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His silence was really starting to wear on my nerves, and my skin was starting to itch with anticipation. I should have been afraid, but I was not. I was ready to accept my fate and go down fighting if need be.

“I’m afraid, Ariel Kimber, that I might have brought the Council to your doorstep. Not on purpose, I swear, but I’m a fool and have never been able to help myself.”

If the Council showed up here, I would not place the blame for that on Finn’s too thin shoulders. My time holding them off had been running short, and I knew they’d make their move on me sooner rather than later. If today was that day, then so be it. I was tired of waiting for them to show up and try to kidnap me all the time.

Fuck it.

Fuck them.

Bring it on.

I’d either win or I’d die trying.

Still, I crossed my arms and glared at Finn. I might not have blamed him at the moment, but that didn’t mean I wanted him to think I liked him. I certainly did not.

Finn sighed as he sat down on the edge of the bed, not touching either of the boys. “After Rebel died, I think I went a little bit… mad. I don’t know, I don’t remember everything. Things got a bit hazy for a few days or weeks. I have no idea how much time has passed since then.”

Sounded to me like he was a psycho who’d lost his damn mind. Maybe I should be scared of him. I still wasn’t. I didn’t think he’d purposely hurt me. Not in a physical way anyway. I didn’t think he had that in him.

“I started stalking the fat man, Adrian, and watching the motel. They have all these boys there. I didn’t understand it. Where were they coming from? Why were they there? I had to know. You see, Ariel Kimber, I was once a boy, and unfortunately, I had my very own interactions with the Council. Adrian specifically.”

His words left a sour taste in my mouth and a sickness in my gut. Nothing good ever came with the mention of meeting Adrian.

Then again, Finn was an absolute mystery to all of us and everything he said could be a lie. I would reserve judgment until it was over.

“He likes girls, boys, anything innocent and with magic.”

I swallowed thickly. He liked them not so innocent as well. He liked a lot of things that were very distasteful.

“When I was little, I had three sisters. It was very unheard of for a coven, because each and every single one of them showed signs of having magic before they were even close to becoming teenagers. The Council became intrigued because my parents were stupid enough not to try and hide them. But when they came for my sisters, they didn’t want to leave home, and my parents weren’t ready to let them go just yet. They fought, and the Council killed everyone but the children. You don’t even want to know the horrors that were forced upon us when they brought us back to the place they were calling home at the time.”

I didn’t want to hear any more of this, and I really didn’t think we had the time for him to share all his family history with me.

I got it, I really did. He’d been beaten, abused, and probably raped by the Council. As had all of his sisters. All this after watching their entire coven and members of their family being slaughtered.

I even understood why he’d taken the boys with him now. They were probably being beaten, abused, and raped by the Council. But they weren’t alone in their misery, because the Council had a whole bunch of orphaned boys they were supposed to be parenting.

What made these two special, I did not know.

Finn had stolen Council property. For that was what these boys were to them—property. They would not stand for this. Not after Isobel and then Romero.

They kept losing people, and it made them look weak.

I heard something outside of the tent, the snapping of a twig and the crunching of shoes as someone approached. Finn was too lost in telling me all the horrors of his memories to have noticed. He kept prattling on as if he didn’t have any sense whatsoever.

The boys on the bed had closed their eyes, and I had no idea if they were sleeping or if they were simply trying to shut Finn and his bullshit out. I honestly couldn’t find fault in either strategy.

I didn’t want to tell Finn to shut his mouth because I didn’t want to alert whoever was outside that I was aware of their presence. I figured if it were any of my men, they would have let me know so as not to frighten me.

The two boys on the bed looked peaceful with their eyes closed and their bruises on display.

I did not know them, obviously, but at that moment, I felt oddly protective of them. Not Finn though, not even with the wretched words still spilling past his lips.

I left the tent where it absolutely was not safe and stepped out to face the unknown in an attempt to keep the three of them out of harm’s way.

I was all kinds of a sucker.

I rounded the tent and came up short.