More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
He saw Xhex often in his broken mind,
he caught a scent he hadn’t smelled in years and years. As tears came to his eyes, he closed his lids. “If he’s fucking dead,” he heard Xhex say in her hard-ass voice, “I will kill each one of you. Slowly.”
All these years … he had been wrong. Hers was the face he saw in the sacred glass. This was the female he was destined for.
But … you recognized Murhder, didn’t you.” Yes, that was a leading question. “In your heart, you know him. You know all of the Brotherhood. Have you ever asked yourself why that is?”
She was surprised when the man lifted his hands and signed, I was hurt fighting. We haven’t treated it with antibiotics because it’s not that kind of infection. The girlfriend/wife cleared her throat. “He really doesn’t want to talk about this—” Sarah signed back, What kind of infection is it?
Murhder started to whistle a cheery little tune, and John had to do a double take. After a silent laugh, John joined in, finding a perfect harmony: “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.”
“No, you also matter. A lot.” As tears came to her eyes, she ducked her head and blinked fast.
If you were loved, if you had people who cared about you, you could be by yourself and never feel alone. But if no one cared? You were isolated even in a crowd.
He had cheated on tests. Gotten his papers written by smarter students who had secrets they needed to keep. He had falsified his SATs and gotten into Columbia on an application written by a fellow senior who had been sucking off their English teacher.
“That’s how I knew Nate’s mahmen. I knew her. I failed to rescue her. But she ended up getting out and eventually found me.”
“—remember, John, yes.” It was Bella, Z’s shellan, who was talking. “Mary introduced us. And I called the Brotherhood. So mysterious how it all happened.”
It was one thing to read his grid and see into his soul. It was another altogether to witness him begin to get his affairs in order. He really was dying.
And she also was pretty sure this was going to be a surprise visit. “We don’t have to do this,” she said. Even though she wasn’t sure what their other option was. “Yes, we do.”
“And excuse me, but you might consider the fact that he saved a boy from a human torture factory, got me out of there safely, and is the only reason your son has even the hint of a clinical solution to his mortal wound. So back the fuck off, Sergeant Know-It-All.”
John paced around. In his mind, when he’d drafted his list of people he wanted to make sure he connected with, he’d envisioned this meeting with Tohr to be all father-son poignant, the pair of them embracing. Sucking back tears. Throwing around all kinds of manly expressions of love and respect, I-was-honored-to-have-been-your-son statements volleying with you-were-the-best-son-I-could-have-had exclamations.
As Tohr hissed in shock at the ugly black wound, he leaned in, just to make sure the Brother didn’t miss a thing. Don’t tell me this isn’t going to kill me, okay, he signed. And don’t tell me Murhder doesn’t belong back with the Brotherhood. ’Cuz both are fucking lies.
I’m not going to let you say it.” As Xhex spoke in a pushy, kind of bitchy, manner, she was marching into the bedroom she shared with John.
And you need to get on board my fucking optimism train, John Matthew. I love you. You love me. We are survivors. Do you hear me!” Her voice got louder and louder, and she might have even stamped her boot once or twice. But goddamn it, if your mate was giving up, sometimes you needed to kick them in the can—
“We’ve got to help him,” she said. “I don’t know how … but we have to help him.”
A ring of fire. Murhder was consumed in a ring of fire.
Sarah cut off whoever was translating. “I know what he said.” She turned around and was shocked to find that … there were a dozen males standing around in the corridor. She hadn’t even noticed them, which was a surprise, given how big they all were.
Murhder was totally unaware of the passage of time. The roaring heat inside of him stripped everything away, and yet, as he burned in the fire, he knew he would come through. He had been here before.
Some were in your life for a season. Some were in your life for a reason. And then there was, of course, the third grouping: The lifelong relationships that you carried through all seasons and all reasons.
Tohr embraced him, bringing him up against a body that was trembling so badly, it was a wonder the male could stand. “My son …” the Brother said hoarsely. “Dearest Virgin Scribe, my son … you saved my son.”
Why had Lassiter been looking at him like that?
“May I present Rexboone, blooded son of Altamere.” Boone, as the male was known, bowed deeply even though Wrath could not see him. “Thank you for allowing me to come, my Lord.”
Boone took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “My father is going to attend. He’s going to the dinner. He’s …” “Not as loyal to me as you are.”
Tohr continued, “You let us think for two decades that you flaked off when we needed you. Instead, you were getting tortured up there in the colony. For months. And then when you got out, thanks to Rehvenge? You went looking for her. That’s what you were doing. And she set that first fire and killed that scientist. Not you.”
So Tohr hadn’t lied. All of them did want him back. It made a brother feel welcome, it truly did.
The Book had opened itself on the writing desk, and the perfectly cylindrical black void had reappeared, that which Throe had witnessed previously happening anew, that which should have been no deeper than the three-foot drop to the bedroom floor under the blotter funneling into an unfathomable depth—
a brilliant light blazed through the cave, so bright that it had a white-hot blast to it.
