn him to ash, then blow the ashes to the winds.”

  Blasting him with fire would still leave behind bones. Penelope shook her head. And we both know that I wouldn’t kill him. I just… I’m not looking forward to the trouble he’s going to cause.

  “I know Patrick banished him to the surface, but there is a saying about situations like this.” Jeru floated in front of her as she climbed back up the stairs.

  Keep your friends close… Penelope stopped at the second-floor landing and looked into the meeting room where everyone was talking about what they were going to do on the next floor. And your enemies closer.

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