Page 70 of Another Damned Storm

The nostalgia lasted only until the hurt set back in. “How could I have missed so much? It was literally a matter of months for me.”

He shrugged and held up his bottle. “I’m telling you, it’s the universe. We must have done something horrible in a past life to end up like this.”

It probably wasn’t the best thing to toast to, but I raised my bottle to his and clinked anyway. Then I drank down half the bitter brew. That bitterness was fitting considering what I was about to say. “It wasn’t you.”

“What wasn’t?”

All at once, I couldn’t drag my gaze up from the bottle in my hands. “Pissing off the universe. It wasn’t you; it was me.”

“Alright, you’ve said a few things since you got back that have made me wonder if I’m going crazy, or if you are, but now you’ve got me scratching my head. What are you talking about?”

I pulled in a breath and forced myself to look at him. “I’m the reason this is all happening. At least, that’s what I’ve been told.”

His lips twitched like he wasn’t sure whether he wanted to smile or frown. “Are you conjuring the storms?”

“No.”

“How about summoning the demons?”

I scoffed. “Hell no.”

He ignored my not so clever pun. “So, how does any of this come back on you?”

He made a good point. No, agreatfucking point. “Supposedly, since Hook pulled me back from the Alius the way he did, I now bear some infamous mark. The mark of defiance.” I waggled my fingers like it was some ooky, spooky thing. It sounded kind of ridiculous, but deep down, I wasn’t feeling quite so cavalier about it.

I was feeling something, though. A familiar whisper along my nerve endings that told me Hook was nearby.

Matt set his empty bottle in the sink and grabbed another beer out of the fridge. “I get it. He basically brought you back from the dead.” He popped the top. “But it’s not like you're a zombie, Never. You’re not out there killing people for their brains, and I seriously doubt you’re the first person to be raised from the dead.”

“I’m not.” Another excellent point. “But there is the whole demon blood issue, and the fact that Hook had to share his power with me to bring me back.” I put my bottle to my lips and tipped it back, giving him time to process what I’d said.

“Hmm.” He watched me thoughtfully until his brow shot up. “That’s why your eyes glowed yesterday? Because you’re rocking some kind of godly powers?”

“I always knew you were smart.” I tipped my bottle toward him.

The whole situation was weird as shit, but it was also effortless in a way. Twenty-six years later, and we were still just us. Never and Matty.

Matt.

It helped that he was taking the revelation as well as he was. Way better than I would have in his shoes.

“You know what I think?” he asked, pausing long enough for me to raise my eyebrows in question. “You’re dangerous.”

A sliver of alarm wriggled down my spine. That was the last thing I wanted my brother to think. I started to shake my head, but then I remembered how I felt in the Alius, with all that power coursing through me. “Not to you. Or Angie,” I assured him. Nothing in the world would make me hurt them.

“But you must pose a threat to someone. Why else would theuniversego to all this trouble?” he asked, making air quotes around the word “universe.”

“I’ve wondered the same thing myself,” Hook said.

My response was to turn and smile at the sound of his voice. Matt’s reaction involved snatching a knife from the block on the counter.

“Easy,” I said, holding my hands up as best I could while clutching what was left of my beer in one.

Matt glared but eventually lowered the blade. “I take it this is part of those powers we were just discussing?”

I nodded. “Pretty cool, right?”

“For you. A little worrisome for me.”