Page 28

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brAM

A fter everything that happened at Sandstone Springs and Infernal Grove on our missions with the supernatural agents, everything was fucking surreal. Like I was stepping out of my nightmares and into something even worse. The only thing that calmed me right now was the weight of Pandora’s hand in mine, the sound of her steady breath beside me, and her caramel scent mixed with all of ours.

We’d been with Sabine and Jesper all night, briefing her about what happened and being a translator for Nebula to let her know everything he did about the situation. Now, we were finally drenched in the morning glow of our room, freshly showered and tangled in soft sheets.

We could finally fucking breathe again.

“Mmmf.” Pandora pressed against my side, nuzzling against my chest.

For the first time in years, I felt something close to safe. It was something I feared I could get used to.

“No fair.” Dex pouted, lounging on the end of the bed next to Reed.

“You had this spot last time,” I shot back, smirking at him.

“It’s only fair, you know.” Skel was on the other side of Pandora, running his fingers through her hair. “Taking turns, I mean.”

“True,” Hunter mumbled, tapping away on his tablet from his spot on the other side of the bed beside me.

Reed was passed out between Dex and Skel.

Hunter stilled as he read something. “Shit, Bram.” I barely heard the words at first, my mind stuck on the sharp tension in his voice. “Your father wasn’t taken in. He was already gone by the time the agents reached his residence.”

My father was gone.

On the run?

Fuck . That meant Slater and Melinda were most likely in danger.

“Bram, I don’t exactly know how to say this, but when the agents arrived, it was a bloodbath,” he said carefully.

“Meaning?” I croaked, but the sinking feeling in my gut told me all I needed to know. “Be blunt.”

“He killed your mother,” Hunter stated matter-of-factly.

The words echoed through my skull.

I stared at Hunter, waiting for something, anything, to make it real. My brain refused to process the information he’d passed on to me. “I…what?”

My father murdered my mother—something he used to threaten on a daily basis. After twenty plus years, he’d finally done it.

Janet Hemlock was dead? The woman who had watched Harry Hemlock abuse me time and time again and turned her head away. The one who encouraged my abuse. The one who made me clean up my own blood after beatings. The woman I came from.

I didn’t feel relief at the news, like I used to think it would.

I didn’t think I felt anything.

My tablet buzzed on the table, and Hunter handed it to me.

Slater.

I answered in a croak, “Slater?”

“Bram.” His voice was tight, controlled in a way I hadn’t heard from him yet. “Harry called Mom. Ranting about how he killed your mom and how he’s going to kill you, too. I don’t know if he’s fucking delusional or what, but Bram, you need to fucking be aware of your surroundings at all times. You hear me?”

“He called your mother?” Hunter asked, taking over the call for me.

“He did. He ranted about how he killed Janet and is going to kill Bram so he could be a family with me and Mom again.” Slater scoffed. “Fucking psychopath.”

The words should have hit harder.

They should have scared me. But all I felt was a strange kind of emptiness.

“Psychopath indeed,” Hunter muttered. “Slater, you and your mother need to lay low. I just got word that he indeed did kill Bram’s mother. He’s on the run now, but supernatural agents are hunting him. One more thing, Harry Hemlock is the notorious serial killer that targets noble demons. Go on lockdown and call Bram if you find anything out. We will do the same for you.”

Slater exhaled sharply. “Fates, that’s…way fucking worse than I thought it was. We’ll do that. Take care of my brother, okay?”

“Of course.” Hunter took the tablet from my numb hands, his voice low and firm as he spoke to Slater about a safe house the Demon Council had.

I barely heard him.

It was like the world was slipping sideways. I thought I would fall into oblivion and never find my way out, but then, Pandora woke from her sleep. She wrapped herself around me tighter, moving across me and pressing her hands to my chest like she was physically holding me together. Fates, she was the only thing keeping me together.

She brought her forehead against mine. “You’re okay,” she whispered. “We won’t let Harry Hemlock touch you. Hunter will make sure Slater and Melinda are safe while he’s out there, okay?”

Her reassurance cracked something inside me, but I still couldn’t react.

My mind wouldn’t let me.

I stayed in her arms, breathing, existing.

Hunter got off the call with Slater and tried to talk me through the shock.

Time warped.

Hunter told me the Supernatural Council’s agents were after my father now and that they wouldn’t let him disappear or hurt me or my brother and his mother.

Pandora told me that I wasn’t alone.

The others also said some encouraging shit, but I couldn’t process any of it.

Time distorted again before reality finally crashed down on me.

Janet Hemlock, the demon who’d given birth to me, was gone. Harry Hemlock, my own father, had killed her.

Ironically enough, despite everything, some part of me had always held onto the hope that she’d eventually give in to her maternal instincts and save me. That one day, she’d pull her head out of her own ass and change for me. I’d dreamed many times that she’d stand between me and my father instead of stepping aside. Or worse—joining in.

But that never would happen. It never did happen, and she had plenty of chances to do so.

“Janet Hemlock watched silently and detached as Harry Hemlock berated me. She watched him beat me. She only joined in after Grandpa died. The first time she did…” I swallowed what felt like glass. “When she lifted her hand and struck me herself…that was the moment I knew she had chosen him over me. It’s when I fucking knew she hated me as much as my father did.”

Loss, regret, and rage slammed into me all at once. It tore through the numbness, leaving me shaking.

I barked out a painful chuckle. “What I would do for a sip of fae whiskey right now.”

“You’re better than that,” Hunter said, causing me to nod.

“You’re right. I am.”

But fuck, the desire was there.

Pandora held me tighter, her fingers trailing through my hair. “You survived them both, Bram,” she whispered. “You’re healing. That doesn’t mean you have to carry guilt for her choices.”

I couldn’t stop it.

The moment her arms tightened around me again, the composure I’d chaotically held together for so long shattered.

A sob tore from my chest. It wasn’t just sadness drowning me—it was exhaustion, grief, and a loneliness so deep that I hadn’t even realized how it had hollowed me out.

She fixed that, though.

Pandora’s caramel scent centered me. My body shook with the force of emotions I’d buried for so long, my breath hitching between gasps that felt like they might never end.

But through every sob and cry, she stayed.

They all did.

Pandora, Dex, Skel, Hunter, and fuck, even Reed woke up and just supported me.

Through my emotional torment and vulnerability—I felt something in my heart shift. The bond between us, between me, Pandora, and even the others, solidified into something more than it was.

For me, at least, a bond formed stronger than before. Not just from our matebond with Pandora, but from the understanding that none of us had to carry our burdens alone anymore. For the first time since Grandfather died, I wasn’t alone. No matter what came next, I had them . Plus, Slater and even his mother.

And that was enough to keep me from falling apart completely.