AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Brendan stepped forward. “I don’t have an answer for them, Aern. Because, by all accounts, you are too close to the girl.” When I didn’t respond, he shifted uncomfortably, lowered his voice. “I’ve seen the way you look at her. She matters to you.”
The last folder slammed a little harder than I intended onto the stack. “So they would abandon her to Morgan then? To keep her away from me?”
Brendan’s brows rose.
I sighed. “Of course she matters. She’s Brianna’s sister. She should matter to all of them.” I put the folders under my arm and stepped around the desk. “She’s the only thing Brianna has left. Morgan would use her like he used Aiden.”
It was a low blow, I knew. But there was no way I was backing down now, not after what I’d learned.
“Aiden is the reason I’m here,” Brendan said.
“And Brianna is the reason I am,” I said on my way past him toward the door.
He didn’t stop me, but Kara had been listening from the hallway. She spun to follow me, the pound of her heels punctuating her angry whispers. “How could you? How dare you? I can’t even—” She picked up her stride, rushing to overtake mine. “Aern. Look at me.”
I glanced at her, not bothering to slow my pace.
“His brother? After all that, you would bring up his brother?”
I did stop then. In heels, she was nearly as tall as I, and her momentum left us too close. “Maybe that’s what he needs to be reminded of, Kara. Maybe that’s what you all need to be reminded of, the reason we’re here. The reason he broke from Morgan. This isn’t a game.” I leaned toward her, my voice low. “He’s a monster. A killer. I’ve seen it with my own eyes, and there is no one to stop him but me. His blood.His brother.”
She backed off, breathless and speechless.
“I will do what I have to to save us. You can tell them that.”
Her face fell and she raised a hand, readying her apology, but I waved it off.
She nodded, shamefaced, and turned to go, but I stopped her. “Kara?” She glanced over her shoulder. “Tell them anyone who touches her dies.”
I didn’t wait for her reaction, but I knew she understood. Emily was off limits, or their savior was gone.
As I sat alone in my room, Brendan’s constant warnings swam through my head.It needs to be now. You are our only chance. You know what needs to be done.
I could understand him, could understand all of them. I felt the urgency. I knew the prophecy. But I hadn’t acted. Something, all along, something had held me back.
And now, I had a secret. Only three of us knew the truth about the chosen. Only one of us knew the rest. I would have to tell Emily the reason Morgan wanted Brianna. I would have to tell her his intentions.
Or I would have to meet Logan and the others in little more than a day, and take care of Morgan forever.
My door swung open and Emily stepped in, hair pulled back, white Henley and jeans, as if she were headed to a baseball game, not the girl who held the fate of the world. I glanced at the door and she turned to close it behind her, sliding the deadbolt home before pacing the center of the room.
Gods, she was beautiful. Even frustrated and trapped and alone. And she was going to hate us for what we’d kept from her.
She chewed her thumbnail until the realization of what she was doing sank in, and then she dropped it, tracing a finger over the end before looking at me.
“She was keeping it from me,” she said. “All these years.”
My mouth pulled tight in one of those sympathetic, “I’m not sure what to say” gestures.
“And do you know what the worst part is?” she continued. “Do you?”
I remained silent, because I was pretty sure it was a rhetorical question. And because I was pretty sure you should never offer your opinion to an angry woman.
She flopped down on the bed beside me, arms falling lifelessly to the sides. “The worst part is that I can’t even be mad at her. I can’t even hate them for it because I was doing the same thing. My mother played us both, and neither of us were willing to admit it.”
She lay there for a long while, finally glancing over at where I sat, waiting for some kind of response.
I ran a hand over my jeans, trying tenuously for some sort of comforting words, all the while certain this conversation would come back to bite me in the ass when she found out the secrets I’d been keeping. “You know, your motherwasa prophet.” I shifted toward her. “I’m sure she would have had good reason to lead you both as such.”
