Page 85 of Renegade Kings

My head swam in the silence that followed. My body felt heavy and far too light all at the same time.

The Endless dropped to the ground in front of me, and no one moved. They stared in awe at what they’d just seen. The impossible blossom of hope finally taking root inside of them.

“Strip the armour from him,” I murmured, my mouth feeling like it was filled with cotton. “Start stripping the armour from them all. They shouldn’t have to wake up in that life again.”

With that, the trees and the vines slowly moved. The branches creaked as they lowered the Endless back to the ground, bloodied but not broken. Those in the pit bubbled up to the surface of a world that wasn’t quite the same as when they’d been sucked into the depths.

And then my eyes fluttered closed, and I sank into the unconsciousness that seemed to keep visiting me like an unwelcome stranger I couldn’t quite shake.

Chapter 32

Ryder

Minutes earlier

Damon was here. Standing in front of us like nothing had changed. The same smile on his face and that glint in his eye that told just how much trouble he could get us into. Or out of, when it came to Damon.

I wanted to move, to go to the man we’d fought so hard to return to, but my wolf held me steady. He knew this wasn’t the man I thought him to be, not truly, anyway.

Dean turned and left, shocking the life out of me.

We were here. This had been our goal all along, and now he was abandoning it? What the hell was going on?

I looked behind me to see him disappearing between the trees. The two remaining soldiers of The Endless disappeared after him, and I didn’t know if I was happy about that or not. I knew there was only one place he’d go, and I found it hard to hate him for it.

Perhaps it was what we should all do. Besides, we had no way of knowing if it was actually possible to get back the brother we knew and loved.

But this was the first time I’d laid eyes on him since he’d walked out the door that fateful morning. I couldn’t let go of the hope yet, not if there was even the slimmest of possibilities.

“Brother, you’ve changed,” Damon said, his attention turning away from Dean like he didn’t even matter, and fixing firmly on Maddox in front of him. “I love what you’ve done with your hair.”

He laughed like it was the best joke he’d ever heard, and even as I was questioning his sanity, I also had to wonder, how did he know that was Maddox?

Maddox chuffed, moving closer as he did. I could see he was trying to gauge how much of his brother was left in the man in front of us. As Damon slowly pulled his sword, it became blatantly obvious, though—nothing at all.

“Oh, come now. Dean can run off in a tantrum just because I stabbed him, but you and me should be closer than that, Maddox. We’re real brothers. Not like with the other tagalongs. You know what I’m talking about, don’t you, Ryder?”

He pointed his sword at me as he grinned, and my heart just about broke as he spoke the words I’d long wondered in my darkest moments.

“Don’t listen. He is poisoned,” the wolf grumbled to me, and I tried my hardest to do as he said.

“Nothing to say? Just a lowly wolf amongst kings. Always the runner-up, right, Ryder? It must be hard having this second chance at life and ending up being nothing but a burden. Again.”

Maddox snarled and dived for his brother. If it hadn’t been for Tank’s bear charging at the same time, he no doubt would have ended up with a sword straight through the chest. Instead, Tank slammed into the side of Damon and they tumbled across the ground, fighting for control.

The sound of tearing fabric and Tank’s bear’s satisfied roar should have given me some peace, but all I could hear were his words echoing around my brain. Because if he was saying the things I’d thought in those moments when I hated myself, then it had to mean it was all true. Right? Otherwise, he wouldn’t have known what haunted me. The whispers of my own hatred that kept that fake smile on my face when I didn’t want the others to worry. Or cast me aside for being too much trouble, just like my other family before them.

Tank pulled back, panting, rearing up on his back legs as he batted the sword out of Damon’s reach.

Most people would piss themselves when facing down a bear, but Damon did nothing but laugh.

“Now, now. Someone’s a bit touchy. Is the whore not filling your needs? It can’t be that fulfilling passing the bitch around. Or can she keep up with the four of you? She must be panting for it by the time you get her into bed every night.”

Maddox moved then, seeing red and taking out his anger on the man in front of him, taunting the purest thing any of us had in our lives, belittling the connection that made us better for having it.

We should have realised something wasn’t right, as he didn’t cry out as Maddox raked his talons across Damon’s chest.

All he did was laugh.