Page 161 of A Vicious Love

Both of them were right. That was why it never healed.

Villain. I hated the word on that page. Because Villain had loved him better than we did.

“I want his region station changed to Harlan.” Marcel tapped his ring once, gaining back my attention.

Harrison stepped closer to the desk. “Do not drag him back to Harlan because seeing Villain on a form hurts your feelings.”

“My feelings?” Marcel’s voice went dangerous. “He is my brother.”

“He is mine too.”

“You think I don’t know that?”

“I think you forget it when guilt starts driving.”

Marcel looked like he might come across the desk.

I moved between them. Again. This was going to be exhausting. I looked down at the file. Post-academy regional station: Villain. The guilt was heavy in Marcels eyes. I’d seen my brother carry it too long.

“No,” I said.

Both brothers looked at me. I tapped the line.

“No to this.”

I would have liked nothing more than to keep pretending this whole fucked mess did not exist. But we failed him.

There was no cleaner way to say it. We let another city raise a Harlan Crow because we were too broken to do it ourselves.

Our mother would have been disappointed.

Our father would have been worse.

Dacre Crow had been born beneath the Villain crest, but Harlan had been placed in his hands. Regional reign was not just a title in our family. A city was given to you before you understood what it wanted. Our father had learned Harlan from the cradle.

Kingston was not some spare Crow child to be shifted across a registry because another region had raised him better. He was born to Harlan, the line our father ruled.

Whether we deserved him here mattered less than the fact that he had a right to be here.

Our father died ruling here.

If he had lived, Kingston would have been raised here. Learning Harlan from the men who were supposed to teach him how to survive it.

I looked at Marcel.

“King was born a Crow of Harlan,” I said. “Whatever else we fucked up, that part is still true. Father would have wanted him here. Kingston is the heir of Dacre Crow of Harlan.” I reached my cigarettes. “He comes home.”

That settled the debate. We backed Marcel plan.

“So what do we do about the first day?” Harrison sat heavily in the chair.

Marcel looked at him like the answer was obvious. “We attend orientation.”

“No,” Harrison said. “We go before orientation. To help him move in. We carry boxes. We do not glare at every Villain child who breathes near him.”

Marcel’s face hardened.

“Rome will be there,” I said. “Luca and Bastion too. They are all starting at the same time.”