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My hand is covering my mouth before I laugh, shaking my head. “Congratulations. Wow. A mini Killi—” I pause, memories flashing behind my eyes of Kill as a kid. “God help us all.”
Keaton taps my thigh. “Hop up. I need to check on King and call clean up.”
Sliding off his lap, his tatted fingers catch mine for the longest seconds before they finally drop and I watch as he disappears into the house. The carnage from tonight is a lot, but I’ve also known it was coming.
“Cartier, can we talk?” King’s mom approaches, but mine steps between King’s mom and me, her hand flying straight to her throat. “You will never come near my daughter unless she specifically summons you, and I said summoned, Dhalia.”
“Mom…” I bring my hand to her arm reassuringly and she turns over her shoulder, unshed tears now running free down her cheeks. “It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not, honey. I—I have failed you so often, and I will not let this happen again.”
“You didn’t fail me…” I choke on my tears. After everything that has happened tonight, I haven’t put a second thought into the other Mothers. Not even Dhalia and I believe her when she says that she didn’t want anything to do with Kaius.
“Okay! So I’m over this!” Lilith grabs me by the arm and pulls me to my feet. Her lilac eyes fly to Sass. “Come on. We’re leaving. This party sucks, and I need to blow off some steam since I know Eli is coming back any day now.”
“In this?” I grab at my gown. “No. Best I can do is a Midnight Mayhem party.”
“Fine.” Lilith’s eyes roll to the back of her head. “Then let’s go. Perse will need some time with King anyway, and I need to get drunk. Sass can drive us since she wanted to put Killian’s sperm inside of her.”
Sass stares between both of us, and then to Kill. Kill nods in approval. “Yeah, because I know Jordan and Christopher go wherever Cartier does.”
We make our way through the house as Jordan runs off to get the limo. We all stand on the curb of the driveway in silence.
“Tonight was weird.” I’m the first to say something because I know they won’t.
“It was…” Sass’ voice sounds strained. “I kind of hoped the murder and death would be in the past.”
I reach for her hand and slide my fingers between hers. “Will be soon. Just one more army to take care of.”
“Was King close to his dad?” she asks just as the black car pulls up in front of us.
I open the door and gesture for them both to slide in before me. “No, but King loved him in his own way.” Shutting the door behind me, I settle into the back seat and put my belt on. “Which is why I feel so bad.”
“I don’t think he’d want you to feel bad,” Sass murmurs, grabbing a water bottle from the side fridge. “I think King never does anything without thinking it through hundreds of times. He meant to kill Kaius tonight, and I think The Brothers know why.”
Lilith is already popping open a bottle of Don Julio. I bring it down to the fact that she’s a mom now, and I don’t know. I feel like if there’s ever a reason to drink, it should be the fact that you birthed a whole entire human.
“You think they walked in knowing they were taking out Kaius and Kenny?”
Sass nods, turning to look out the side window when the car pulls away to take us back to The Village. “I do.” I wonder if she’s right. If that could be possible. She is right about one thing; King truly doesn’t do anything without thinking it through, so did they know what Kaius was doing? Was there another reason why they knew they had to kill him?
The endless thoughts settle in the back of my mind as I take the half full glass of tequila that Lilith is handing me.
“Okay, can we not talk about all of that? I—” She takes a long sip of hers. “Since Eli has been gone, I’ve felt like a whole part of me has been paralyzed. Like I’d lost the will to breathe, but did it anyway because I knew I had Luna and Ky.” We both stay quiet. This is the first time Lilith has ever spoken about Eli, and both Sass and I know that it may not come around again. “He and Kyrin are both my twin flames. We all burn as one, so when I thought Eli was dead, I felt like half of my flame somehow turned to ice.” Her eyes bore into mine from across the car. “Do you know how that feels? To not want to exist anymore, but I have other reasons to live for? Anyway, when you gave the greatest gift back to me by telling me he was still alive, I felt that—” She taps her chest over her heart, but her smile darkens. It’s the old Lilith taking back hold of her. “Spark burn back to life. I want this. Him, Kyrin, Luna, my family, and I’m going to kill whomever gets in my way.”
I lean forward and clink my glass to hers. Sass raises her water bottle.
“Cheers to more bodies dropping.”
Lilith laughs. “As the old saying goes, may they all rest in pieces…”
We get back to The Village, and I promise the girls I’ll have a shower and then be down, but after scrubbing all the blood off and slipping into plush wool pajamas, I don’t want to move from my bed. I stare blankly at the TV hanging on the wall opposite and wait for the door to open downstairs. I want him to come here when he gets back. I want to see that distant feral look in his eyes because I haven’t seen it in so long. Maybe that makes me a bad person. It probably does. But Keaton exists within darkness so that I can be the light to guide him home.
Minutes turn into hours, and it’s not until three a.m. flashes over my alarm clock that I feel my eyes turn heavy. I wriggle deeper into my covers and close my eyes. He’ll be here in the morning.
I press the number to fourteen and the speed to nine. My arms swing back and forth as my feet slap against the belt of the treadmill. My playlist today is a little older. I need the distraction of familiarity to push me through.
He never came to my room last night.
