AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Six
Kita
The smell of fresh coffee and the filtering of voices from underneath the closed door has my head pounding. For the first night in months, I can’t remember having a nightmare, or much else to be honest. I glance down at the four beautiful diamonds on my finger, the shade darker than any sapphire I’ve ever seen. My heart flutters in my chest, pride faintly flickers through the bond as I pull myself from the bed. By the time I dress, wash up and hit the bottom of the stairs, my grandpa’s energy swirls around me. Embracing me in the world’s warmest hug before my eyes ever land on him. The memories and questions from last night have resurfaced, bringing with them a clarity I was too heated to see at the moment. Sleepy half waves from where he sits on top of the kitchen island his shoes hitched on the top of a tall barstool. My grandpa and Carlton are sitting in perfectly pressed suits nursing coffee at the unused kitchen table. I pity the grand dining room on the other side of the kitchen door. We’ve barely stepped foot in it since I moved in. The twins are leaned against the counter. Tate’s warm signature smirk that always makes him look like he’s up to no good is laced with tension. Milo’s stern eyes soften, the corners of his mouth tugging up as his eyes roam over me, falling on the ring adorning my left hand. It all feels so normal, I wish it could stay this way.
Even with Carlton.
It seems he’s genuinely trying to help, although it doesn’t excuse his unapologetically abusive upbringing of the twins, but he’s trying. We’ll never be good, but I can appreciate his help for what it is I suppose.
“My sweet girl.” Grandpa coos as he stands with a groan, opening his arms. It takes no convincing for me to wrap myself in his embrace. Ignoring the tingle of possessiveness that bleeds into the bond. God’s they are ridiculous and strangely enough, I love it. “I hear congratulations are in order. I’ve already ordered a new suit to match the colors you asked for.” I pull back, frowning at two suddenly sheepish looking twins.
“The colors I asked for?”
Milo shrugs, “Tate stole your Pinterest password.”
THE SECERET DREAM WEDDING BOARD!
I turn my attention to Tate as he slaps his brother’s arm, “What happened to a united front?”
Milo smirks, pointing at me, “She has boobs.” I gawk, my cheeks heating. Milo turns his attention back to me, “We’re short on time. We wanted everything to be perfect for you baby. All you need to do is pick your dress. Although Tate wanted to do that too.”
“You already planned everything?” I ask in disbelief. Apprehension filters towards me from them as they try to make sense of the nonsensical flood of emotions rolling off me. They relax when my heart constricts, quickly blinking away the tears that threaten my eyes. All those emotions being smothered out by overwhelming love that I feel for them.
“For around three months now. Would’ve been sooner, but things had to be customized and you know the world is trying to end. We’re getting married in three days, by the way. “Tate answers, smiling at me. I just stare, widening their matching smiles.
THREE DAYS.
Grandpa runs his hand across my cheek the way he used to when I was a child. There’s something so calming about the action it nearly shakes the walls I’ve erected around my emotions. The only things keeping me in check. “We have important things to discuss, little Kita, and I have to get home to pick up my suit and help get your father in order, so let’s sit.” I nod, heading over to the seat beside Sleepy on the island. Who is being unusually quiet. Uneasy even, he keeps fidgeting and shifting around he’s got hemorrhoids. How much have they spoken while I slept? I ignore the annoyance that comes with that. I know logically I needed the rest but I’m every bit a part of this as they are. Carlton speaks up first, his no-nonsense matter-of-fact attitude a godsend right now as anxiety creeps into my bones. Even grandpa looks somber, guilt floods me from the twins, making my pulse quicken. “We’ve exhausted every option, every archive, experiment and theory. The crack is expanding quicker than ever.” His eyes flicker towards his sons. “We uncovered something a while back about the nature of Everett’s power, as in it operates essentially the same as the crack, we think. Like a void, if you will.”
“That doesn’t make sense. I crush things. We’ve all seen it.” I interject, turning to the twins. This should come from them. This is what they’ve been hiding, but why? It’s important for me to know the nature of the power. They don’t meet my eyes, their fists clenched tightly, turning their knuckles white. I glance up at Sleepy, who runs his hands over his face. Pushing up from my seat and directing all my frustration towards them, “For fuck’s sake explain it!” I demand my anxiety ratcheting up to near nuclear levels.
“No, it doesn’t make sense baby.” Milo admits. “When you use it, you aren’t using some form of telekinesis to crush matter, like we assumed, it only appears that way to us. We were looking into what makes the expansion of the crack so dangerous. What matter it contains that’s fucking everything to shit. There were so many parallels, too many to ignore. You’re disrupting things, changing their existence in our reality, like the crack does. Which if the text is correct operates more or less like a black hole.” I frown, as little sense as that makes... It feels right. Even then, that doesn’t explain why they all look like they’ve just shot a puppy, “Go on.”
Tate takes a deep breath. “Everett died because he was too young to control and contain that amount of destructive power. He would’ve killed us all. When our mother gave birth... there was no evidence he ever existed. No trace of him aside from ultrasounds and prior tests. He just... vanished.”
“He was consumed, we assumed, by Milo and in part he was. He absorbed some of that energy from his death, but that’s not the full picture.” Carlton adds, gesturing with his head towards my hands. I hadn’t even noticed they were trembling., it happens so often I’ve nearly... My heart drops as things click into place. For the first time in far too long, I’m starting to understand what thing was so terrible my soulmates hid themselves from me. Every ounce of their heartbreak slams into me in an instant, making me gasp as they open the bond fully. Holding nothing back, part of me wishes they still were.
“Kita, the crack is reaching out for that power. For you like you are a part of it.” Grandpa’s voice is gravelly with emotion. The Underworld... it’s dying, off balance because of this power, because of me. Why would the goddess send such a power out, knowing the loop of events that would follow as a result?
To watch us suffer?
Guilt immediately fills me for thinking it, the sight of Clotho doubled over in anguish, shoving to the forefront of my mind. I take a steadying breath. “So, I’m dying, er- being... consumed.” I state flatly, “I’m dying and there’s no way to stop any of this?” The twins swallow hard. I hate they held this in for so long. Without me to comfort them. Milo runs his hands through his chestnut hair, his muscles rippling under his navy blue t-shirt. Carlton speaks up again, I almost hear regret in his voice. “Yes. If you boil it down, it’s more of a theory but an educated one based in fact. Knowing what we do about Everett, previous research on the crack and now you. Turns out Blane wasn’t half as useless as I thought. Most of this came from his journals, it appears he knew, thought there was a way totakeit from you. He had hidden them well, I assume he had a good idea they would die.” I nod, a shutter coursing over me remembering that night. The night the lords kidnapped me, tried to kill Mara.
All because of this power.
“Considering we were all going to die anyway I’m not sure why you’re all so shocked by all of this. I was already going to die. The details don’t matter.” I mutter, hating the bitterness in my voice. All the secrets, the dots that never connected... It was all right there. The Lords never disrupted the crack to siphon off its power, they never had to. “I was the one that disrupted the crack, from the very beginning. It was me.”
“Kita...” Milo warns, hurt flickering towards me. I try to ignore it. All this pointless agony over the past week could’ve been avoided had they just fucking told me what was going on. I shake my head, “Last night our powers... they surged. Is that part of all this?”
“Surged how?” Grandpa asks, his frown deepening. Leave it to fucking Milo to be the first one to chime in. “We were having sex in a lower chamber. We accidentally summoned hellfire, and she crushed or consumed some stuff.” I scowl at him as he pushes up from the counter by Tate walking towards me. I don’t fight him as he picks me up and bringing me back with him. I avoid my grandpa’s eyes at all costs as Milo sits me on the counter between them. Sleepy snickers, “That’s the surges I felt? Were you getting your dick-” Carlton lashes out with air, shoving him off the island. He groans as he lands with a loud thud. I wince having busted my ass on that same marble less than a week ago. Tate wraps his arm around my waist, “There’s more Kitten...”
Why wouldn’t there be?
****
If the World Was Ending by Julia Michaels & JP Saxe
Several hours later, and grandpa has definitely missed his flight. Painstakingly explaining the vision at the mall and what happened last nightminus the kinky nonsenseover and over again until everyone came to the same gut-wrenching conclusion.
