This… this land is one of the most- my breath hitches as I stagger backwards as a damning thought enters my mind. The final battle… will be upon these lands.
“Heaven?” Allie snaps me from my premonition, and I look at her, knowing my face is pale. “Are you alright?”
“Yes,” I answer softly. I look around at the glowing home, the rustling branches of the trees, and my heart aches for the destruction that will one day befall it.
“What was it?” Ahren asks.
I look down. “The-”
“Didn’t you know it’s rude to show up at someone’s home uninvited?” All three of us look up towards one of the windows on the first floor, where a shirtless Theo is pulling on a shirt over his sculpted, tattooed body.
“We apologise,” Ahren says with a smile.
“I was talking to Zombilesandra and Blondie. You’re welcome at any time, bro,” Theo says as he places his hand on the windowsill and jumps down. Dust rises as his boots make contact with the ground. “As much as I’d love to invite you inside, I have things to do, places to be, people to avoid. I’m out.”
He spins his keys on his fingers, throws them up before catching them, and saunters off.
I raise an eyebrow, but I don’t have time for this idiot right now. “Let’s go inside. Hopefully, things have been smoothed out,” I suggest.
Ahren, who’s watching Theo leave with an arched brow, nods. “I smell cookies.”
“You are weird,” Allie remarks as she saunters over to the door and rings the bell before pulling the door open.
I follow her inside, and Ahren brings up the rear, but the moment we’re inside, I realise the room is thick with tension…
Has anything been discussed yet? There’s no Jayce here. None of the quints are here… The Westwoods are all there, and Aunty Kiara looks grim, not an expression I see on her face often.
“Cookies, mind if I have one?” Ahren asks Grandma Red before he gives Uncle Liam and Grandad Elijah a handshake and then sits down beside Uncle Rayhan, who is staring at him with raised eyebrows. Kaden isn’t here, meaning he’s been left with Mama. He would have been a good icebreaker.
“You are all staying the night, right? I mean, it’s quite late,” Aunty Raven says, smiling across at everyone. Aunty Delsanra shakes her head.
“No, we wouldn’t impose; it’s not that far of a journey,” she says.
“Come, sit down,” Grandma Red says to Allie and me.
“Well, I’ll get right to it. I have apologised, but I know it’s not enough. I fucked up like an asshole, so you tell me, Liam, what can I do to fix shit?” Grandpa Alejandro says, now looking at Liam.
Uncle Liam sighs as he looks at his hands, and both Allie and I take a seat, squeezing in beside Aunty Kiara.
“You’ve apologised, that’s enough. You don’t need to keep apologising; it’s just fresh, and I think we all just need time.” Uncle Liam is still looking down at his hands, a small frown on his face. “You kept spouting nonsense, even when Aunty Maria was telling you to stop. We are all upset over Sienna, and we are actively working to find a way to bring her back. I will do everything in my power to help make that a reality, but youforget that my son was broken. Everyone in that room saw the pain he was in, and yet you kept going. And here you are, apologising to me when it’s him you need to make it up to.”
Uncle Liam stands, his eyes sharp. “I have respected you, Alejandro, and sometimes I agree we all do things in anger, but the moment you began blaming my son, that was my limit. Jayce – the one who tries not to hurt anyone, and did everything he could to help her. That night,youmade it clear, the difference between blood and not blood.”
The room is silent as he looks over at Uncle Rayhan, Aunty Delsanra and Jaddati. “I have no qualms with any of you, at all. You know that, Rayhan.”
“I know, and I don’t blame Jayce. If anyone, it’s my fault because if I were here, she never would have resorted to something like that,” Uncle says, and I see the guilt that he’s tried so hard to hide.
Uncle Liam sighs. “And I know he wouldn’t want me to say this, but he was willing to forsake his fated mate for her.”
“I’ve done fucked-up shit, but I was never called out the way I should have been. Until that fucker Leo anyway.” Grandpa Alejandro frowns before he stands up, towering slightly over Uncle Liam. “But I regret it, I fucking mean that.”
He does too. He continues, “I didn’t just hurt you and Jayce, but Elijah, Scarlett, Kiara, my own children and Azura. I will fix this shit; I’ll talk to Jayce.”
“He doesn’t want to talk to anyone,” Ahren says quietly. “He needs time.”
Grandma Red sighs before looking at her mate, who givesher hand a squeeze. “I think we all need to try to move on from it,” Grandad Elijah says. “Mistakes were made, things were said, but we need to stop holding onto that and just get on. Over time, that betrayal fades. Families argue all the time, but it doesn’t mean we don’t love one another. Same with friends.”
“So, I’ll suggest something,” Aunty Raven says now, as she stands up and looks at the two men. She barely reaches uncle Liam’s chest, and her head is arched all the way back to look up at them as she plants her hands on her hips. “Let’s take a family holiday, everyone together. We have to bridge the differences. That will help, right?”
