“What do you mean?” That wasn’t the response he’d been expecting, like, at all. Finally, it hit him how passive Ani was. He hadn’t even tried pushing against Flix’s hold, merely standing there, allowing him to pin him. “Did you…Did you come here to die?” Was that why he’d put on that whole production in front of the others?
Ani snorted. “Don’t be ridiculous. I’m not ready to die.”
“Fooled me.”
“No, you’re the one going around fooling people. What did you say to me the day after the funeral? Do you even remember?”
Of course he did. He’d rehearsed it over and over again before Aneski had finally found him on his way home.
“Not a single word of it,” he lied.
“You said you’d been nice to me for Russ’s sake, but now that he was gone, you no longer had to bother. You asked if I cried? So what if I did? My brother had abandoned me, and then the only person I could rely on was ditching me, too. Do you know how pathetic and worthless I felt? I believed I was nothing for the longest time. If it weren’t for Gannon, I probably would have killed myself.”
Flix yanked Aneski off the wall and turned him, slamming his back against it instead so that he could search his face. “That isn’t a funny joke.”
“I’m not joking,” Aneski said. “Go find him,” he motioned with his chin over Flix’s shoulder. “Ask him how many times he found me up on the rooftop of my apartment complex. Ask him how many times he had to talk me off the ledge and why I eventually moved. What did you think was going to happen when you left me, Flix? Did you honestly picture me forgetting all about Russ and you?”
“Yes.” He was still caught up on the part about Aneski almost taking his own life. If Gannon hadn’t been there all those times, looking out for him…
It should have been Russ.
No.
It should have beenhim.
“You owe him one, you know that?” Aneski boldly stated. “For keeping me alive for you.”
Flix agreed, but he shook his head anyway. “What does you still breathing have to do with me?”
“Because I’m yours,” he replied confidently. “You’ve always known that was the case.”
“No.” He retreated a couple of steps so there was space between them. “You’re misunderstanding something here, Ani.”
“Actually,” he disagreed. “You are. I wasted three years loathing myself because of my feelings for you, the man I thought was responsible for my brother’s death. But Russ isn’t dead. You suck for leaving me in the dark, for walking away and making me deal with all of this on my own, and I get that I should hate you still, whether Russ is alive or not. But I can’t. I don’t.”
“Stop talking.” Flix couldn’t hear this. He needed to be thinking about what to do. If this had been yesterday, maybe he would have given in, but now Aneski knew too much. He turned his hand and called to his power, bolts of bluish-white lightning zipping between his fingers and across his palm.
Aneski merely dropped his gaze to it and then asked, “Are you going to kill me now, be’tessi?”
“That’s not going to be enough to save you,” he stated, even though he felt a sick twisting in his gut and a sharp stabbing of regret. And he hadn’t even done anything yet.
Chapter 13:
“Did he promise he’d reach out to me?” Ani cocked his head. “I’ve been thinking about it for days, and that’s all I could come up with. Russ made you promise not to say anything because it would be dangerous or whatever, and said he’d be the one to do it when the time was right. Didn’t he?”
Flix frowned. “You’re taking this better than I expected.” Which there could only be one reason for, if he stopped and thought about it. “You already knew.”
Aneski didn’t deny it.
“You came here to get me to confess on my own, even though you’d already somehow learned the truth.” Flix would have laughed, only all that did was make things more complicated. And confusing.
“You planned it out with Russ, didn’t you?” Ani asked, making Flix wonder how many details he had and how many blanks he was still trying to fill.
“Something like that.” He didn’t see the point in keeping it to himself anymore, especially not if he really was about to end Aneski’s life. Thanks to him, Baikal would be keeping a closer eye on Flix for a while though. He’d already drawn too much attention Flix’s way.
If he could get on top of this though, maybe tell Baikal first…Shit. That still meant probably having to take Ani out beforehand.
“You shouldn’t have listened to him,” Aneski said, either unaware of the very real threat Flix posed to him, or not caring.
