AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"And Au— the Leader," Johnny rolled his eyes, looking more amused than truly annoyed at having to address him by title, "usually eats in here too. I think the only reason he hasn't been since you got here is that he's trying to give you some space to process."
I hated that that made me soften towards my wayward little brother. When I had seen him initially, he was all muscle and leather; there was nothing of the Auren I remembered on the outside.
From what Aria—thinking her name reminded me that my angel was pissed off about how we’d treated her—had said earlier and Johnny’s assessment, he was still considerate. Bigger and meaner-looking, but still compassionate.
I thought back on my conversation with Kiyomasa, where he’d declared that he thought of Auren as his son and sang his praises, and some of the anger began to settle.
My brother was alive, and he'd been raised somewhere safe, where he could thrive without my father hanging over his head like a guillotine.
So, when Auren walked into the cafeteria a little later and made himself comfortable at a nearby table with Zuzanna and a few unfamiliar faces, speaking in soft tones and gesturing at a laptop screen, I didn't take off again.
Aria’s pride was buzzing down the bond intensely enough to make me chuckle; her hand clasped mine under the table, and I realized she had already forgiven me for our… disagreement earlier.
Kiyomasa was, sure enough, with Marilyn when they finally joined us, arms linked together. The Director split off from her with a pointed look at me, joining my brother's circle as he belonged there.
You'll get there.
I didn't even realize that’s what I was hoping for until Aria reassured me, head resting against my shoulder.
4
THE ENEMY OF MY ENEMY
ARIA
Sariel was doing better than earlier, at least.
He seemed calmer than when he’d left me at our picnic, and while everything in me rebelled at the idea that he was able to find that peace away from me, I was still glad.
Dinner was a quiet affair, all of us more interested in inhaling our food than really going over what we’d been through that day. Still, we couldn’t make out the soft discussion happening at Auren’s table.
“I feel like using a silencing spell is cheating,” Neo joked once he realized we were all trying to eavesdrop, grinning when Reese elbowed him. “I’m just saying! It’s weird being out of the loop.”
Personally, I felt like we’d been out of the loop for months now, but maybe I was the only one. I also hadn’t really noticed the fact that a spell had been cast the moment Auren sat at the table until Neo had said something.
“If you wanted to be in the loop, you should have come back sooner.”
Kiyomasa was grinning as he said that, turning to look at us all pointedly. The other members of Auren’s circle give us varying looks of interest, with Zuzanna’s being the friendliest. I got the impression that very little rattled her, though.
“I was in love,” Neo answered. He sounded teasing, but the genuine tenderness when he said it made everyone wince collectively.
It was easy to forget that the man had lost his whole family and been jailed right alongside us. Marilyn had been kind enough to give the barest of explanations to Reese one evening while we were getting comfortable with one another, but even she didn’t have all the details.
“You never did tell me that story,” Reese said, looking entirely too innocent. The expression was so deliberate I wanted to laugh, but I settled for sipping at the bottle of water I got earlier.
“About Rory?” The angel looked akin to a deer in headlights for a second, then smoothed his features. “It’s… it’s not a good story.”
“You don’t have to.”
Reese backtracked swiftly enough for me to feel secondhand embarrassment across the table, and Neo predictably huffed. His intent was clear, if only because it was our little human friend who asked him.
“I don’t mind.” Clearing his throat, he focused on Reese. “Rory was… Rory was special. I guess I really need to give you some background for you to get why, huh? My parents were in the first wave of the Resistance, with Kiyomasa over there. They were the high-and-mighty types, convinced that they knew best and all that. I never really found out how they spun it, but when Kiyomasa went looking for allies, they were able to get permission to assist in his cause. Anyway, when I was born some, what, two-thousand years later? I was raised in the Resistance.”
We mostly knew this stuff, but nobody wanted to interrupt him as he finally looked away from Reese to his enraptured audience and grinned.
“The Upper Council killed them along with most of the other original members, so I decided to go AWOL and take things into my own hands.” He side-eyed Marilyn, smirking when she rolled her eyes. “If I’d realized me and Mari here were of one mind, maybe we could have just teamed up from the jump.”
“I don’t think you’d have survived Para training,” she said thoughtfully, and Neo laughed, waving off her insult with a wave. After our adventures with the fae, I didn't think the words held all that much weight.
