Page 186 of The Echo of Forever

“Can I have this, D?” he asked, already biting into a piece of bacon without waiting for my permission.

I nodded, watching him settle into the chair Forever had only just vacated.

“Aye, where you meet Forever at? I feel like I need somebody like her,” he said, talking with his mouth full.

His eyes gleamed with that teenage admiration he’d been showing since meeting my wife.

I leaned against the counter, lips quirked up but didn’t answer. Tristian had a way of getting to his point eventually if you let him ramble long enough. The kid was always lookingfor advice on girls, but that wasn’t why he’d come inside this morning. Not after what went down last night.

He took another bite, then set the fork down before touching the eggs, his expression shifting to something more serious. The playfulness faded from his eyes.

“Sorry I didn’t come to you about Aunt V sooner,” he finally said, looking down at the plate instead of at me. “It was selfish of me. G had a stroke and Forever…” He shook his head as if he were trying to shake away the memory of something. “Anyway, I also wanted to say I talked to my dad. He’s stubborn, still got an attitude about not having authority around here when you’re around, but he gets the bigger picture deep down.”

I nodded again, still saying nothing. The pain in his eyes told me he was blaming himself for what happened with our aunt, like somehow her betrayal was his fault for not speaking up sooner. He didn’t understand that her path had been set long before he noticed anything off, long before he was fucking born.

“My dad doesn’t show it, but he respects you,” Tristian continued, pushing the eggs around his plate. “Even if he’d never admit it.”

“Your pops and I understand each other,” I replied, meaning that shit. “He’s doing what he thinks is best for this family, same as me.”

Tristian looked up, studying my face like he was trying to decode whether I meant what I said.

“Can I shadow you more often?” he asked abruptly, abandoning the pretense. “I’m about to graduate next year.”

There it is.

The real reason for this early morning visit. I’d been expecting this conversation, just not this soon.

“Why you wanna do that?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer. “How about you be a kid for a little longer?”

His jaw tightened, a flash of frustration crossing his face. “I am a kid. But I won’t be forever. I need to learn how all this works before—”

“Before what?” I cut in, pushing off from the counter to grab a bottle of water. “Before the world ends? Before someone else dies?”

“Before I’m thrust into it without knowing what I’m doing,” he shot back, an edge of determination I recognized all too well.

It was the same stubborn resolve I’d had at his age.

I studied him for a minute and then nodded.

“I’m not saying you can’t, Tristian. But I never got to be a kid, for real. You and Tank have that opportunity, and I want you to explore it for a little longer.”

His shoulders dropped, defenses down.

“If on your eighteenth birthday you still want to shadow me, I’ll allow it,” I added. “But until then, focus on school. Focus on girls. Focus on basketball. All the shit I never had time for.”

He didn’t argue, just lifted the fork again and began to eat.

“So, where did you meet Forever?” he asked after a while, smiling again.

I chuckled and left him sitting in the kitchen, refusing to discuss my wife with him.

A couple hours later, I kneeled on the rooftop I’d shared with Violet a few days back, adjusting the scope of the rifle I barely used.

I kept my eyes trained on the side entrance of the Fairchild building across the street. The private auction was happening right on schedule, buyers dressed in cloaks entered the building from all sides.

I wasn’t here to take a shot, just to watch and understand this part of the operation better. Knowledge was just as valuable as a bullet sometimes.

The brass token Eliel had given me was currently in Solei’s possession as she and Oliver accounted for the process on the inside. The building itself was a dead zone structure, technically outside both Collective and rejector territories, which wasn’t a coincidence. Solomon was smart about keeping his dirtiest business in neutral spaces.