Page 94 of The Blood we Crave: Part Two

“This has everything. James Whittaker’s involvement, Frank, Greg, their plans from college. Motive. I mean, Godfrey was a sick fuck, but this?” Alistair wiggles the book in his hands. “Is gold.”

The fire roars in response, embers flying into the wind.

“Enough to bury Stephen?” I ask, staring into the flame.

“And then some.”

We settle in the reality, that this, our revenge, may finally be—

“It’s over,” Silas speaks from my right, hands buried in his pockets. “This feels like it’s finally over.”

“Pending Odette Marshall believes a word we say,” I say, unable to help my skeptic ways. Nothing good ever remains, not in this group.

“Thatch,” Rook calls, releasing a puff of smoke. “For twenty minutes, I want to pretend it’s over, okay? Even if it’s not, even if it’s just twenty minutes of me thinking about all the ways I’m going to fuck my girlfriend in peace and take her far, far away from here. So please, just…shut up.”

I snort in time with Alistair’s chuckle. I have a feeling that the two of us were heading in the same direction, but just this once, we will abide by Rook’s wishes.

We are at the end. Two inches from the finish line.

And each of us submerges into silence, trying to prepare ourselves for what that might mean for the future.

We process the two years of pain.

We accept the fact Stephen Sinclair and the Halo will not dominate our thoughts every second of the day. We deal with the harsh reality that the ghosts we’ve built will stay with us for a lifetime, but the blood will eventually wash from our hands.

We are transported to a place that mirrors this moment in time.

When we were freshly graduated and the world was immense. The possibilities of what we were to become were boundless, and we each were ready to move forward from this town and the black streak they’d given us.

Rosie’s death had put us on pause, and tonight, in this moment, we’d press Play again.

But now, we are different. Changed.

We will never be those people again, who we once were.

Our goals and dreams have been altered, swayed by influences we never expected. We live in a present that we never would’ve imagined for ourselves two years ago.

Alistair can never go back to the vengeful, resentful guy he was before. Not when Briar is there to constantly remind him of all the things in this world he can be, and none of them are angry. Rook was damaged before, and this year had healed him in ways he never would’ve gotten the chance to. He would have run from his pain. And now, because of Sage, he’s able to face it.

And me, well, I hadn’t been entirely sure what I was going to do after graduation. I knew I wanted to study medicine somewhere far away from Ponderosa Springs. Only because I refused to accept who I was.

Now? I don’t really care where I end up. As long as darling phantom is there with me. I want to spend lifetimes beside her, and I’ve wasted too much of our time already.

“Thank you.” Silas speaks over the fire, looking at each of us for a prolonged moment before continuing. “For staying. Putting your lives on hold and on the line.”

“Always.” Rook’s response is immediate.

“No thanks needed.” Alistair, always so humble.

For a long time, I have denied what each of them means to me. Revolted against the idea ofneedinganyone other than myself. Content in freezing myself from the world if it meant I didn’t have to get close. I cut, sliced, and killed those who tried to get in with the shrapnel my father left embedded in my skin.

But I knew, maybe even from the moment we met each other all those years ago, I knew.

DNA did not make me a killer.

And it doesn’t determine who my family is.

“Who else would have protected you three if I didn’t hang around?” I lift an eyebrow, shocking them. I’m not exactly known for responding warmly in these types of situations.