by May, W. J.
“What about the hybrids?” she asked softly. “Camille, and Matti, and all of the rest of them—on the run because the people you’re so quick to swear your allegiance to won’t allow them to exist?”
For the first time, Devon paused. His eyes softened, and this time when he reached for her she allowed him to take her hand. “I know how you feel about the hybrids. I feel the same way, but I know you also feel…responsible for them. Rae, the best way to give them the best chance they can have is by working from the inside. You know that. Why are you fighting this?”
“Because we can’t just go back!” she cried, pulling away from him once again. “Things aren’t the same, Devon. We’re…we’re not the same!”
He stopped dead in his tracks, barely breathing as he looked at her. “We’re not the same, as in…the four of us? Or…” his voice became very quiet, “or you and I aren’t the same?”
His question caught Rae like a punch to the gut. She had been talking about the four of them, their quest to find Cromfield. But hearing it said aloud, she wondered if she hadn’t meant the latter as well, without realizing it herself.
The silence stretched on as she struggled to find the right words. The longer it lasted, the paler Devon became. Finally, he turned abruptly on his heel. “I’ll leave you alone so you can figure it out.”
Rae’s eyes filled up with tears as she watched him go. “Devon, wait—”
But much to her surprise he didn’t leave. He held open the door her for her to do so. When she simply stared in confusion, his lips turned up into a hard smile—the smile he saved for people he didn’t care for, never the smile he used with her. “I’m guessing you’ll probably want to talk to…some people. To help you work it out.”
Gabriel.
He didn’t say the name, yet it rang out loud and clear between them.
“Devon,” she said quietly as she crossed over to the door, “this has nothing to do with him. This is you and me, and the kind of future we want. It’s about whether or not that future involves the Privy Council.” She said the words confidently, although a small stubborn part of her still wasn’t so sure.
He didn’t move his position in the slightest, but stared down at her intently. “Good. I really hope that’s true. But either way I want you to be sure. I wasn’t kidding, Rae. I’ve turned my life inside out to make this happen. If there are parts to it you’re re-thinking…well, I want you to be perfectly clear. I think we owe each other that.”
She fought back the tears and nodded quietly. He was right again. He was always right.
Before they could move forward they had to figure out where they were moving to. The offer from the Privy Council complicated things for her. She didn’t know what working for them would imply. He was clear on this. She wasn’t. And Gabriel…?
She needed time.
“Okay,” she said shakily, “I guess I’ll just…um…I’ll see you at dinner.”
“Sure,” he flashed a softer smile then shut the door behind her, leaving her alone in the hall. At least she thought she was alone.
“Watch it,” Kraigan complained as she turned and bumped him hard in the shoulder. “Some of us are still recovering from your electricity-happy friend.”
“Yeah,” she mumbled, hardly hearing what he was saying, “sorry.” She felt like a strong wind had come and literally sucked the life out of her. There was a strange tingling all over her body, and it felt as though she was floating down the stairs.
How had things gotten so out of hand so quickly? One minute she and Devon were discussing potential job offers, and the next second it spiked into their entire future? And then how the hell had Gabriel gotten into the mix? Devon was so sure that he was what she was talking about, but she hadn’t put two and two together herself.
Was he right again? Did Gabriel play a bigger part in all of this than she was giving him credit for?
A wave of nausea overtook her and she half crumbled against the banister on the stairs.
No. She wasn’t going to walk away. She didn’t need space. She may not know what she wanted, but she knew who she wanted. And that was the person she needed to talk with if she was indeed going to be planning out her future. It wasn’t a one-way decision. She and Devon were in a committed relationship. That made it a discussion. And one that she planned on having right now.
On a wave of adrenaline, she turned and doubled back up the stairs, practically flying as she rushed back down the hall to their shared room. She was just gearing up for exactly what she was going to say, but the second she touched the handle she heard a soft thud on the other side.
“Dev?” she asked with a frown, leaning closer to hear.
There was no response, nothing but the soft swishing of the wind through the open bedroom window. An instinct she didn’t understand made her freeze in place.
She hadn’t left the window open.
“Devon?” she cried again, pushing open the door.
There he was, twitching uncontrollably in the middle of the floor. His eyes were dilated and disoriented—a specific look she’d seen on several occasions now before. Occasions that always seemed to involve one person in particular.
Her eyes drifted up to the open window, the curtains swaying in the breeze.
Kraigan.
Chapter 8
“HELP! SOMEBODY HELP! PLEASE!!” Rae shrieked before turning back to Devon, who was still lying on the floor. “It’s okay, honey, it’s going to be okay. HELP, DAMN IT! Just sit up, baby. It’s alright.”
Julian and Molly appeared in the doorway the next second, breathless from having bolted up the stairs when they heard her scream. Gabriel was just a second after them.
“What the hell happened?!” Julian demanded, sinking to his knees beside his friend. “Dev, what the…?” He pulled him into a delicate sitting position and leaned him back against the bed. “How did I not see it? Who did this?”
“It’s Kraigan,” Rae growled, her eyes flicking again to the open window.
Of course it was Kraigan. She should have known it the second he bumped into her in the hall. She should have recognized the feeling of having one of her tatùs taken away. She had been so caught up in the fight with Devon, she’d attributed that to the strange, hollow feeling that swept over her. The wave of nausea and the internal crumble that followed.
All things that she was seeing on Devon’s face right now.
“I’m sorry, Rae,” he was mumbling, trying to control his trembling hands. “I’m so sorry.”
“Sorry!” She knelt directly in front of him, taking his face in her hands. “Devon, you’ve nothing to be sorry for! I’m the idiot who let him stay in this house.”
The front door slammed hard beneath them, and they all suddenly realized Molly was gone.
“She’s not going to catch him,” Devon muttered, holding on to the base of the bed like his life depended on it. “He took my tatù.”
Julian’s eyes flashed momentarily white before returning with pity to his friend. “No, she’s not going to catch him.”
Of the four of them, Gabriel was the only one still frozen in place, staring out the open window like he couldn’t wrap his head around what was happening.
“Kraigan?” he repeated softly, eyes on the horizon. “I just can’t believe… I mean, I thought he was starting to—”
“Yes, of course it was Kraigan!” Rae snapped. As conflicted as she might have felt a moment or two before, it was suddenly incredibly easy for her to prioritize the men in her life. Devon had warned against Kraigan at every step. Gabriel had welcomed him with open arms just to get farther into her good graces. “Of course it was Kraigan, because that’s exactly what Kraigan does!” She shot him a fierce glare before turning back to Devon. “I should have seen this coming,” she said again, stroking back his hair as he struggled to regain his senses.
There was nothing more disorienting than having a tatù stripped away. It flipped your entire world up on its head. And if that was t
he only tatù you had? Rae couldn’t even imagine…
“It’s not your fault,” Devon repeated, pulling himself up as he took several steadying deep breaths. “I let him get too close. Actually reached out to shake his hand when he offered…”
Julian’s expression darkened to something that gave Rae actual chills, but she kept her attention on the problem at hand, replaying Devon’s words with a frown. “Why would he want to shake your hand first? He didn’t need to do that to touch you…”
In fact, Kraigan didn’t need to take Devon’s tatù at all. He was still walking around with Jennifer’s stolen leopard. A tatù that, even as Rae thought about it, she felt float to the surface right back where it belonged. That only begged the question: Why take Devon’s? To be frank, while they were both powerful Jennifer’s was more Kraigan’s style. It was brutal, raw strength—an animalistic powerhouse that had no real match. Devon’s, while absurdly strong in its own right, implied a bit more finesse. Something that Kraigan valued about as highly as things like serving spoons and basic human decency. There was just no place for it in his life.
That meant he wasn’t replacing the leopard with the fox; he was simply stealing another offensive tatù. Something fast to help him get away because the ink he’d stolen from Rae was lacking in both departments. This, of course, led to the obvious question.
Which of Rae’s tatùs did he take? She couldn’t remember what one she’d used last.
As if Devon had heard her whole internal diatribe out loud, he slowly lifted his eyes to see her. “Rae, he didn’t just take my tatù.” He swallowed hard. “He used Carter’s on me. That’s why he grabbed my hand.”
It was as if someone had poured a stream of cold water down Rae’s spine. All the color drained from her face as she slowly pieced together the implications of what that meant.
Kraigan knew about the hybrids. He knew about Angel and Gabriel and everything they and Jennifer had stood for. He knew every inch of the Guilder underground as it had been memorized in Devon’s mind. But even worse…
Kraigan knew about Cromfield.
And now he was gone.
Ignoring Julian’s words of caution, Devon pulled himself to his feet, leaning heavily on the bed as he tried to find his balance. “I wish that was all,” he panted with the strain as his eyes flicked once again to Rae’s before landing on the open window. “Rae…he took the serum.”
* * *
“How could you be so stupid!”
It wasn’t Devon who took the censure, or even Gabriel. It was Rae.
She was expecting it. To be frank, a part of her almost welcomed it and she bowed her head under Carter’s ranting without putting up the slightest bit of resistance. At least someone was seeing things clearly. She needed a strong dose of reality to help open her eyes.
“He helped us take down Jennifer,” she said softly. It wasn’t an excuse, merely an explanation. “And I didn’t think I could keep sleeping with one eye open for the rest of my life. I figured some kind of truce had to be made.”
Gabriel stepped bravely in between them, still sporting a painful limp. “It isn’t her fault, sir. I was the one who tried to include Kraigan, tried to make him…fit in around here.”
Carter’s eyes flashed dangerously and he fell instantly silent. “As for you, Mr. Alden, I think you would do best to hold your tongue and keep a low profile whilst I’m in this house. The Kerrigans and their friends may have found it in themselves to forgive you for your betrayal, but rest assured, Gabriel—I’m not there yet.”
Gabriel gulped and fell back in line. “Of course, I’m…I’m sorry. Sir.”
Carter rolled his eyes and continued to chastise Rae for her carelessness, a well-earned rant she half-absorbed and half-tuned out while studying a crack in the tile beneath her feet.
The rest of the kitchen was in a similar state of unrest.
Julian sat perched in the corner, his eyes flashing in and out of time as he searched for any sign of Kraigan. Molly still hadn’t returned from her personal quest to catch him, while Devon, aiming slightly lower, was trying to make himself a cup of coffee without any degree of success.
Without a sense of balance or even basic depth perception, he kept either over-shooting everything or flat out spilling every time his fingers would sporadically spasm. The attempt left him with a small pool of espresso on the counter and an empty cup.
Eventually, when his efforts became too pathetic to ignore, Carter turned around with a hint of frustration. “Mr. Wardell, either let me do that for you or have Miss Kerrigan conjure you one.”
Devon blushed and gave up on the whole enterprise altogether, tripping his way awkwardly to the table and pulling out a chair. Rae followed his movements sympathetically whilst vaguely noting that she was back to ‘Miss Kerrigan.’ She’d really messed up big this time.
But before she could conjure a thing for Devon the front door flew open and Molly stormed inside, little bits of dirt and grass clinging to her purple leggings.
“Kraigan’s gone,” she gasped, still out of breath from the run. “I managed to hit him with a single blast but it hardly even slowed him down. That tatù of Devon’s is a nightmare to chase!”
“Glad someone’s enjoying it,” Devon mumbled pitifully, still twirling his empty mug between his fingers. It slipped at the last second and fell to the floor with an incriminating crash.
The girls just stared at it. Carter and Julian stared at it. Not one of them could remember the last time they’d seen Devon do anything even remotely clumsy. It simply wasn’t in his nature.
But as quickly as the mug had fallen, Gabriel replaced it with another one already full of steaming cappuccino. He alone seemed to think this Kraigan mess was entirely his fault, and he slid the new mug apologetically between Devon’s fingers, casting him a nervous glance as he did. “No big deal,” he said lightly, a little too lightly to pass as casual. “I’ll clean this up.”
Instead of taking the coffee Devon stood abruptly from the table and walked outside, Julian and Molly right on his heels. He may not blame Gabriel for Kraigan, but he blamed him for a whole host of other problems and he was in no mood to make him feel better about any of them today.
“Just let them go,” Rae said softly as Gabriel made to follow. She watched through the window as the two guys headed across the property to the open field just beyond. “You’ve no idea how it feels to lose your ink. He needs some space.”
Gabriel’s face tensed and he stared down at the table, a thousand thoughts warring behind his green eyes. “Rae, I’m really, really sorry about Kraigan—”
“You need to let that go too,” Rae interrupted, turning to him for the first time. “Carter’s right. This is my fault. You didn’t know what Kraigan was. I did. I have no idea what I was thinking letting him stay here.”
“You were thinking he’s your brother,” Gabriel said softly.
It was Carter who answered him. “Kraigan doesn’t know how to be family to anyone. He’s been warped beyond repair. All that remains now is a monster.”
“People can change,” Gabriel countered just as softly, refusing to meet Carter’s eyes. “If you give them a chance, they can surprise you.” The words were bold though he spoke cautiously—respectfully, even.
Either way, Carter wasn’t having it. “Mr. Alden, if you wouldn’t mind stepping outside, or upstairs, or really anywhere that gets you out of my sight, Miss Kerrigan and I have some things we need to discuss.”
Gabriel’s face tightened for a split second before he cleared it with that same deliberate nonchalance. “Of course,” he murmured. Then to Rae, “I’ll be right upstairs if anyone needs me.”
Their eyes met briefly and she sensed a great deal more beneath the words, but she lowered her eyes quickly to the table. Like she said—she was in enough trouble already.
“No one will,” Carter answered, dismissing him with a rude wave. When he was gone, Carter turned back to Rae with a hint of frustration. “Miss Ke
rrigan, I’m not going to lie. When I went out on a limb and staked my entire career and reputation for you, claimed that you had nothing but the Privy Council’s best interests at heart, I had every confidence that what I was saying was true.”
Rae blanched. “And now?”
“Now I’m wondering why, when I brought you an official pardon and offered you your job back, you looked at me like I’d shot your dog.”
Rae sighed. She wasn’t ready to have this conversation so soon after already trying and failing to have it with Devon. The Council had burned her, and continued to blatantly scorn the rest of her hybrid counterparts. Wasn’t that enough reason to grant her time to think? Why was everyone rushing this?
The clock ticked loudly on the wall behind them, highlighting her problem in an ironically literal way. But when she finally looked up and met Carter’s eyes there was no defiance, just the cold, hard facts. “Have you ever heard of a family called the Padrons?” she asked quietly.
“The Padrons?” Carter repeated, a little shaken by the change of subject. “No, why?”
“You should have,” Rae continued in the same soft monotone. “Their young boy, Matti, should be gearing up to go to Guilder in just a few years. But he can’t. Because he’s in hiding.” She leaned back in her chair, looking decidedly grim. “Because he’s a hybrid.”
Carter paused, and she used the moment to press her advantage.
“Do I have to add ‘like me,’ or do you get where I’m going with this?”
There was a sudden creak as Carter pulled out the chair across from her and settled himself down with a glare. “You know, I’ve long pushed for Guilder to add a class on basic etiquette to their current curriculum. If there was a way to erase poorly-timed sarcasm from teenagers, I’d move heaven and earth to do it.”
Rae leaned forward with a glare of her own. “I’m sorry if I’m trying to temper my frustrations with humor rather than with something more volatile. But the fact remains. How can you expect me to go back and work for the same people who are actively perpetuating that kind of discrimination against the very people I’ve been battling to positively represent? What kind of hypocrite would that make me?”
