| |
“You’re not listening.” Josh got into Drew’s face, Jake right beside him. “None of us looked in your box. We left her for five seconds, five fucking seconds, and she’s screaming like a banshee. She didn’t even have the box.” Josh backed away from Drew and paced in front of where Lily was lying on the sofa.
“Something made her go catatonic,” Drew roared. The walls shook, and a precariously stacked pile of books toppled over, almost squashing Mysty. She hissed and shot across the room to hide behind Jonas’s legs.
Lily was still unconscious, and it scared the hell out of Nate. She looked like she was sleeping, or at least he hoped she was. Her face was pale, but she always had that “not enough time in the sun” look about her. Her hair was dark against her white skin and he had a sudden image of Snow White. He shook himself, she was rubbing off onto him.
“Well, you tell us,” Josh rounded on Drew again. “It’s your fucking box, your fucking fault. All of this is your fault. If you’d just left her alone, left her to live her life as she was, never come here, she’d be fine now. Jonas wouldn’t have lost half his tongue, and we wouldn’t be this close to killing you!” He held his fingers centimetres apart.
“I’d like to see you try, you stupid little boy,” Drew snarled.
Jonas banged a book on the coffee table. He pointed at Drew, shaking his head. His mouth was crusted with blood, the pain he was in etched onto his face, and Nate wanted to yell in frustration.
Drew sneered at him and went back to the desk. The wooden box was by his feet, but he’d made no effort to open it since the twins and Matt had come in over an hour ago. They’d been shouting, and his heart had stopped as his entire world narrowed to Lily slumped lifelessly in Matt’s arms.
Drew had roared at them to shut up, and she’d moaned. Nate’s knees had given out and he’d slumped into the chair, able to breathe again.
They’d told them what had happened, but the bits about Lily were confusing, and Matt had only come in at the end when she’d been on her knees, her head at a freaky angle. The lingering fear in their eyes had seeped into him and stayed.
The twins were back to pacing in front of her. He wanted to be over there too, he wanted to be touching her, reassuring himself that she was only sleeping. But he also knew if this was going to be sorted out, they had to find whatever Drew needed to free Jonas.
“What’s in that box?” Matt asked, taking a seat on the floor beside Lily’s head.
“None of your business,” Drew said.
“It is when it does this to her,” Jake argued.
“If she didn’t open it, then it wasn’t the box,” Drew snapped. “Maybe she’s allergic to your bullshit and it finally overwhelmed her.”
“You fucking wanker.” Josh launched at him, but Matt was quicker, and he hauled him down onto the floor next to him.
“Leave it, Josh. He’s a bastard, we know that, let’s just leave it.”
Jonas banged his fists on the table, fury rolled from him as he shook his head.
“We need to get out of here.” Josh shook Matt off and went to Jake, who was standing with his thumbnail between his teeth.
Josh threw his hands out to the side, staring at his twin. “You must be kidding me.”
Jake’s eyes flickered to Lily and back to Josh, and Nate figured he’d told Josh he didn’t want to leave her. Josh grunted and went out, but he turned towards the kitchen instead of the front door. Jake trailed after him, his shoulders slumped.
Nate closed his eyes, he was useless, completely unable to make this right. He wasn’t even sure what was wrong to begin with.
“I should hex you into next week for not teaching these boys their arses from their elbows. I might yet.” Drew growled, closing yet another useless book.
Guilt flooded Jonas’ face, and he rested his head back, closing his eyes.
Matt shifted, and it caught Nate’s attention. He was stooped over Lily, trying to wake her again but it didn’t work, and he left the room, slumping even more than usual. There was something wrong with Matt beyond Lily. He’d been aware of it for several hours, long before they’d brought Lily in. He was bound to Matt a bit tighter than the twins. No, that was wrong, it wasn’t tighter, it was just different. Matt was to him, and he to Matt, what the twins were to each other. They may not have the silent talking thing going down, but they were more attuned to each other.
He wished he could ask someone what to do. How to fix things, to make it right again. He hated letting them down, hated not being able to support them. But how could he fix it when he didn’t even know what was going on?
He pushed his glasses up his nose and saw Drew watching him sideways. The knowing look in his eyes burnt Nate. Drew thought he didn’t like it when they didn’t do as he said. That he was annoyed Lily was quickly becoming their everything, that they looked to her instead of him.
Drew was wrong.
Nate knew he was bossy, he knew he took charge. Drew thought it was a dictatorship, but it wasn’t. It was his responsibility as first-born. His mother was first-born, and it was the role of the first-born to care for siblings. She’d whispered it to him when he was little. He didn’t really remember when, or her exact words, he just knew she’d told him his duties as first-born. She’d said that his brothers would always need him, just as much as he’d need them, but he had to be the strong one. He must have their backs, no matter the consequence to himself. It was his duty as first-born, as it was hers. He'd known she was right and followed through on it every time he was needed. But it was more than his duty, it was because he loved them. He’d never let them down before, but now he had no idea what to do, how to keep them safe, protected.
He was jolted from his thoughts as Drew sat next to him.
“I’m going to level with you.” Drew leant forward, his arms on his thighs, and his head tilted. “There’s more going on here than you know. There’s issues here that’s going to surprise even me. I don’t trust you, or Jonas. I’m not convinced what you feel for Lily is more than magic recognising magic. Yeah, I get the physical side, but love?”
“You don’t think she’s good enough for us to love her?” Nate frowned at him.
“Of course, she is.” He snorted. “She’s worthy of better than you.”
“Thanks,” Nate drawled.
“You’re welcome. Look, I know you’re floundering. You don’t know which way is up, do you? You think you’re failing them because you haven’t come up with some master plan to save the universe.”
“Fuck off.” Nate slumped back, too tired to fight, too exhausted to deny what he knew was the truth.
“I said I’d level with you and I will. I didn’t plan for you, any of you. And I did my homework carefully. It was a toss-up between here and home. Here won out for several reasons. The magical essence around here should have been a lot stronger than it is. It angered me when I got here and found there was no magic.”
“Hang on, you planned what exactly? Lily moving here? How did you influence that?”
One side of Drew’s lips lifted. “It’s easy to manipulate things when you want to.”
Nate struggled to put together what he was hearing. “You mean, you got them to come here? Got Lynda the job of painting the manor? How?”
“A whispered word in the right ear. It helps knowing the right people. Harold and June like their paintings. Finding a friend to buy from Lynda was easy. I’ve been setting this up for years. All I had to do was wait. I’m telling you because I think you’ll get it. Where’s your line when it comes to looking after your cousins?”
Nate shook his head, unable to string together any words that would make sense.
“Okay, well, I’ll tell you. There is no line.”
“You manipulated everything.” Nate wasn’t sure whether to be in awe, or scared rigid of what this man was capable of.
“I manipulated what I needed to make this work.”
Nate’s stomach dropped. “Did you cause the accident? Mr Peters?”
“What do you think?” Drew’s dark eyes studied him, as if he was a bug under a microscope.
“I think you’re dangerous.”
“You’re right.” Drew smiled at him, but it was cold, and it held a clear threat. “I am dangerous. I did enough to make sure I could get his place in your college. And if it makes you feel better, Peters was able to cash in on an insurance he’s had for years and was about to expire. Win, win. He gets a rest from teaching till Christmas, and a big fat deposit in his bank. I get access to Lily.”
“How could you do that?” He’d never feared anyone before, but this man terrified him. “Do you honestly think she’s going to let that go? Deliberately hurting someone? She won’t. She’ll hate you for it.”
“She might, she might not,” Drew allowed. “I’d hoped you’d be more reasonable about this. You disappointment me.”
Nate didn’t move fast enough to evade Drew’s fingers, or the magic that slipped through his head like black mud. An odd feeling came over him, as if he’d been asleep, then slipped away. Drew was still talking, and Nate shook himself, he had to keep his wits around this man.
“You’re not failing them, Nate. You’re as oblivious as the rest of us. Jonas holds the key, and until we can hear what he has to say, there’s nothing any of us can do. He’s got you well covered, and I’m certain he’s tampered with your parent’s memory.”
“Shit.” Nate rubbed his forehead. “Lily said as much.”
“Of course, she did. She’s smart, and she’s an outsider. She’ll see things about you four that you won’t ’cause you’re too close.”
“Why would they have cursed him though? Why not tell us about the Council, why hide it?”
“That’s what we need to find out. He slipped up with that kid, he should’ve removed the memory, not covered it. I’ll need to see if there’s anyone else wandering around with a lingering grudge against you. Although, considering your shining personalities, it might be hard picking out the ones only caused by Jonas.
Nate sneered at him. He’d grown too comfortable talking to him, but Drew had neatly reminded him what a bastard he was.
“Just yanking your chain, Nate.” Drew nudged him. “Easily done. Lighten up a little, laugh at yourself a bit more.”
“What would they do with Matt if they found him?” He ignored his nudge and his words.
“They’ll use him. Much like a chicken in a battery cage. He’ll be used to heal, only given enough time to recuperate before doing it again. They’ll manipulate his instinct to heal. But it won’t only be healing he’ll be doing. He’ll be ‘helping’ with research. Science and magic have overlapped. Take out a conscience, replace it with money and power, and you’ve got the Council, or Reformation of the One Purpose, if we want to get semantically correct.” He snorted in derision.
“They’d try to figure out what makes him a healer. They’d experiment on him, wouldn’t they?” Horror and urgency filled him.
“Bingo. And if they ever found out she’s a witch seer? You’d be hunted to the ends of the earth.”
The blood froze in his veins at the enormity of what was at stake.
“Where’s the line when it comes to protecting them?”
Nate met his gaze and held it. “There isn’t one.”
“Now you’re getting it.”
