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His experience was difficult for him to convey. I was certain that he’d never had to articulate his tragic past into words.
Although he spoke the truth, he’d given a simplified version, the complicated traumatic memories sending his emotional state spiralling. I squeezed his hand in comfort, all too familiar with the same emotions aching inside me.
For August to give up anything at all was a small spark of hopeful light, and with it I wanted to give him the world.
“Did you find the person responsible?” My gaze flicked over my shoulder with the underlying question.Did you kill them?
“Not yet, but I will.”
I bumped my nose against his. “I understand.” Above all others, I truly did understand.
I whispered a promise against his lips and he released a tremor. “I will find her for you, August.”
“How?” he murmured. I could feel a wisp of doubt, his resistance to hope for what he had yearned for, for so long.
My mouth lifted into an obnoxious smirk and I flicked the middle of his forehead. “I am Micah King. Put some respect on my motherfucking name.” His small hint of doubt simultaneously dissolved into amused disbelief, and a healthy splash of fear. I cackled like the mad woman I was, his worries leaving him, if only for a minute.
Chapter 15
Micah
The low hum of the tattoo gun wafted over me with familiarity, the sting of the needle a reassuring presence rhythmically piercing into my skin. A week had passed since August and I had stolen those snapshot moments in the basement of Oakview Asylum.
He now remained a constant presence.In my mind, on my flesh, throughout my dreams.
“Now you’re starting on your legs. You’re going to run out of room soon,” Emerson said, as she sat atop a desk in the corner, flipping through a design catalogue.
It was the early hours in the morning and we’d commandeered the most notable tattoo and piercing parlour in the city.
I ignored her, concentrating on the intricate pattern, when a bang sounded out back. I spared a vacant glance at the blue-haired woman with silver eyes who filled the threshold, wearing a recognisable smirk.
“How’d you go?” I asked, returning to my task.
“For someone that’s a prisoner, she really is a spoiled princess.”
Emerson snickered. “So you got along then?”
“Famously.” Spencer smiled as her face transitioned back into her own. No matter her mask, I would always recognise that aura.
“You didn’t threaten her, did you?”
“I told her to alert the Saint at Variant Sanctorum if she had to contact us,” Spencer replied, completely ignoring my question. Emerson tsked and I let it slide, thankful that she completed the mission without killing anyone in general.
I stretched out my leg to change the angle and get better access to my upper thigh. “They won’t believe she’s suddenly turned religious, Spence.”
She retrieved a necklace from her throat and dangled the silver in front of me. “Well, lucky she won’t have to wait long, huh. Tanner returns in a couple of days, then your preciousboyfriendand his sister will be free. Then we’ll have the ammo to get to Maximus.”
It hadn’t taken us long to locate Ava. With her description alone, Spencer had already catalogued her image from previous scouting missions in Serpent’s Row.
Ava was heavily guarded and hidden in plain sight, her image solely what Maximus presented her to be. Disguised as a bartender in one of the Ludus’ most prominent and secure brothels, Forbidden Garden. The difficult part was finding a way to coordinate her rescue in conjunction with August’s. We could not take one without the other.
I reached for the necklace, Spencer snatching the chain out of reach at the last second. “Tell us what the tattoo means.”
I rolled my eyes, their never-ending questions and all-knowing expressions making me regret bringing them along.
Emerson bowed her head over my work. “Looks like another flower to add to the collection. What does this one mean, M?” Her tone was inquisitive.
I refused to answer, otherwise I’d never get any reprieve.
