‘Daddy,’ Mimi says in a tone that begs a question.
‘Yeah, baby?’
‘What’s aParanutshell?’
Everyone falls quiet, glancing at one another until Blaire takes over seamlessly.‘Paranatural, sweetheart.Remember we talked about the name bad people give to Brightlings?’
Lachlan frowns, unsettled.‘You told her?’
‘Of course I did,’ Blaire intones softly as if he’s missing something.
Mimi’s holding the handcloth with Danya’s blood on it when she boldly asks, ‘Is Jewel a Brightl—?’
Fuck, what happened next?
Lachlan leans back, takes a moment to think.He can write for hours and that’s what he’s been doing pretty much every moment he isn’t with Kade.
WithJules.
He rereads the previous section.
After the lake, I started to come back to myself almost in a new way.Even now it’s hard to think of Roman Sorrenko, and I can’t help but feel if Vasily is really running the Front now, then I failed him more ways than one.You and I remained very close together, inseparable.It still feels wrong to tell the story in this way, but you deserve to know and if my Jules really is gone, then I need someone to remember him.
Your tattoo.Your first one.You did it the day before your nineteenth birthday and Carrigan noticed first.It caused a big issue, but together we
Together we what?
Lachlan can’t remember.
It’s not the first time since he began writing this for Kade that he’s come upon something he can’t recall.Almost everything else, even the stuff he wished hecouldforget, is preserved perfectly, but some things are just unreachable.His hand doesn’t cramp, but his mind is foggy in some areas.
Lachlan closes his eyes.
Back in the Cove with everyone he loved before it all went so fucking wrong, before he lost Mimi and Jules, before Blaire became a stranger, and Danya became an enemy…
What did Mimi say?
‘Fuck,’ he mutters, setting down the pen.
He’s half-filled this notebook already and there’s still so much to tell.Somuchhappened in three and a half years, but as Lachlan skim reads the last sixty or so pages, he thinks maybe a lot of the Sable Key stuff is unnecessary.
It’s strange to read it back.
There’s a degree of catharsis in it.
Processing, maybe.
But Kade probably doesn’t need to know most of these things.He doesn’t even know who Roman was.There’s a lot that’s just for Lachlan, in truth.
The account of a man whose days ahead are numbered.
His stomach gurgles.
It’s almost three AM.
Lachlan needs to eat.
Multiple empty bean cans sit on the floor of the van.He’s desperate for red meat, rare and bloody.He’ll go out soon, get supplies, then come back and finish it tonight so he can give it to Kade tomorrow.Lachlan returns to a certain point and reads the small section over and over.
