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“Where’s Addie?” I asked, not wasting any time with pleasantries. I didn’t have the patience to be pleasant when her life was in danger. I thought about the dead body that I had left to rot. No, I most definitely did not have the patience. When someone - or something - threatened the people I loved, I was willing to destroy the world. It would fall into shambles. Burn away.

Hell if I cared.

At the mention of her name, he stepped closer. Lightning streaked overhead, highlighting his cold face. His brow was furrowed, and his lips were turned down.

“What’s going on?” he repeated.

I grabbed a flashlight out of my waistband and flipped it on. Holding it up to my red, blotchy skin, I allowed him to see for himself. For a moment, he merely looked confused. His eyes tightened, surprise giving way to confusion and annoyance. After another long second, that confusion morphed into horror.

“The rain?” he asked. Despite the fear evident in his facial expressions, his voice was devoid of any feeling. He could’ve been reciting a fact. I knew, from experience, that this was a defense mechanism. It was the slow-churning lava before a volcanic eruption. The calm before the storm. “It did that?”

“Acid rain,” I responded, nodding once in confirmation.

Calax, to some, resembled a monster. With his hulking frame and dark, intrusive eyes, he could've been one. I had never considered him scary until that very moment. His eyes turned glacial, and his hands clenched into fists. Like Fallon, he wore an expression that only screamed one thing: murder. For the first time in all the years I had known him, I was terrified. That, combined with my already overwhelming fear for Adelaide and my brothers, was an intense emotion. My body began to shake as both adrenaline and distress warred for dominance.

“Calax…” But he was already charging down the hall and into the kitchen. Both Declan and Fallon stood around the table. From the tightness in Declan’s face as Fallon rapidly signed to him, I took it he was told as well.

The rain was acid.

Three of our brothers were missing.

And the woman we loved, the glue that held us all together, was facing the storm.