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After a moment, Michael shook it.
When Irish tried to pull away, Michael held fast. “What’s going on between you and Hannah?”
“She asked me to tell her everything.”
Michael felt that like a bullet. He winced. He should be telling her.
He should have told her.
But maybe it was better this way. He’d never be safe. Not really.
“Good,” he said. But he still didn’t let go of Irish’s hand. “You didn’t really answer my question.”
Irish raised his eyebrows.
Michael repeated himself. “What’s going on between you and Hannah?”
Irish smiled. “Ask her.”
CHAPTER 31
Michael’s brothers sat in the back of an ambulance, wrapped in blankets. They’d been examined and questioned and told to wait.
So Michael sat on the tailgate and waited. He didn’t want to move. He felt like if he stayed right here, he could keep his brothers safe.
They hadn’t said much since the paramedics had left them alone. Michael couldn’t blame them. He didn’t feel like talking, either.
He kept turning around to look at them, though. He couldn’t quite believe they were safe and unharmed, as if one of these times he’d swivel on the tailgate, and the ambulance would be empty and this whole night would be a cruel joke.
He kept hoping he’d turn around, and Hunter would be sitting there with them.
When he’d done it one too many times, Gabriel said, “We’re still here, Mike.”
“I know.” He studied them, their drawn and filthy faces, the way they sat huddled together. “I thought . . .”
He couldn’t finish that sentence.
Nick nodded as though he knew what Michael was trying to say. He glanced at his brothers. “We thought we were dead, too.”
Michael swallowed, remembering images of the bombing he’d seen first on television, and then firsthand. He’d never be able to forget the sound of Hannah’s voice in his ear, saying that they’d found body parts.
But here were his brothers, safe and sound in front of him.
Someone else’s kids hadn’t been so lucky. Hunter hadn’t been so lucky. Neither had Calla Dean—regardless of whether she’d deserved it.
Tyler had been lucky. Hunter’s power burst had healed him as well as it had Michael.
“We tried to warn them,” said Chris.
“Warn who?” said Michael.
“The people in the house,” said Gabriel. His face was paler than usual, and he kept glancing at the trail where the Guide had fallen—and where Hunter had vanished into a plume of power and elemental energy. “Nick felt it first—that someone had broken in—”
“I didn’t know it was a bomb,” said Nick. His face was white, too. “I just thought the Guide was after us. We wouldn’t have run if we’d known. We would have helped—”
“It’s not your fault,” said Michael. “I’m glad you ran. I told you to run.”
“We tried to warn the others that someone had broken in, that we were all in danger—”
