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Saint licked blood from inside his cheek. “A few millennia too late, Storm.”
The others were here. Zaine and Eric, Felix too, and Aiko. This was what was left of them. Nothing, really. The Brotherhood was done for, and these were its death throes. Saint was beating on a dying animal.
“What the hell is this?!” Octavius shoved between Zaine and Kazimir, blue eyes flashing furious menace. “Saint, get outside!”
“What?”
“I’ll be right there.” His tone softened, but not much. “Go. I need to talk with Storm.”
Saint staggered, rocked by Octavius’s dismissal more than Storm’s assault. As the others looked on, he backed over broken glass, then turned away from their hard stares and left the building to find Jay waiting on the other side of the road, arms folded, chewing on a fingernail.
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Can we leave?”
“No… Not without Octavius.”
“Is he.. coming with us?” Jay asked, trying to hide the hiccup in his voice.
Octavius wasn’t going to stay, was he? No, he wasn’t that much of a fool to run back to them after everything they’d done to him, and to Saint. He knew the truth. The Brotherhood was done. It was time to move on.
Saint paced, then dropped onto the wet grass and draped his arms over his knees. He loved Octavius. He’d rip out his heart and give it to him if it meant he’d stay with him and Jay. He deserved a happy ending.
Jay dropped onto the grass beside him. “Octavius is smart. He’ll do the right thing.”
On his own, he was. “They can be manipulative. They need him, and he’s spent his whole life trying to be one of them. Why would he say no? For us? We only met a few weeks ago.”
“You’re scared, Saint, but you didn’t see him when he brought you back. He won’t throw what we have away. I trust him.”
Saint breathed in through his nose and side-eyed Jay. He really was scared. He’d loved and lost before. His heart couldn’t take it again.
“I’m scared too,” Jay added. “I’m so fuckin’ scared, Saint. But not for me. For you, for them, for this world. It’s changing, and I don’t know where it’s going to end. I feel so helpless, all the time. What the fuck can I do? Bake cookies?”
“I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”
“Shouldn’t that be my choice?”
He hadn’t stopped to think about Jay’s feelings in all of this. He’d always been so willing, so accommodating, but Saint had torn him from his world and thrown him into one full of monsters, and he had wanted it then, but now? “Whatdoyou want?”
Jay plucked at a stem of grass. “I think I want my life back, but I want you too. I want to study at college, maybe go to culinary school, open a restaurant—I want to be worth something more than, you know… a convenient snack for you.”
“I can…” Saint’s voice creaked a little. He growled to clear it. ”I can see to it you have that.” It wasn’t fair, how he’d taken Jay from his life, even if that life had been about to self-destruct. He was good now and deserved a second chance at starting over.
“But I don’t want to lose you.” Jay’s soft blue eyes widened. “I still want this, us.”
Saint nodded so he didn’t have to hear his own voice break up again. “So uh… You should know that back in the safehouse, you were shot, and you died—nearly died. But being around nyks, being around me and Octavius, has changed you. Inside. It wasn’t intentional, and wasn’t venom, nothing like that. It’s something none of us understand yet.”
Jay blinked, and cast his gaze toward the broken glass doors, where Octavius still talked with Storm. “I kinda knew, I guess. I thought I was imagining it. I feel different too, when I’m around you both. Like I’m strong, and wired, or… untouchable.”
“We’ll figure it out, even if it’s just the two of us.”
Octavius strode from the building. He didn’t seem pleased, but most times he kept his smiles for special occasions, and this didn’t seem like one of those. He stopped on the road and peered down at Saint on the grass.
He was going to stay goodbye. He didn’t even need to say the words. Saint’s heart knew it inside and began to break. He closed his eyes. “How can you do this?” It hurt, it hurt like he was losing pieces of himself, right there on the side of the road.
Octavius sighed. “You need to see something. Come inside.” He glanced back at the others loitering in the lobby area. “They won’t stop you. Just try not to attack Storm.”
