“Get out of here,” James sighed. “I’ll call them back now. I hope you boys know what you’re doing.”
Zander knew exactly what he was doing. He didn’t almost kill himself to keep her alive just for those high and mighty fucks to steal her away.
Vincent pulled him from the room and down the hallway.
“Zander, you just signed us up to go to war with the World Magi Council,” Vincent hissed. “What the fuck?”
“You could have disagreed with me,” Zander pushed him. “Why didn’t you?”
“Because I agree with you, but the rest of the team might not,” Vincent shoved him back.
Zander scoffed. They would all be just fine with what he’d done. Even Jasper. Especially Jasper, their little golden boy. If he was willing to work past her being Shadow, then he would help keep her alive if the WMC didn’t honor their half of the agreement.
“Let’s go see your brother,” Zander said after a long moment of silence.
“Let’s,” Vincent said acidly. The poison dripping from that word sliced through Zander.
They found the elevator down to the dark cells where prisoners were kept until they could be moved. For three days, Zander knew that no one had talked to Axel. No contact whatsoever. Zander knew that also meant Axel hadn’t even had something to eat. It was cruel thing, but it was their world. A Magi criminal had no rights, except the ones afforded to them by their captors—and Axel’s captors afforded him none. Zander didn’t feel guilty about that.
His cell was the last one and only his name, written on a notecard, gave away his location.
Zander met Vincent’s eyes. Was he ready for this? Was he ready to meet his brother for one final conversation? Zander knew this was the last time Vincent would ever speak to Axel.
This was goodbye, and that’s why Vincent wanted someone with him.
“Open it,” Vincent whispered. “Stand at the back of the room.”
“Roger that,” Zander whispered back, punching the code needed into the small keypad next to the door. It beeped, and a red light flashed, alerting everyone in Prisoner Holding that a cell was being momentarily opened. It also alerted someone to wait at the door to let them out.
Vincent slid in first and Zander followed him closely. The door closed soundlessly behind them. They were now locked in with Axel.
Zander looked at the prim and proper Italian sitting silently on the tiny cot he had been issued. Tension made the air vibrate, and Zander was thankful for the collar on Axel—the inhibitor prisoners were given. The only way to remove it was to have the key… or get beheaded, a standard method for Magi execution.
“Vinny,” Axel sounded like he was happy to see his younger brother, but Zander saw something dangerous in his eyes.
“Antonio,” Vincent said, straightening his spine, “I’ve come to say goodbye.”
“Ah, yes,” Axel sighed, waving a hand dismissively. “Of course, you have. You always were just a bit sentimental.”
“At least he had the balls to do it,” Zander mumbled.
“Excuse me?” Axel snapped, and Zander nearly laughed. Vincent said it the exact same way.
“You tried to kill him without even showing up,” Zander shrugged. “Vincent at least has the balls to come to his shitty brother and say goodbye.”
“You’ll let him talk to me like that?” Axel was insulted, that much was obvious.
“He’s more of a brother to me than you are.” Vincent crossed his arms as he laid out that truth for Axel. It warmed Zander’s heart a little. “Moreover, he’s right. You tried to blow me and my team into the stars without even a tiny warning it was going to happen.”
“Missy always did have a penchant for explosions,” Axel chuckled. “If it helps, it really hurt to finally have to make that decision. I just couldn’t leave Sawyer in your care. She had to die, you see.”
“Oh… should we tell him?” Zander raised an eyebrow at Vincent, who gave a small smile. Should they rip Axel’s only perceived-victory away from him?
“She’s not dead,” Vincent said to his brother with that same, small smile. “She’s resting at the hospital. Zander, here, was able to put her back together. And I know who she is.”
“Always a surprise,” Axel growled. “You always have some surprise up your sleeve. Joining the IMPO, building this team, keeping Sawyer among the living. Fine. I’ll rest easy knowing she’ll spend the rest of her miserable life haunted by me and, mostly likely, in the cell next to mine until we’re both executed. I can live with that.” Axel turned his head to Zander and that made Zander uncomfortable. “Tell me. What did she have to do in those three or four short weeks to gain such… devotion from you to save her life? She’s not exactly the most likable person. I would know, I used to fuck her on a regular basis.”
“I grew up with her,” Zander growled before Vincent could gesture for him to not say anything.
“Oh?” Axel looked pleased by that. “You are one of those little boys who ran off to the IMAS? Really? And the Magi community shrinks. Were you the quiet one?” Axel looked thoughtful for a moment. “No, you must be the one she lost her virginity to. You’ll be happy to hear that I’ve trained her for the bed fairly well. If you convince her to get between the sheets with you, she’ll blow your fucking mind, I promise. You should do it before I tell everyone who she is, though. She probably won’t live very long after that.”
Zander snarled and went for Axel’s neck after that. No one talked about Sawyer like that. No one. Vincent grabbed him around the waist and threw him back. Zander went to charge again when he saw Vincent connect a right hook on Axel’s left eye.
“You little twerp,” Axel hissed, regaining his composure from the hit.
“Shut the fuck up about her, Antonio.” Vincent shoved his brother to his back.
“Stop fucking calling me that.” Axel sat up again, glaring at Vin. Zander was still trying to calm down from Axel’s blatant disrespect for Sawyer.
“Why? It’s the name our father gave you,” Vincent said mildly.
“Our father was a fucking failure, we both know that. Why should I use the name a man like him gave me?”
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned, Antonio, it’s ‘Once a Castello, always a Castello’. You might be known as the infamous Axel, but to me, you will always be shy Antonio, the boy who couldn’t live up to our father’s expectations.”
Zander had always found it a little amusing in a fucked-up way, the story of Antonio and Vincent, the heirs to the Castello empire. Axel became one of the greatest criminals known in their time when he’d started out as a kid who couldn’t prove himself. Only a year older than Vincent, his abilities had come in two years after Vincent’s. Vincent had excelled in the Castello family, the rising star of the family who turned against the lifestyle at the last moment.
“Go to Hell,” Axel snarled.
“I’m already there,” Vincent whispered. “I’ve been there since the day you convinced me to kill him for you. Good bye, Antonio.”
“You’ll come crawling back,” Axel hissed malevolently. “I’m the only family you have left.”
“You’re my brother but… you’re not my family.” Vincent sighed. “You haven’t been for years. Come on, Zander.”
“Vincent!” Axel stood up, with a shout. Someone on the other side of the door opened it for them, and Zander let Vincent leave first. Zander slammed the door shut as Axel began to stomp over. “VINCENT!”
They walked away, letting Axel’s screams become distant.
“Did you find what you were looking for in there?” Zander asked softly.
“No,” Vincent sighed.
“What were you looking for?” Zander frowned in confusion.
“I don’t know.” Vincent’s answer was strangled. “I don’t know.”
33
JASPER
“Do it,” Vincent commanded sharply. “She’s had four days. We need her up.”
Jasper winced and looked to the mot
ionless form. He hadn’t told them, but he knew what was wrong with her. She was just lost in her own subconscious, probably living out something that was better than reality.
And now they were all looking at him to force her out of it. They had to wrench her away from that beautiful happiness of whatever dream she was in because things were getting time-sensitive. The WMC was demanding that she finally reveal everything she knew, and that meant the team needed to know everything. They couldn’t get that information if she was asleep.
Zander and Vincent had let the rest of them know what Zander had done to James, the position the reckless redhead had put them in. Jasper had agreed immediately. He didn’t need to think about it. Elijah had, after only a second of thought. Quinn’s terms hadn’t changed. Jasper didn’t know why he was obsessed with the little-boy whose face couldn’t be seen and the black runt cat, but it was obvious to all of them that he was.
“Jasper,” Zander pleaded, “please.”
“Fine,” Jasper sighed. “It might take time, so be prepared to watch us sleep for a little while.”
He leaned back in the uncomfortable hospital chair and closed his eyes. Dream-walking required an unnatural sleep, one brought on by his own magic. He was slightly lucid, but in his own mind, and he reached out towards Sawyer’s, letting her dream suck him in.
The first thing he noticed was the dark. He was in a spotlight, but the rest of the world was pitch black; so dark that nothing escaped it. He stared off into the darkness and wondered how in the hell this was supposed to be a happy dream. He looked down and noticed he was whole. Well, that was nice of her. He was there in her image of him, and she still thought of him as a whole man. As far as she knew, he was.
“Jasper?” Sawyer’s broken voice flooded through him, and he turned to her. Her eyes were wide, and he gave her a genuine smile. Here, she had no scars. None at all. There was no evidence on her body that she had fought the battles he knew haunted her.
“Sawyer,” he started but she began shaking her head, backing away from him. “Sawyer?”
“Not you too,” she sobbed, covering her mouth. “No… I was so sure you and Zander survived. So sure that all of you did.”
Oh, shit. Jasper’s eyes went wide. She thought she was dead. Oh, fuck.
“Sawyer!” A child’s voice pierced the dark. That’s when Jasper realized that he was spotlighted but… Sawyer wasn’t. She was shadowed and dark. He watched her eyes light up just a little as she caught a jumping child, who was spotlighted like himself.
“Henry!” She laughed, swinging him around.
“Have you found me a kitten, yet?” He giggled, tugging on her hair.
“No, not yet, but maybe my friend Jasper will help?” She raised an eyebrow at him, and Jasper felt his heart fall out at the sight of the little boy. Henry.
Henry looked like Vincent. Henry looked like Axel. The Castello stamp was prominent on the child’s features. Those dark curls, the olive skin, and the olive-green eyes.
Was he… hers?
Jasper had to end this. No wonder she had locked herself in her mind. She had no idea she could wake up. She was in her mind, living a fantasy with this little boy. And if she thought she was dead… that meant Henry was probably dead, both in her dreams and outside of them.
He shook his head, trying to clear that thought. He focused on the boy and did something that he knew would break her, but it had to be done.
He forced Henry to stop existing. The child faded away, and Jasper changed their location to the hospital room where they were both sleeping.
“What?” Sawyer gasped. “Henry? Where did he go? Where are we? Jasper, what happened?”
“Sawyer, look around you,” Jasper whispered. He grabbed her shoulders and turned her slowly around the mental landscape he’d created. “This is a dream Sawyer, not the afterlife.”
“No,” Sawyer snapped. “I died! Bring back Henry! Bring him back!” She tried to shake him off.
“Sawyer, I’m dream-walking. I am not dead,” Jasper hissed as he saw the tears form in her eyes “and neither are you.” He forced her to look at herself lying in the hospital bed. He’d spent long enough in the room to memorize every facet of it. Every little piece to an exact detail. He forced her to look at him in the chair, sleeping, trying to reach her.
“No…” Sawyer began to collapse. “Henry…”
“You have other people who need you, Sawyer,” Jasper groaned desperately as he held her up. “Charlie and Liam. Jessie. Your other countless students that you saved. They need you. The team? They need you. Zander and I, we need you. You can’t stay here, Sawyer. You have to wake up.”
“Why?” Her voice broke. “Why can’t it just be over?”
“Because I’m not ready for it to be over,” he whispered into her ear. “Because I know you were once a dangerous assassin, and I’m not going to let that blind me to you. You have to wake up. It’s not over, yet. Not for you. Not for any of us.”
She cried into his shoulder, and slammed a fist into his chest as the dream faded. He felt the tug of his own mind, calling him because he couldn’t stay in hers as she woke up.
He left her mind and reentered his own, blinking into the world of those who were alive and awake.
He couldn’t ignore his broken heart, though.
Who was Henry?
34
SAWYER
Sawyer gasped. Bright lights blinded her as she found herself in the very bed that Jasper had shown her. She stared at the ceiling, tears in her eyes.
Henry.
He was still dead and here she was, still alive.
“Sawyer?” Zander sounded mystified. She rolled her head towards his voice and found him at her bedside.
“Zander,” she whispered, her voice hoarse.
“Why are you crying?” He asked, reaching out to wipe a tear of her cheek.
“It doesn’t matter,” she sighed, leaning away from his touch. “So…”
“You’ve been asleep for four days,” Vincent told her from a seat at a small table across the room, “and we need to have a long discussion.”
She knew that. Not how long she’d been asleep, but that a talk was coming once she realized she wasn’t dead. She’d told him that she was Shadow the last time they spoke. Now it was time for her to deal with that decision.
“We need to know everything,” Zander whispered
She forced herself to sit up and meet her new reality.
“Then, I think a little field trip is in order,” she mumbled. “Where are we?”
“Atlanta,” Elijah answered her, and she nodded slowly.
“We won’t even have to leave the city,” she tried to say, her dry throat burning from the effort of all the talking she was doing.
“Right now?” Vincent frowned at her.
“It’s… important to the… information you want.” She couldn’t find a better way to phrase it.
“You still need time to heal,” Zander growled softly. “Just…”
“I’m fine,” she said, shaking her head. She turned and put her feet on the floor. She glared at the IVs she had in her arm and began pulling them out, causing several of the guys to give strangled and abrupt noises. Zander tried to stop her, but she swatted him away. “I’m not going to die with these out, am I?”
“No, but-”
“Then they are coming out,” she hissed weakly, yanking the last one from her arm. She looked down and groaned. A hospital gown. “Do I have anything to wear?”
“Yeah,” Elijah began shuffling around in bags near him and Vincent. When he couldn’t find what he wanted, he just dropped the bags on the bed next to her. “Somewhere in there.”
“Can I have the room?” She asked, standing up shakily. Four days of bedrest had made her legs stiff, but she could manage.
“Sadly, no” Vincent mumbled, shaking his head.
She sighed and looked to her left wrist. They hadn’t put the bracelet back on her, so that was something.
/> She pushed Zander further away and pulled off the annoying hospital gown. She had underwear on, at least. No bra, but she figured it wasn’t something they would point out at that moment. Her mind was elsewhere as she searched for clothing.
She pulled on a simple pair of grey sweats, a sports bra, and a black tank top. That would have to work.
“Where are we going?” Jasper asked, still seated. She glanced at him as she found socks and tennis shoes.
Her eyes fell on his leg, and she felt her blood run a little cold. He must have noticed where she was looking because he shrugged.
“It happened during the fight,” he sighed. “After all of this, I’ll tell you more. It’s crutches for me for a little while.”
After this. She knew that after this was prison. That fact that he would visit her astounded her.
“Only because you wouldn’t use a wheelchair,” Elijah muttered, and Sawyer rolled her eyes.
“I could have told you he wouldn’t submit to a wheelchair,” she mumbled.
“You weren’t awake, little lady. Zander had to tell me.” Elijah eyed her, and she narrowed her eyes on him.
Guilt was bubbling up in her. Jasper was maimed because of her, because of what she was about to tell them.
“So, what happened while I was out?” She stretched slowly. “Tell me as I take you on this little field trip.”
“Will you try to run?” Vincent asked her, now waiting at the door.
“There’s no reason for me to run anymore. You know I’m Shadow. Now you need to know why, and I plan on telling you that.” She walked up to him and raised her chin a little to look him in the eye.
She wasn’t going to be a coward. She’d thrown her cards on the table, come what may. She was alive, and it was time to tell her story.
Her story. Midnight’s story. Henry’s story. They all had a little claim on it.
“Alright, where are we going?” Vincent pressed as she waited for him to let them all out of the hospital room.
A Life Of Shadows Page 30
