Page 12 of This Blood That Breaks Us

Three

Luke

A gray stone castle stood in the distance, highlighted by the night sky.

“Welcome home,” Ezra said next to me. “You both must carry good luck. It’s the first and likely the only snow of the season.”

Tiny snowflakes fell on my face in rapid succession. The trees around us were evergreen, and the white powder fell to the wood and grass around the dock. It was cold enough to stick. Tall, thin trees lined the shores, and an old stone building stood next to the water’s edge.

“Lucky us,” Zach grumbled.

I smiled at my last memory of Zach in the snow. He’d bit it in our high school parking lot.

I’d hoped to see the snow in Blackheart and daydreamed of what it would look like in the redwood trees.

Our boat docked, and we stepped onto creaking wood. The boats at the harbor looked new. A gray stone castle loomed a hill’s length away, and my heart fluttered with the anticipation of seeing Her. Was it nervousness? Worry? Fear?

Zach and I waited while we watched some members pull William and Thane from the hull. William’s smirk was stained with blood.

Ezra grabbed his collar to look him in the face. “Ready for your judgment?”

Will spit black blood in his face, and Zach and I had to try to hide our amusement. Ezra wiped it with a handkerchief from his pocket and motioned toward the castle.

“So, what’s the plan?” Zach whispered next to me.

I had one he wouldn’t like.

There were two roads in my mind. Each was a diverging path of how this was about to go. The dark road filled with peril was one in which we reached Her and She killed Will and Thane right away. It seemed the most obvious, but what would killing them satisfy? Revenge? Akira mentioned revenge as something only The Legion cared about. He wasn’t a trusted source, but from what I remembered about Akira, he told the truth more often than not.

Their history made me think there was more than revenge here.

In a perfect world, the other road would be a place where they would keep them alive with a simple please, but the opposite path wasn’t a sunny, happy one. It was more like a well-kept wooded trail. It would cost something, and I was okay with that because I was open to giving. The one thing I wouldn’t give up was my brother, but they wouldn’t ask to harm him. So, what did we have to lose?

We could navigate it if we played our cards right.

“We keep them alive at all costs.”

“Ah, the Calem special. I like it.”

Being in charge meant I needed to be thinking five steps ahead and have a plan. Even if that plan wasn’t that great. Heavy hangs the crown, I guess.

I had a good feeling about it, and my gut never steered me wrong.

We followed along a cobblestone trail that was intricately placed over mowed grass. As we neared the castle, it broke out into a checkered pattern. The world in my peripheral vision was a wash of gray or green. A set of large hedges sat near the front of the property, and next to them was a pond the size of a hockey rink, fit with a fountain barely trickling. I was sure there was more, but it was all I could see at night. The snow flurries grew larger and larger, covering my coat.

Sirius stood at the end of the path grinning with his hands held politely in front of him. His thick brown hair was pushed away from his face, and his suit was perfectly pressed. On his hand, silver rings with emeralds and one with a small ruby laid across his warm beige skin.

“Well, well. My brothers have come home at last,” he said with a smooth voice.

I hardly thought of him as a brother. Mentor was closer but not quite the nail on the head. Of the three, we’d interacted the least with Sirius. He was always with Her while Ezra and Akira handled most of the day to day.

“I wish I could say it was nice to see you.” Zach smiled.

“I wouldn’t expect such flattery from you, Zach Calem.” Sirius smiled back.

He looked at me, and I wondered what he saw. The boy he once knew or a man who was a shell.

“I’ve been instructed to take you to Her immediately upon your arrival. Then we can make with the pleasantries.”