“The actual fuck? I agree with Leo, and I don’t get it. How did all five of the Westwoods go?” Granddad Al asks.
“Why are you surprised?” Uncle Liam asks, his voice calm, but his eyes hold a storm of emotions.
“I just want to know why. I get Jayce going, why the rest?” Grandad Al answers.
“Maybe because we’re tighter than you think we are,” I cut in. “Whatever shit happened with Sienna wasn’t anyone’s fault… but they still went because while the plan to get there may have been Heaven’s, how to get Sienna back was Jayce’s. He’s been looking for a way this entire time. And there’s only one way to do that, which involves all of the Westwood Quints.”
“And what exactly is that?” Uncle Ray asks quietly.
“They are going to duel Helios, just as Andronikos did.”
Mom’s face comes back on screen, ashen, but it’s only for a moment before she disappears again. At the same time, I hear something smash, and Uncle Liam turns away; he gets up, disappearing from the screen.
“Hey… It’s going to be ok. They’ll be ok.” I hear his voice, realising he’s reassuring Aunty Raven.
Leo sighs. “So, because they are quints, they are one… Five against one god might work. Might. I don’t know, Jayce is strong, but the leader of the fucking Indomitable managed to dohim over, and he isn’t even a fucking god.”
Uncle Ray closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. “There’s nothing we can do now that they’re gone but believe that they’ll return. All of them. I’m sorry, Liam.”
“No need to be,” Uncle Liam replies after a while before he returns to the screen, Aunty Raven by his side, his arm tightly around her small frame. “I have faith in them, all eight of them. Right now, all we can do is place our trust in their skill and training, like you said, Rayhan.”
“You’re fucking calm…” Granddad Al murmurs as he rubs his face. “As for my little death ball, when she returns, she’s grounded for life. Little fucking menace, and not for going after Sienna, but for not fucking telling us. We could have gone.”
Or you guys might be too old to keep up. I don’t voice that. Granddad Al is pissed, even if he isn’t shouting.
“Ri?” Aunty Raven asks now, looking at the phone with concern.
“Yeah, I’m here,” Mom says. Her screen moves, and her face comes into view. She’s trying to keep it together, but she’s not doing great. “I should have trained her better. What if she-”
“Hey, she’s a strong kid. She’ll make it back,” Granddad Al cuts in. “Where are you? I’m going to come to you.”
Mom shakes her head. “No, I’m fine. I just wish I had taught her everything she wanted to know… I should have. For so long, I kept saying not yet, not now… and now that I finally agreed, it’s too late.”
“It’s not too late. I know we all just want to protect ourpups, but I think we need to do exactly what Mom did with Kiara. She didn’t coddle her like the rest of us did. She forced her to make up for her disadvantages, made her become stronger, because the truth is the only thing we can give our kids is the skill and training to reach their full potential. We can’t keep sheltering them; we need to push them, so they have the tools to survive,” Uncle Liam says quietly. “We can all do better in that department. I think everyone doesn’t want to see their kids grow up.”
He’s pretty reasonable, and he isn’t wrong either.
Mom nods, and Granddad Al lights a cigarette.
“No, I wanted my fuckers to grow,” he grunts.
“Because you’re old, so seeing little kids running around you was probably weird,” Aunty Raven says, managing a weak smile. She’s trying to lighten the mood, although she’s just been told five of her kids are not in this world anymore.
Uncle Liam manages a small smile. “I agree.”
And I’m glad they haven’t taken their anger out on me. They’re more worried than anything else.
“Fuckers,” Granddad Al counters.
“I’ll tell Del when I’m home, if everyone can try to keep it on the low until then,” Uncle Rayhan says quietly.
Everyone nods, and I look at Mom. “Mom? Want me to come down? When did you go there?”
“Of course not. I was just looking for some stuff here and thought it’s late and to just stay,” she says quietly.
I nod, but I’m going to go anyway. She’s alone and doesn’t have anyone to comfort her.
“And why do you look like shit?” Granddad Al asks Leo.
