Page 32

I stared out the window, back in the childhood home that felt a little like a dream these days. Rain pelted the glass. The rumble of thunder echoed the pain inside my heart. But I couldn’t cry anymore. All I could do when I wasn’t immersed in my duties as a Hunter taking on the Organization was to acknowledge the numb void in my heart his loss had created.

Not much had been resolved since we killed Harmony.

Phillip hadn’t cut me off entirely, but he’d found plenty of ways to stay busy away from me. Things weren’t the same between us. I hated how much I missed the asshole. I thought this time he’d find his snark again, and then we’d battle it out in one of our banter-offs, but he barely looked at me anymore, let alone tossed a sarcastic comment my way.

Guess he couldn’t find his sass in this situation, but neither could I. I let him go. I didn’t chase him this time. I learned last time that chasing didn’t matter if he didn’t want to be caught. But I hadn’t any clue where that put us. Working it out but barely? Just a pair of idiots in the midst of their millionth break up? Already done? Who knew.

Cash had stayed despite Phillip’s insistence he find somewhere else to go. His invitation came from the most unlikely of places. Grams was the first to welcome him back. I didn’t believe for a second she didn’t know about him being present for my parents’ deaths, so it didn’t really make sense.

But for some reason, it was almost as if she was happy to see him. And by the way they talked, it was as if they had history together. My grandmother was a fairly mysterious woman, so even I didn’t know a lot about what she did as a Hunter, but this felt like a secret she should’ve told me. Hell if I’d ever get it out of her if she didn’t want me to know. So, I watched in silent interest alongside the others as she chatted with Cash like they were old friends and not bitter enemies.

Nothing really mattered when Grams was finally told about what happened to Nigel, though. The happy homecoming quickly soured. Her hazel eyes lost their catty gleam. She dropped them and let loose a small breath. After thanking Sloan for telling her, Grams disappeared for a few hours to train, but I suspected she’d gone somewhere to be alone.

She’d never admit to anyone that Nigel’s death destroyed her the same way it had me, but to those of us who knew her, we could see it clear as day. She was grieving. Unfortunately, after a lifetime of being one of the best Hunters the Organization employed, Grams still couldn’t let her guard down, so we left her to it. We didn’t mention him after that.

“Here,” someone said, and I turned to find Jo standing with a couple of cute mugs. The image didn’t fit the scary woman she was, and it made me smile against my will. “I thought you could use some Irish coffee this morning.”

“Looking to get on Grams’s shit list?” I laughed, taking the proffered cup.

Jo sat down next to me with the mug Grams swiped at a local thrift shop and peered out the window. “I’ve met some terrifying people, but that Hunter takes the cake. She hasn’t gotten any less dangerous in her advanced age, has she?”

“Advanced age? Oh, you’d get your ass handed to you for uttering that phrase around her,” I teased, my throat still tight.

“You’re right. I’ll be careful,” Jo said, smirking. “If there was one Hunter I was afraid of, it was her.”

“You knew about Grams?”

Jo gave me a sassy little eyebrow. “Come on, V. Your grandmother is a goddamn legend. Even though those assholes have extra abilities she doesn’t have, she was just as lethal, if not more so. The problem is, they’ll never be as clever as she is. Your grandmother is a tactical genius, and she’s cutthroat. She killed mercilessly. She never failed to get her guy. She might’ve been on the wrong side of history for a while, but I admire that about her. No one on this side wanted to be her target if they could help it.” Her endless respect for Grams dripped from every word.

“So, did you ever fight her?”

Leaning back, Jo stared at the ceiling. “No, she was one of the few Hunters I stayed clear of. But I definitely knew about her. It was…surprising to say the least when I found out you were her granddaughter.”

“Why? Because I’m not as good as she is? Or really as pretty? Don’t worry. I’ve seen pictures. I’m not even a little bit surprised Grams had a list of people pining after her and she never struggled to…well, you know. She was a heartbreaker before Gramps.”

I wouldn’t even touch on how weird it was for me to talk about my grandmother’s booty call history. I’d already spent way too long cringing after she encouraged me to be a ho-ho.

“No. That’s the thing, though. You are. You’re unbelievably clever, chick. You’ve just had the unfortunate luck of being surrounded by men who think you need to be saved instead of listened to. They underestimate you all the fucking time, and you can’t let them.”

I didn’t expect the lecture, so I went quiet, grief’s unyielding fingers still a tight hold on my throat.

Jo cursed and touched the hand not holding my cup. “Sorry. That was shitty of me to say. I…fuck, I’m not good at this stuff. But I didn’t mean—”

Smiling gently, I nodded and interrupted her before the poor woman could spiral, “Don’t worry. I appreciate what you’re trying to say, and I do agree with you. I’m just…young. I hate it, and it’s not an excuse, but it always shows when they talk to me. I’m still learning how to assert myself. I might know how to shoot a crossbow while in a constant state of motion, or take down an enemy with no weapon at all, but I’m still barely navigating adult relationships. This stuff is still pretty new to me. I don’t always know what I’m doing.”

After Nigel died and my relationships had been thrown into chaos, Jo had shown a side I never expected to see. Human. It was an odd way to describe her, but that was the only word I could think of that fit. It was the first time I’d seen her be something other than brilliant and mysterious.

When it came to comforting me, she was rough around the edges, but Jo clearly cared. She’d ramble and try to offer her own version of support, but it was evident she hadn’t been in that sort of position for a long time. She didn’t know what to say, and it often led to these spiraling moments.

Jo took a sip of her coffee and grinned. “That makes two of us.”

“What, you? Relationship inept? No way. Aren’t you incredible at anything you do?” I balked in mock surprise.

Rolling her eyes, Jo crossed her legs on the couch and bumped my knee with hers. The men in the kitchen were busy arguing, so I let her fingers slide between mine for an electric second. Her lips tilted as her fingers traced my palm, carefully testing something we’d been toying with since we met. My cheeks burned by the time her hand slipped away.

“I’m a beast when it comes to fighting, but even I have things I’m not good at.” Our eyes met. “Things I’m afraid of.”

“Bullshit,” I teased her with a smirk.

Her grin broadened, and I could’ve sworn she bit her lip, but Cash’s shriek stole our attention before I could investigate or overthink everything about it.

“Must you brutes micromanage everything I do?!” I heard Cash complain, back to his usual antics. “Get out, or I’ll slap you around with this spatula!”

“Try it, Fae. See what happens,” Phillip growled.

“That’s enough, children. My kitchen, my rules. If you have time to hover, you have time to train,” my grandmother admonished, next to Cash at the stove.

I couldn’t believe the first day Cash offered to do anything helpful. He cooked a meal for me. He insisted. Weirder still, it was pretty fucking tasty, and I’d devoured it so quickly I worried I’d get a stomachache. I’d never seen him look so satisfied. Now, Grams had him helping her every morning. They’d even started to wear matching aprons. It was both the cutest and most terrifying thing I’d ever seen my grandmother do.

I was worried she’d put poison in his food to destroy him because most of the poisons the rest of us were immune to. Was this her plan all along? Was she getting ready to kill the Dark Fae? Had Phillip convinced her he was a danger to me? I couldn’t be sure, so I hadn’t stopped watching the two since the first day they talked like old friends.

It was suspicious.

Shaking my head, I took a sip and smirked when it was extra sugary instead of the traditional alcohol-flavored kick. “Thought you said this was Irish?”

“Like you said, your grandmother is terrifying,” she sassed, edging a little closer to me after making sure no one was looking over at us. “I don’t do ooey-gooey girl feelings very well, but…how are you feeling?”

“I’m good,” I lied.

My chest hadn’t stopped hurting. Nigel was gone forever because of me. My relationships were in the balance because of me. My life was on fire, and I had no one else to blame but myself. I thought that the more I aged, the easier it’d get, but it really felt like a cycle of what the fuck since the night I was saved by Nigel.

Nigel.

The burn was back in my throat, and I swallowed it with another sip of the coffee Jo made for me.

I’d always wondered why Kate couldn’t help herself and chase after guys who weren’t great for her; why she always forgave them when they weren’t perfect and hurt her. I never got it. I thought it would be easy to make the right choices and know how to resolve a dispute when the time came to be involved in a relationship, but after the last year, I realized how wrong I was.

Would I ever get better at this? Would I ever know when it was time to fight or time to leave? Would it ever feel like I made the right decision with someone, or would I always question every choice I made? Or worse, would every choice always hurt someone I cared about?

I was starting to think that every person—young, old, experienced or not—were just faking it until we make it like Kate said. We were all pretending to know what to do, what to say, how to act, but we were all completely winging it. Everyone was just trying to make it through their lives and hoping for the best.

My curious gaze slid over to the kitchen where Sloan and Phillip argued with Grams about cooking because she’d only just gotten back from training and was looking her age this morning—worn out. I was worried about her too, but when I said anything, she glared and told me that if I had time to be concerned, then I had time to train. Which was such a Grams thing to say, so I stopped asking.

But I knew she was hurting. It was in her eyes. In every tired smile. She was grieving like I was. Anyone who didn’t know her might think she was cold and unfeeling, but I saw how weak she’d gotten in the weeks since she was told Nigel had died.

It wouldn’t be Grams if she wasn’t bustling around, never slowing down, refusing to let her pain show, though. Still, I was worried about her. So was everyone else. Even Kris stopped by a few days ago to check on her.

We’d recruited over thirty Hunters to our side, and the more we collected, the greater the pressure to take on the Organization became. Understandably, they were eager to get things underway, but we still had a few in Lux’s boyband left to kill.

Unfortunately, the remaining few were still unidentified. Other than knowing that One was likely an Ancient Fae, we didn’t have anything else to go on. We were in a holding pattern until we knew where to go next. But after losing Nigel, I was grateful for the break.

I checked my phone, and that was when I noticed a text from Kate and got to my feet. She asked if I could come over, and since Grams gave me the okay to visit her whenever I wanted while we were here, I couldn’t help but want to rush over there any time she asked.

“Out of my way, brute,” Cash complained, still arguing with Phillip.

It was weird that the Austrian was more willing to talk to Cash than he was to talk to me, but I figured it was because he couldn’t be angry with me like he wanted to after Nigel died. So, Cash had been nagged and bothered every day since we killed Harmony. Phillip didn’t let the Dark Fae out of his sight. His to-do list for every day was to ruin Cash’s life, and the texts from the annoyed pretty boy were growing by the hour.

“I’m going to—”

Jo nodded, not moving. “Go. Don’t worry about those overprotective assholes. I’ll make sure they don’t bother you.”

I smiled at her, so thankful that the gorgeous femme fatale was on my side. “Thanks, Jo.”

She waved me off, sipping her cup and keeping her eyes on the bickering group in the kitchen. I took that opportunity to sneak out the front door and head to Kate’s house. It was the only place where I was allowed to forget I was a Hunter in the midst of a revolution and a genetic beast capable of horrifying destruction.

With Kate, I was just V.

I used my insane speed to get to her front door in seconds. I was about to knock like always, playing cute when she admonished me for not just coming in “because you’re family, V,” but my hand stopped before it landed on the wood. The door wasn’t closed. The latch had been broken.

Fuck.

Alarm shot down my body.

I pushed the door carefully before peeking my head inside. I wasn’t prepared to see my friend’s home in shatters. One step into the foyer and I was in a warzone. Furniture was scattered and broken. Walls were torn apart, the cushion padding all over the floor. Whoever came through, they were looking for something.

Fear ate at my insides as I navigated the destruction, terrified to find my best friend’s body and not ready to lose another person important to me. But she wasn’t there. I didn’t hear her heartbeat, and I didn’t smell blood either.

Kate was gone.

Her phone was on the counter near her purse—well, the Nightmare Before Christmas backpack she loved so much that she used as a purse. That, too, had been ransacked. The screen on her phone was left open to our text messages, and in the box, ready to send, it simply said: “She’s waiting for you, so come find her, but do it alone or she dies.” A map location was tagged right after the sinister message. I sent the text to myself and pulled up the location.

It was maybe a two-hour drive, but minutes with my speed. And it was a trap. It had to be. But I couldn’t wait. I wouldn’t bring anyone. I wouldn’t be the reason another friend died. There was only one choice I could make—I’d go alone and destroy whoever had taken my friend.

To Be Continued…

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