“Well, nothing too serious.” Cassian tilts his head. “Just getting his schedule down. His accounts. His new wife. Jessica, right?”
The world lurches. “You… you’ve been—”
Cassian cuts me off, stepping forward, scarred chest rising and falling.
“It’s just a proposal to you,” he says. “We haven’t done anything. Yet.”
Nathaniel’s gaze flicks to me.
“We’re going to dismantle him,” he says. “Piece by piece. First we’ll scare him. Then we will break his control. Torture him. Then—” His shoulders roll in a casual shrug that makes my stomach knot. “If you still want it, we’ll put him in the ground.”
Wow. Just… wow.
Guess that explains why the guys kept coming back with new scratches lately. They’d said they were fighting the crows, but apparently, it went deeper than that. They’d been leaving our bunker and slipping off to that perfect little suburb with picket fences and one particular willow tree.
I’m still trying to wrap my head around it when Talon strolls in, shirtless, hair a mess, a heap of weapons in his arms. A crowbar, a taser, and something that looks suspiciously like bolt cutters clatter onto the counter beside Nathaniel’s neat stacks of paper.
“What’s with the long face?” he asks. “Did the guys tell you yet?”
I gape at him.
“Yeah, we told her,” Nathaniel says.
“And what? You’re not excited?” Talon frowns. “Thought you’d be over the moon.”
Cassian picks up one of the folders Nathaniel laid out and drops it into my lap. Pages fan out. Printed emails, financial records, photos. Photos ofhim. Mark in his perfect suit, smiling with perfect teeth; Jessica at his side, her arm looped through his.
My stomach clenches so hard I think I’ll vomit.
I stare at the glossy print of Mark’s practiced smile until my vision blurs. He looks untouched. Unhaunted.
My throat burns.
“I mean, yeah… I asked you guys to do it once.”
“Yeah,” Talon supplies. “And now—uff, Skye.” He licks his lips. “Now we’reitchingto do it.”
“We figured you wouldn’t disappear if he dies,” Nathaniel says. “Death wants you here to handle the wraith business, and Pain isn’t even with you, which should mean your Grim Reaper side is disconnected from the you here and now.”
“Maybe you’d even become human through and through if we kill him,” Cassian adds.
“Yeah. We could fix it all for you.” Talon’s voice goes soft and dangerous. “So—what do you say?”
What do I say? The need for revenge burns so hot inside me I sometimes think it’s the only thing keeping my body stitched together. But the folders on the counter, the weapons clattering as they shift, the three of them watching me like wolves waiting for a signal—
I don’t know whether I’m more terrified or more grateful. Whatever it is, it’s deep. It’s loud.
“I…” My voice cracks. I swallow hard. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Say yes.” Talon’s grin is sharp and feral; he leans his hip against the counter. “Say you want him shredded. Say you want his perfect little suburban kingdom pissed on, brick by brick, until he’s begging for death.”
“We could do that,” Nathaniel says.
“We want to,” Cassian corrects automatically.
The papers stare up at me: Mark smiling, Jessica at his side, her hand tucked to his chest, her face soft with happiness. Happiness he stole from me.
I’m back at the willow, watching him with the shovel, brushing dirt over my grave like yesterday’s trash. I’m back in that house, the walls closing in, his voice calm and cruel while he told me it was my fault.Everythingwas always my fault.
