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Crone could live anywhere, but he chose to stay on Zion. For others. I want to smirk, because a lot of things Crone did in the past, he did from self-love and playing the hero. But Zion tops anything he’s ever done.
Fucking Crone. If only he didn’t play a villain when he could actually be a great leader.
Callie tilts her face up to look at me. As always, she seems to know the direction of my thoughts.
I try to pull a cheerful smile. But, dammit, this girl has learned how to gauge my feelings.
“Are you alright?” she asks, her eyes searching mine for an answer.
I kiss her softly on the lips, nod, and look at the horizon. Blue. Wide. Promising. I am not sure why, but I feel like I am heading in the wrong direction.
Callie gets up, walks toward the helm, and says something to the captain.
The motor goes quiet, and she walks back.
I frown. “Why did we stop?”
She goes down on her knees in front of me, sits back on her heels, and takes my hands in hers. Her thumbs rub my tattooed knuckles. She cocks her head and studies me in silence for a moment.
There is a smudge of dirt on her cheek. Her nose and forehead are sunburnt. She looks tired, yet calm, and so fucking beautiful that I have to restrain myself from scooping her up in my arms and kissing her to death.
She smiles wider as if she can hear my thoughts. “Are you worried about the Eastside? And Bo?”
I shake my head.
“You don’t think Archer will leave them on their own?”
I shake my head again. “He won’t. I know he won’t.”
I want to think that Crone is evil. But he is just a dick. And despite everyone’s idea of him as a selfish prick, he will always take care of those who need it. If only to feel redeemed for something in the past that he thinks was his fault.
“Kai, look at me,” Callie’s voice distracts me from my thoughts. “What is it then?”
Her voice echoes with the soft lapping of the waves against the hull. The boat crew doesn’t say a word, just wait.
“Talk, please,” she says. “We got this far. And what we do next is important. So, talk.”
I take a deep breath, squeezing Callie’s hands in mine but looking away because the thoughts in my head make my heart heavy.
It’s hard to explain what affects us the most about people’s actions. But I think what ticks us off the most is not others’ recklessness. Not cruelty. Not even betrayal. What cuts deeper are the simple acts of kindness when we least expect them. When we are the most desperate. When we are at the end of the rope, ready to face the worst, and the person we least expect gives us a helping hand, turning things around.
Thatleaves the biggest mark. Hate can raise weak people from the dead, giving them incredible strength. Forgiveness can bring the strongest ones down to their knees, weeping.
That’s what Crone just did.
He let us go. He finally showed his true self—the Crone that was my brother back in the days.
But tables turned, and now I feel like I am turning my back on him. Perhaps, when he most needs me. When the island is falling apart. Whenheis falling apart.
I look down at Callie, who looks up at me, waiting, letting me gather my thoughts. She doesn’t know a lot of things about me and Crone. In time, she will. But she is understanding. With all that happened to us, she knows that things are not always what they seem on the surface.
I cup her face with one palm. She turns to catch it with her lips, kissing my fingers, then turns to me with a soft smile.
She is incredible. How? When? When did she turn from a shy girl who blushed at the sight of me into a person whose confident gaze empowers me in my weakest moments? Her smile gives me courage even though what I am about to suggest is irrational.
“Crone has a lot of trauma, you know,” I say, not knowing how to explain what I feel right now. “We all do. But his started early in life.” I look away and stare at the horizon as if I still expect Crone to loom somewhere in the distance. I can’t possibly try to redeem him in Callie’s eyes, with all that happened in the last few days. Not right away, at least. Yet I try. “Beneath all his arrogance, there is… I don’t know. I know him well enough. I think he’s had his fill of fuckery. But he is breaking down. He is not well. And if he isn’t, neither will Zion.”
I return my eyes to Callie. She nods just slightly.
