Page 43

Jasper

Family shows up.

“What do you need?” Dominic is stuck to Jaykob’s side as they storm through Bristlebrook’s front door.

Eden’s soft T-shirt flirts around her thighs, hiking precariously as she scales the porch stairs. Women jostle her on all sides as she follows behind them, and I grip Lucien’s arm as boot after boot comes down hard beside her bare feet.

Careless, clumsy little sheep.

Every civilian not still outside appears to be swarming at our new commander’s heels, clogging the entryway with their incessant questions and suggestions.

I push closer, edging around Sara, but it’s too late.

Eden’s thighs and vulnerable toes and long, loose hair have disappeared entirely between the sweaty, shoving bodies.

She’s been devoured.

Jaykob doesn’t even look back. “Someone get me maps.”

“On it!”

I tear my eyes from my search as Lucien slips out of my grasp.

Oh no .

“Lucien. Stop. Lucien, don’t leave me alone with...”

He flashes me a pair of maddening dimples before vanishing inside, and I bite down on a hiss of irritation. I squeeze through the doors after him, but he’s already gone. I’ve lost him, too.

The last of my good mood blackens.

People swarm around me like locusts, and I begin edging toward where Jaykob and Dominic are looming, their heads and shoulders above the crowd.

This day is a budding disaster.

To think, this morning I woke to Lucien’s fingers on my skin.

To nothing but his dimples and our cocoon of blankets.

To slow kisses and the prickle of his beard against my chin.

This morning, Eden looked peaceful. I had her private happiness, my friends all together, and for a brief, beautiful moment. .. we were almost a family.

No longer.

Now we have Jaykob at war with all of us, Reapers sitting on our doorstep, and I’m suddenly fighting an accidental elbow to my kidney and a mouthful of a strange woman’s hair.

My temper purrs.

“What are we doing?” Ava asks, stomping on my foot as she follows Jaykob, and I shoot a wicked scowl at her back. “Are we just letting them sit there?”

“Jayk! We just hit the last of the rice!”

The call from the kitchen elicits a chorus of concerned shouts, but I’m busy eyeing a woman dumping her dirt-drenched behind into Beaumont’s favorite chair.

Utterly repulsive . All of them.

But at least the chair can’t get any more hideous.

“I say we shoot first. We can take ‘em.” Ida slings her rifle, and Ethel runs a weathered thumb over the sharpened head of an arrow.

Beaumont finally trails inside, but he lingers at the back. He’s ashen and grim enough that I keep one distracted eye on him.

He’s worrying me.

Mary Beth wrinkles her freckled nose. “Don’t you think the Reapers seem kind of sweet? Maybe we should just go with them. If I have to eat one more bowl of broth...”

“We don’t have to trust them. Let’s just go over so we can eat. We can always stab them after, right? If they suck?” Kasey flicks her knife open—one so like Jaykob’s I need to take a second glance as I attempt to edge past her.

“Oh, sure,” Ava says darkly, stepping into my path. “Who needs the fortress we just spent a month building? Let’s just expose ourselves. We’re stuck , okay?”

I’m stuck.

The witches are everywhere .

They press against me on all sides, and I hold myself still, fighting my growing, vinegared annoyance.

My once-pristine home is cluttered with their belongings and Beaumont’s carelessly discarded furniture.

Someone’s lime-green bra is under my foot, and the trail of dirt leading down the hall seems to return so often, I can only assume it’s their preferred aesthetic.

And by far the worst of it—I cannot escape the smell.

There are too many bodies overwhelming Bristlebrook’s delicate air filtration system, and no amount of long-expired bargain basement perfume is making my home more breathable. Every inhale reeks of stale gardenias and body odor, and my stomach aches with hollow hunger.

But.

I am calm.

I press my tongue to the back of my teeth, forcing myself to appear pleasant.

Empathetic. The mask I used to wear for my sessions.

This isn’t the civilians’ fault, after all.

Their concerns are valid. Their presence, necessary.

The Reapers are still a threat, even if they aren’t firing on us directly, and these women’s voices are important.

But .

I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t fantasized about tossing the lot of them out on their repulsive, hollering behinds so I can pour myself some tea and enjoy my apocalypse in peace.

“Everyone shut the hell up. I can’t hear myself think. I’ll tell you when I know what the fuck I’m doing,” Jaykob bellows, barreling toward the sitting room, and people part around him.

Then I spot her.

He has her.

I watch Jaykob acerbically as I inch through the crowd, keeping my hands raised so I don’t accidentally brush something I shouldn’t.

He has Eden squished under his unwashed armpit, and my ire becomes wrathful.

He’s done it again , claiming her like she’s a medieval wench with no choices of her own.

Just like he claimed Bristlebrook, like it’s a town for plunder and not my childhood refuge.

And she, for some godforsaken reason, is indulging it all, allowing him to grind her lovely hair into his sweat.

My eyes narrow on them.

Beaumont has been wrong in many things lately, but I fear this is not one of them. Jaykob is out of control, and despite his unfathomable sway with the civilians, nothing in his behavior leads me to think he’s equipped to handle the Reapers.

But Dominic still stands behind him, and he seems determined to keep up the charade. As if his captaincy isn’t melded to his very bones.

I finally pop free of the pack as Ava throws a hand up. “Jayk, stop. We can keep shit moving out there, we both know that, butthis is your place, and we need to know... are you all thinking about joining up with them? Because if you are, we need to make our own plans.”

Are we thinking of handing them over to the Reapers, is what she means.

She shifts, then grimaces. “I get it, if that’s what you have to do. I know we need food—I know there’s Red Zone and Alastair to think about too—but we need to think about ourselves. I don’t speak for everyone, but for myself... I don’t know those men. I’m not going anywhere with them.”

The women fall quiet, and I pause as Jaykob turns toward her and takes in the crowd. Beaumont glances up from his silent brooding to look at him too.

My eyes find Eden. She’s quiet and dignified, nodding minutely at Ava’s question. I’m suddenly certain, just by that silent agreement, that were we to turn our backs on these civilians... she would go with them.

She is them.

Abruptly, my empathy stops feeling like a mask. These women have all fought hard for themselves for far too long—far harder than we’ve had to. They shouldn’t have to fight any longer. Despite how their presence grates on me, we’d be less than men if we weren’t willing to fight for them also.

This is their home now too, after all.

Jaykob’s brows lower, and I brace myself to do damage control.

“Look, stay or play nice with them, that shit ain’t up to me.

You want to trade your ass for some bacon, knock yourself out.

I don’t have a collar around your neck. But this?

” His shoulders bunch, and he glowers as he gestures around the room.

“Stinks like ass. I’ve taken shits that look better than our options. ”

I stifle a sigh.

He might have all the tact of a drunken trucker but, all around me, the women relax and—for a moment—I’m grateful for him. I’m not sure they would have trusted my pretty promises.

They need this obnoxious honesty.

My gratitude lasts right up until Jaykob hauls Eden back against his side.

Ava snorts, glancing over the crowd as tension unwinds its stranglehold from the room.

She shrugs. “Okay, fine. Then how about you all use your Ranger magic to figure that whole siege fuckery out, and we’ll go on doing all the hard work.

Keep everything running. Make meals out of wishes and air.

Make sure our new friends don’t shoot us while you’re playing with your maps. You know, the little things.”

Jaykob’s scowl deepens.

She smiles sweetly back.

“This is hard work,” he finally mutters.

“Of course it is, dear.” Ethel pats his arm.

“You’re doing a wonderful job.” Ida nods, and Eden hides a smile behind her hand.

“Are they, though? I’m still hungry,” Kasey grumbles, tugging at her tank.

Ethel lets out a tinkling laugh and waves at Kasey to follow her. “Come on, my girl. Let’s see if those Reapers will take pity on a poor old granny and her goddaughter, hm? I bet we can find one fool who’ll give up a bread roll without us crossing the pit.”

“ Moat ,” Jayk growls at her back.

They filter out, either back to the gym where the majority have set up their sleeping quarters, or back out to woman the defenses. The room drains of gardenias and knobby elbows until only the five of us remain.

It’s painfully tense, until Lucien slides off the banister, his arms laden with my parents’ rolled maps. “What did I miss?”

“You want to attack?” Dominic asks Jaykob, unreadable.

Jaykob looks back at him, then snatches the maps out of Lucien’s hand and strides into the sitting room. He releases Eden suddenly enough that she staggers. I quickly move in to steady her, and my hand slides under her arm.

My skin tingles where we touch.

She looks up at me, startled, and her bright eyes are like a punch of lightning. I can’t stop my fingertips grazing over her wrist, or what the feel of her does to me.

Awareness breathes between us.