“Have you looked in the mirror lately?” I spat back. “You’re not exactly the paragon of piousness.”
“Grayson!”
The sound of Quentin’s voice cut clear through all the noise, and I craned my head back to see her running towards us.
“She was always going to be your undoing,” Hunter whispered.
My response was robbed from me as a piercing pain seared just under my ribs and the burning started in my veins. When I looked down, I saw the end of the knife protruding out of my side.
Hunter loomed over me. “Checkmate, brother.”
Recklessness was a characteristic that Grayson was known for. It was part of his nature. But I never had him down as suicidal.
When I woke up, I expected to find him next to me, but the space beside me was empty. It wasn’t warm. The house was quiet. And then the anxiety settled in. I searched through our home, but he was nowhere to be found and neither was the knife that we’d agreed to use.
“Quentin?” Erik had appeared in the room.
With no idea where to start or what to do, I’d called for him and was grateful that he wasted no time in showing up.
“He’s not here, Erik,” I told him simply.
Erik paled. “The grounds?”
“I’ve already looked out there, but it’s empty.”
The room was filling with Gods we trusted and the news filtered amongst the bodies.
“He’s gone to find Hunter,” I said, knowing it was the only possibility. Gray wouldn’t run. He wasn’t a coward.
The panic turned my blood to ice. We had come up with a plan and he had agreed. How long had he known he would go rogue? Why would he do this when the rest of us had been waiting for midday?
“Ignacio,” Erik said, calling him over. “Go look for him. Take Flynn with you. Stay safe and report back as soon as you know anything. I’m going to stay with Quentin.”
“I’ll go,” I told him.
“No. Gray would never forgive me, and I wouldn’t forgive myself either.”
“We don’t know where Hunter is,” Archer pitched in. “If he catches you unawares, then we’ll have another issue on our hands. Grayson is more than capable of looking after himself.”
“Archer…”
“No, Quentin. This was a selfish move by him, and I have no sympathy for his actions.”
Malachi shook his head at the comment. “We’ll look as well. He won’t be far.”
Gods and Goddesses started to leave the room as quickly as they’d come. I agreed with Archer to an extent that it was a selfish move. But Gray wasn’t after glory. If I knew Gray, then he’d taken it on his shoulders because he felt it was his fault. That no one else should be involved and feel the repercussions of a fight that had always come down to him and Hunter.
“He’s an idiot,” I told Erik. “We need to find him.”
“He made a choice,” Archer said nonchalantly.
I turned to look at him, narrowing my eyes. “If you have nothing helpful to say, then keep your mouth shut.”
The comments weren’t helping, and I didn’t have the patience to deal with his grievances.
His lip curled in response, but Larkin put a hand on his shoulder.
“I need your help with something,” she said to him. “Follow me.”
