Great and Precious Things

by Rebecca Yarros

  “Technically, I’m a Maylard.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” I crossed Main Street, taking deep breaths when the crowd pushed in.

  “I can see everything from up here! You okay?” Rose asked.

  “Yep. I just don’t like crowds.” Especially ones I couldn’t control or observe.

  “I don’t like snakes.”

  “Oh yeah?” I held her tighter to keep people from bumping into her.

  “They move without legs. It’s weird.”

  “Good point.”

  The crowd eased at the boardwalk, and I quickly climbed the steps into the assayer’s office. About a dozen tourists filled the space, some sorting through the raised wooden bins of ore and others waiting their turn to have their finds assessed.

  “When we open the mine, they can get ore up there, too,” I told Rose as we passed through two of the lines, heading for the wooden rail that separated public from preserved space.

  “Really? That will be so cool!”

  “Hey, Reece.” I waved to the Acosta kid I’d hired to hold down one of the tables.

  “Hey, Mr. Daniels.” The kid nodded and turned his attention back to the tourist he was helping.

  Xander didn’t bother looking up from the table he was helping at.

  I put Rose down when I saw Dad pacing the length of the glass wall that kept the final fifteen feet of the office perfectly preserved. He tugged at the costume he’d worn to every opening day since I could remember and muttered something about ore, and I looked to his nurse. “May, how is he today?”

  “He’s a little confused,” she admitted from behind the table in the corner.

  “Hey, is this the mine?” Rose asked, pointing to the glass on the table that covered a copy of the Rose Rowan’s layout.

  “That’s the Rose Rowan,” Dad told her. “You should know that. Everyone knows that. Everyone wants her.”

  My gaze shot to Xander, who had turned to look at Dad. Our eyes met, and the worry I saw there overpowered my anger at our current legal situation. “I’ve got him,” I promised.

  He nodded, then turned back to helping tourists. Good thing I’d hired summer help, because there was no chance Xander and I were manning this thing all summer, and Dad was in no shape to do it.

  “I know it’s the Rose Rowan,” Rose countered. “That’s what I said. I’m named after the mine.”

  “Are you?” he asked, running his thumbs down the inside of his suspenders. The motion was so familiar that it was hard to believe he wasn’t fully lucid. Even on his worst days, he still found small ways to shine through the Alzheimer’s.

  “I am,” Rose told him. “This is the oldest tunnel.” She pointed to the layout.

  Dad leaned over the table. “Sure is.”

  “My aunt got lost down here.” She pointed again.

  He looked at her with obvious strain. “Your aunt?”

  “Yep. Aunt Willow. She said Cam brought her out.” She pointed at me.

  Dad turned his head and gave me a once-over. “You broke her nose.”

  “I did not break her nose,” I argued. “She fell before I could find her.” For fuck’s sake, was I condemned to having the same twenty-year-old argument with my father for the rest of his life?

  His eyes narrowed. “You were covered in her blood.”

  “Well, yeah. I carried her.” She’d kept her forehead tucked against my neck the whole way out.

  “She let you.” He said it slowly, like he was piecing the memory together.

  “She did.” In fact, it had taken a very angry Judge Bradley to pry her loose.

  “Then, you didn’t break her nose,” he decided and turned back to the map.

  I blinked, speechless.

  “They kiss a lot,” Rose said with a shrug, like that explained it.

  Dad shifted so he could sit at the table and glare at me simultaneously. “She’s Sullivan’s girl.”

  I ignored the ugliness that curdled in my stomach and forced a soft smile to my mouth. “Not anymore, Dad.”

  His forehead crinkled.

  “So do you think this is where she fell?” Rose asked, leaning onto the table so far that she might as well have lay on it.

  Dad still stared at me, searching for answers I couldn’t give him because I didn’t know what year he thought it was.

  “Mr. Daniels?” Rose asked. “Do you not remember?”

  He turned back to Rose. “Of course I remember. I know this mine better than anyone.” He pored over the map.

  “Cam knows it pretty well,” Rose countered and looked at me.

  Trouble, I mouthed at her, and she giggled.

  “Because I taught him,” Dad muttered. “Cam was the only one who listened. Tried with Alexander…” His finger trailed along the path. “I always figured it was around here, but Willow never could describe it. She ran off from Alexander, you know. He’d walked with both those Bradley girls, and Willow just took off looking for gold.” He pulled a lump of ore from his pocket. “See, gold.”

  Rose picked it up and examined it carefully. “That’s pyrite.”

  Dad grinned. “So it is. Do you want to see where I found it?”

  She nodded enthusiastically, and just like that, I was no longer her favorite Daniels.

  “Camden?” May asked. “Do you think you could grab a bottle of water from the general store? I forgot to bring some for your father, and he needs to take his medication.”

  “Go ahead. I’ll keep my eye on them,” Xander promised, motioning to Rose.

  “Rosie, you okay if I step out?”

  “Yep,” she answered, too busy listening to whatever story my dad was telling to pay me any mind.

  “She won Dad over,” Xander said as I passed him to open the gate in the heavy wooden railing.

  “She’s a Bradley girl,” I explained with a shrug.

  “I’m a Maylard!” she called out.

  “See what I mean?” We both laughed, and for that moment, we were normal. Dad wasn’t sick. Xander and I weren’t headed to court to decide our father’s future in a month. We were just brothers.

  I got the hell out of there before I did something to wreck the moment.

  Young’s General Store was crowded with tourists shopping for vintage-style candy and goods, and I had to pause more than once as I made my way toward the back.

  “Cam, go on in,” Jonathan Young called over the crowd when he saw me, and he motioned toward the door only locals were allowed to go through.

  I didn’t miss the disapproving shake of his head, but I tried to ignore it. He was probably still pissed about the time I replaced all his jelly beans with the Bertie Bott’s ones that gambled with taste buds.

  Not that I blamed him. I was an asshole as a teenager.

  I opened the door and found the back room already teeming with locals looking for a break. The space was small, probably only twenty by twenty, but it housed two stocked refrigerators, a microwave, and doors to the only plumbed bathrooms allowed in the historical district.

  I heard my name muttered a few times and simply waved, heading straight for the refrigerator.

  “How’s your face?” Oscar taunted from the couch he sat on, his arm wrapped around Tillie.

  “How’s your hand?” I countered as I pulled a six-pack of water from the top shelf of the fridge.

  “You think you’re a badass, huh?” he asked, coming to his feet.

  “Now, Oscar, we don’t want trouble in here,” Milton Sanders lectured, wiping sweat from beneath his newsboy cap. “Why don’t you head back to your dad’s?”

  “I’m not the one with the infamous temper, am I, Cam?” Oscar poked with a lopsided grin.

  “You need to find a hobby, Oscar. I’m not available for a playdate.” I set the water on the counter and slid my wallet from my p
ocket, pulling a ten from the back section.

  Oscar snorted. “Find a hobby?”

  “Yeah, you know. Something to do besides drink at one o’clock in the afternoon.” I dropped the ten into the plastic slot that covered the gallon jar the Youngs kept back here for this kind of stuff.

  “I was looking for someone to do, but then you started screwing Willow Bradley and threw that plan to hell.”

  I stilled with my hand on the water, keeping my back turned to Oscar. My senses focused in a way I knew all too well.

  “Cam,” Milton warned softly. “Walk away.”

  I sucked air in through my nose slowly, willing the rising rage to ebb. I wasn’t seventeen anymore. I couldn’t beat the shit out of everyone who offended me or Willow. Willow. She wouldn’t want me to kill the asshat running his mouth behind me.

  If I could repeat that about a million times, I might be able to calm the fuck down.

  “Oh, come on, Milt. He can’t be that offended at the truth,” Oscar slurred, his voice coming closer.

  “Don’t, Oscar,” I warned, catching his reflection in the microwave door.

  “Come on, man,” another voice joined in, but I didn’t turn. If I set eyes on Oscar, I was going to kill him with my bare hands.

  The back door opened and shut.

  “What? Don’t you think it’s fucked up that he shows up after ten years and acts like he’s God’s gift? Telling Xander what to do with Art, when he’s been the one taking care of him all these years. It’s bullshit.”

  The water bottle crinkled in my grip.

  “Sit your drunk ass down or take it home, Oscar,” Gideon warned, and the water bottle bounced back to its original shape. “Cam, you good?”

  “I’m good.” I put the waters under my arm and tucked my wallet away, more than ready to get out of there.

  “You’re just defending him because he’s your best friend,” Oscar argued.

  I pivoted toward the door, catching Gid’s nod in the same direction. I couldn’t have agreed more.

  “He doesn’t need defending. You need to stop acting like an asshole.”

  “I’m leaving,” I told Gid as the door opened again. Perfect timing to get the hell out.

  “Hey, Cam? Tell me, when you’re screwing Willow, does she say your name? Or does she close her eyes and call out for Sullivan?”

  The water hit the floor as Gideon shouted my name.

  “Is Xander next—?” Oscar’s grin disappeared behind my fist before he could finish.

  He went down, and I followed, my fist connecting with his face again. Then again.

  “Cam! No!”

  Her voice broke through when everyone else had faded into a blur. I halted my fist halfway to Oscar’s bloodied face.

  “Damn it, Cam,” Gideon swore as he hauled me off Oscar, because I let him.

  My chest heaved as I surveyed the damage. One beaten and sputtering Oscar. At least six wide-eyed locals gawking at me in fear like the monster I was. The monster I’d nurtured and honed over the last ten years to ensure my survival.

  “You good?” Gideon asked me quietly, but his grip had already gone slack. We both knew there was jack shit he could do if I decided to go at Oscar again.

  I nodded, then curved the brim of my ball cap.

  “Dude, he beat your ass and didn’t even lose his hat.”

  I ignored the comment and turned toward the door, where Willow stood, her eyes sad with shit I didn’t even want to think about.

  “Did you see that, Hall? You’d better arrest him for assault!” Oscar slurred.

  Gideon’s jaw locked, and he looked at me with barely veiled anger. “See what, Oscar? You making an ass out of yourself and taunting this town’s only war hero at the expense of Judge Bradley’s own daughter?”

  I picked up the water and moved toward the door.

  “Cam,” Willow whispered, reaching for my hand.

  The hand currently covered in Oscar’s blood because I still couldn’t control my damned temper. The hand I’d had on her an hour ago. I yanked it away so the blood couldn’t touch her, and she flinched.

  Now I’d fucked that up, too.

  I walked past her and chose the second door, the one that led to the back boardwalk instead of Main Street.

  Crisp air hit my face, and I sucked it in, willing it to wash away the last ten minutes of my life. Hell, the last ten years.

  “Cam,” Willow called softly as she shut the door behind her. “Are you okay?”

  I scoffed, then laughed with sick sarcasm. “Am I okay?” I turned to face her. “I could have killed him without so much as breaking a sweat, Willow. I might have if you hadn’t been there.”

  “But you didn’t.” She walked forward, and I backed away, shaking my head.

  “Don’t.”

  “You didn’t kill him. And he more than deserved getting punched in the face for what he said.” She wrapped her arms around her middle.

  “You heard it.” Chalk another mark up on the things-I’ve-done-to-hurt-Willow board.

  “He hit you with your worst fear, and I know how protective you are of me. Of course you’re going to hit him back.”

  “Will you just stop?” I shouted.

  She didn’t flinch or run, simply stood there and looked at me, accepting everything she shouldn’t.

  “Stop defending me. Stop acting like the shit I’ve done is okay. Stop making excuses for me.”

  “I love you.” Instead of running like any sane person would, she took a step forward.

  “You shouldn’t! I just gave you another reason not to.” Because it didn’t matter that she was the very air in my lungs—at some point I was going to break her, despite my best intentions.

  “But I do! I always have, and you know it. You can’t change my feelings because you’re uncomfortable. I’m not going to stand by and watch you self-destruct. I did it once, and I’ve never forgiven myself. Don’t ask me to do it again.” The wood beneath her feet creaked as she took another step toward me.

  “Did it ever occur to you that I’m not capable of being saved? That ship sailed a decade ago. Hell, probably before then, if you ask my dad. Maybe you should listen to Oscar and go for Xander. He never makes a mistake. Never hurts someone he loves. I’ll inevitably ruin you. You get that, don’t you? What if the next time…God, what if I hurt you?”

  “You won’t.” She still came forward.

  I put up my hand, showing her the blood that filled the cracks of my knuckles. “This is all I have to give you, Willow. Hands that were made to rip the world apart and come stained with more blood than you’ll ever know, because I’ll never tell you the full extent of what I’ve done in the years I was gone.” That was a burden I’d never make her bear.

  “Those same hands hold me. They build bridges and dams and restore old, broken mines. I’m not scared of your hands, Cam. I know what’s in your heart.”

  But she didn’t. Because I hadn’t told her, hadn’t shown her the violence I was capable of, and I never would. That little show with Oscar? It was nothing. And what he’d said about her? That was only the beginning if she stayed with me.

  It was the last gift I could give her—my silence and the freedom to walk away. “You know what I’ve allowed you to see. The guy you’ve been with for the last six weeks—”

  “I know who you are! Don’t you dare insult me like that.” She marched right up to me and stared me down from nearly a foot below me.

  “For once in your life, Pika, err on the side of self-preservation. Stop standing in front of loaded guns.” I held the water out to her, and she took it, still glowering at me. “I don’t want to scare Rose with the blood. Please take this to my father.”

  “Camden,” she begged, but I had absolutely nothing left to give her.

  I yanked my keys out of my p
ocket and put them on top of the water so she wouldn’t be stranded.

  Then I walked right by her and didn’t stop.

  She didn’t call after me.

  Maybe she was finally learning.

  Chapter Twenty

  Willow

  I handed the water to May and then took the empty chair at the table where Art sat, teaching Rose about the mine.

  Numb. I felt…numb. Which was better than the gut-wrenching pain I’d felt watching Cam rip himself apart for something anyone in his position would have done.

  I doubted my own father would have stood there and listened to someone say anything like that about my mother. Maybe he wouldn’t have been as lethally accurate, but he also hadn’t been trained Special Forces.

  “Mr. Daniels, it’s time to take some medication,” May cajoled.

  “No.”

  She sighed. “He’s having an off day,” she explained with a flat smile.

  Xander looked back, and his eyes softened in concern. “You all right, Willow?”

  I shook my head slowly.

  His mouth tightened. “Camden?”

  I didn’t have to confirm what we both already knew.

  He sighed and asked the woman he was helping if she wouldn’t mind waiting a minute before he walked over to me. “He’s… I don’t even know.”

  “He’s Cam,” I said in explanation.

  “He’s Cam,” Xander agreed. “Look, he’s always been hard. But I never worried about him, not in the way other people did. I never thought he was a lost cause or anything.” He dropped down and took my hand. “I’m not going to lie. I was pretty pissed when I heard you two were together. I love you like a little sister, and you’ve already been through so much. Just seems unfair for you to sign up for more.”

  “He won’t hurt me.” Now if only I could get him to believe that. But how could I, when the rest of the world was telling him differently?

  “Not intentionally,” he agreed. “I always knew Cam loved the deepest out of all of us. He’s willing to fight me for what he thinks is right so that I don’t do what he’s afraid I won’t forgive myself for. He would have killed for Sullivan—that’s how much he loved our brother.” Xander squeezed my hand gently. “And he’s always been willing to die for you, Willow. The mine, the fire…always.”