Page 6 of The Lost Kings

Panic surged. I shook my head as a few tears fell from my eyes. “I can’t do that. I can’t shoot a gun, Scotty. I can’t?—”

He kept his eyes on the black car in front of us but quickly glanced at me.

“You can, Presley. You can do this, because if you don’t, then that car is going to arrive at the hospital at the same time as your parents, and they’re going to kill everyone inside.

Your mom, dad, and all the people who helped them. We have to stop them.”

A tiny fire lit up my chest as I swallowed my fear and agreed. Scotty placed a black gun in my lap. It was metal and too big for my hands. It felt weird and heavy.

“You’ll pull this as tight as you can.” His hand directed my finger over the trigger, lightly showing me how to pull it. “Never point it anywhere but at what you intend to shoot. Keep your arms straight, don’t drop it.”

“Okay.” My voice shuddered.

Scotty showed me exactly how to grip it and then ordered me to get up. The car suddenly sped faster and we veered to the side of the black car, right by their back tire.

“Now, Presley! You have to do it now. Stand up, and then shoot, don’t stop shooting until the gun stops.”

I placed my feet on the leather console and with the gun in my hand, the weight of it was distracting. The wind rushed through my hair, tugging it behind me as if the sky wanted to lift me from the car and carry me off. I watched the ambulance’s lights flash and counted to three.

I thought of my mom.

I thought of my dad.

Then I brought my hands up and did exactly what Scotty told me to do. I squeezed as hard as I could and felt the gun lightly kick, but it was more of a jolt up my arm. From here I could see through the window, there was a driver and someone next to him. Then the back window rolled down.

“Hold it steady, Presley. Shoot that window!”

I closed my eyes but did as he said and just kept squeezing, and with every jerk of my hand and every window that shattered, I screamed. I screamed so loud that I pushed out the noise of tires squealing, of glass breaking, and of metal crunching.

I was yanked down hard enough to fall into my seat seconds later, and Scotty maneuvered the car around the black SUV that had just run off the road and slammed into a cement barrier.

It burst into flames seconds later and I watched the fire lick at the sky from my side mirror. It felt like I was dreaming .

I’d done that.

I had?—

“Let go, honey. It’s okay.” Scotty tried to pull the gun from my hand, but my fingers were gripping it so tight, I wasn’t sure how to open them.

A tear slipped off my lash, and it hit my cold face. “I can’t.”

“You can, it’s okay,” Scotty encouraged, while watching the road.

I didn’t let go until we veered off the exit and the scenery changed. The ambulance was still in front of us, red and white swirled in front of me. I stared down at the metal in my hands and thought about what I’d done.

“You’re letting us go to the hospital?” I assumed he’d take me home.

Scotty adjusted his hand on the wheel before glancing over at me with a smile. “Figured you’d want to see your parents. It’s our job to keep the family safe when there isn’t anyone else to do it. No one will ever keep them as safe as we will, Presley.”

Something about that struck at that fire that had been lit in my chest. I didn’t understand why bad people wanted to hurt us, but I understood what my uncle was saying.

“Dad said we ruin empires.” I spoke softly, inspecting the dried blood on my costume.

“What do you know about empires?” Scotty flicked his blinker to follow the ambulance. They drove toward a side entrance, but we continued toward the parking lot.

“You taught me about the Romans and a few others, but I don’t really know.”

“Your father has a dream, Presley. He wants to remove the bad people from this state, maybe even this country. To do that, he must take out their leaders and the way they make their money. We call that an empire.”

“So my dad is sort of like Batman?”

Scotty laughed while shaking his head. “Ironic because his name in their world is ‘The Joker.’”

“The Joker?” Now dad’s costume and why the twins’ dad was so bothered made a bit more sense.

“He went by a fake name so people never knew who he was. He stole from bad people and stopped the bad things they were doing. But to keep your mother safe, and now you…he never gave them his real name. He was always just ‘The Joker.’”

My mind began to piece small things together, one by one. “Is that why we never use our real names in town?”

Scotty nodded. “We’re trying to keep you safe.”

“Will my dad die?”

Scotty glanced over at me, then ruffled my hair. “No.”

“Why?”

He smirked. “I trained him. I’m going to train you to be exactly like him, only better. You up for that?”

I wanted to be like him, to be able to get hurt and not die. I wanted to be strong like him.

“Will you show me how to shoot without feeling so cold and scared?”

The rush of the wind in my face, the way the car crashed was still echoing somewhere in my soul, and I worried at what point that would try to sneak out.

“I’ll teach you, lánya . You’ll be better than even me, be able to see those coming from far enough away that the people you love never get hurt.”

He had the same eyes as my dad, and they seemed to cloud as he watched the road. I wondered if maybe he was worried about my dad and didn’t like that we were so close to getting hurt today.

“I’ll learn then.”

Scotty found an open spot and parked, then turned off the engine. “It’ll be hard work, you sure you’re up for it?”

“I’m sure.”

He gave me one last smile before unclicking his seat belt. “You’ll hate me for what I turn you into.”

I could tell he meant it in a very serious way, and since Dad got shot, maybe it would be safe if I just did what Scotty said. “Won’t it be worth it if I can help save the family?”

My uncle never responded before opening the door.