The bucket is filled with saltwater.
Fenwick chuckles.‘I hoped you’d say that.’
?
Lachlan can’t remember what he said.
Maybe it’s better that way.
Night rolls around and his stomach hurts from throwing up, and his throat burns from choking, and his lungs are sore from drowning.They drag him back into the mansion and throw him face down on the glass.
Roman is there.
No Sorrenko, no Vale.
The twins are huddled in a corner, both passed out.
‘Lock?’the boy whispers.Lachlan hears shuffling, hears the tinkle of glass as Roman knee-walks closer.‘Can you hear me?’
‘Ngh,’ Lachlan manages.Broken shards dig into his bare chest, but his body is so fuckinghurtfrom all the dry-drowning he barely feels it.‘Ro?’
‘What did they do?’
Outside, there’s a fire.
Lachlan hears the crackle pop, the silky roar of flames licking wood.
‘Y’all right?’he utters, mouth uncooperative.
Roman’s knee presses against him.With his hands behind his back, he can’t touch Lachlan, but he bends in half to press his forehead to Lachlan’s shoulder.‘Yes,’ he tells him, voice cracking slightly.‘I was afraid they killed you.’
Lachlan keeps his eyes closed.‘What’d they ask you?’
‘How to get into the panic room, if I knew what Julian was.’
Lachlan blinks, trying to focus.‘Do you?’
Roman whispers, ‘I don’t know much about Brightlings.’
‘But you know… he is one?’
‘I know what made the storm that night,’ he utters.
Lachlan tries to sit but to get vertical, he has to roll over and thepainof that might actually make him pass out.He does it anyway, clinging to necessity, to theneedto see Roman, get eyes on him.
Roman helps, lending his shoulders wherever he can.
Wheezing to draw even shallow breaths, Lachlan finally gets upright and looks Roman all over in the light of a nearby fire.‘How bad?’
‘I am all right,’ he tells Lachlan.‘They’re not professionals.’
‘I know, but if they take you to the sea tomorrow…’
‘I won’t break,’ Roman says, trying to smile.‘Dicks can be brave.’
Lachlan forces himself not to look at the kid, instead takes in what he can of the area.Whitlock’s body is gone.The twins are asleep in the corner.The fire from outside bathes the place in faint orange.
The people around it share food and water, speaking quietly.
