Page 11 of Fate of the Fallen
Twice as difficult.
Dallas, being perceptive, seemed to sense I didn’t want to talk about it, didn’t want to go deeper into this conversation than we already had. Luckily, he changed the subject, turning his attention toward Ben and Kyle.
“Were you able to get the situation at your grandfather’s place taken care of?” he asked.
At mention of the bodies, both their expressions dimmed.
“We uh … we took care of it,” Ben stammered. “Buried a good fifteen or twenty before deciding to burn the rest for the sake of time.”
There was no missing the remorse that riddled his tone—sympathy for those who’d been cut down for the sole purpose of the Sovereign proving some vague point.
“Did anyone show up to help?” Dallas asked next, folding both arms across his chest. He hadn’t said as much, but I knew he would’ve been there if he could have. However, with the new guards that showed up to secure the house, he’d been busy showing them the ropes a better part of the day.
Kyle gave a nod. “A few of the guys who usually work Nick’s shift volunteered when they caught wind of what happened.”
Just hearing Nick’s name made my blood run hot, fire threatening to explode from my palms.
“Howisyour brother? Is he … stable now?” Ivan asked, directing the question toward Ben.
It didn’t surprise me to hear an air of sensitivity beneath the words, even after Elise explained to him and his brothers that Nick was the Liberator incarnate. Regardless of what Nick represented tous,he was still just a kid in the eyes of his family, and Ivan hadn’t forgotten that.
A nod came first. “Seems to be doing better,” Ben shared. “Richie stopped in to see him before we got started with …cleanup.”
“He’s still not himself, but definitely more in control than when he left here,” Richie clarified from behind the wheel. “His emotions aren’t quite in check yet, but we have hope that’ll change with time.”
I heard them, believedtheybelieved these claims, but I didn’t trust Nick any more now than I did when he was in a full rage outside the gate.
“Well, one thing’s for sure,” Dallas said, rearing back with a stretch as the truck bounced over a shallow pothole, “we’re all rooting for him to fight this.”
No one said a word, but the range of emotions was evident on every face. Caleb and Declan clearly didn’t share Dallas’ sentiment as a look passed between them. Meanwhile, Josiah, Tobias and Ethan were definitely sympathetic to the torment Nick’s state was putting his brothers through. Ivan, like me, wasn’t giving much away. However, if I had to guess, we were of the same mind. We’d sit back quietly for the time being, for the sake of alliances, but I believed he was also willing to go after Nick with all he had in him if it came down to that.
“Now that we’re all on the same page,” Dallas announced, “I suppose now is as good a time as any to figure out what wedoknow, so we can figure out what wedon’tknow.”
Ben agreed. “Well, for starters, I’m not totally convinced leaving all those bodies was a warning.”
Intrigued, we all turned to face him. Even Declan shifted from his seat up front to pay attention.
“I’m not sure what he could possibly do with the info, but for what it’s worth … I have a hunch Sebastian knows exactly what Nick is,” was Ben’s next statement. “I think he knows and the bodies had something to do with that. I mean, why else would he choose him? It can’t just be because he was there that day we went with Evie. We wereallthere,” he reasoned. “I think he knows and it’s not lost on him that something changes in Nick every time he kills.”
Before now, none of us had acknowledged this as a fact, but I couldn’t have agreed with Ben more.
“I’ve seen it with my own eyes,” he added. “First with the mutts, again when we trekked to the U.P. Each time, he drifts a little deeper into the darkness. So, what better way to taunt the killer within him than to bring death, literally, right to his doorstep?”
A booming voice rang out from the front and my gaze shifted right to Richie when he scolded his brother.
“Choose a better word,” he demanded, clarifying what he meant right away. “Don’t ever refer to him as a killer.”
Ben tensed and immediately jumped to defend himself. “I didn’t say he was a killer,” he reasoned. “I said‘the killer within him’.I’m aware there’s a difference.”
The rest of us were silent, waiting for Richie’s reaction. Even from where I sat I saw his jaw working, his grip tightening on the steering wheel when he spoke again.
“Choose … a better … word,” he seethed, repeating himself.
Ben scoffed. Having been put in place by his brother clearly didn’t sit well, but he had no choice but to obey his alpha.
“You’re right,” he conceded, clearly only saying more out of obligation. “Next time, I’ll … be more careful with what I say, I guess.”
He went quiet after that, turning to watch the endless woods fly past as the miles between us and Seaton Falls climbed.