“It’s done, we gotta go.”
Seconds ticked by before Everett spoke again. “Azrael is heading back to Washington,” he told me, shuffling sounding in the background.
He must have been keeping an eye on his brother too after the last thing Azrael told me. I couldn’t blame him for that one. Azrael seemed to be playing a long game. One that has been going on for years. The frustration Everett felt towards the man was absolutely clear. “Do none of the Initiates know your realname?” I asked, turning back to the coffee. It was late, but I wasn’t ready to go to bed. I didn’t want to just lie there and stare, lost in my own thoughts, and anyway, I had Lucy. She might need me.
“They all think they do,” he answered. “But in a few years time, they will.”
I picked at a loose thread. “What was that other name you signed, I never asked.”
He was quiet for a long time. “It’s the name they gave me. Hades is what they called me for reasons I never asked about.” He paused again, and when he spoke, his voice was low. “It’s that marking around my eye, written out in Greek.‘Hades, Conqueror of All’.”
They. The ones in the woods. The ones without a face, without a name or title, just ‘them’. I wanted to know more about what happened in those woods, but remembering the look on his face, I would never ask. Ever. That curiosity would remain buried within me. If he eventually wanted to tell me, fine, but there was no reason he should have to. I didn’t need to know about his past to solidify any feelings I felt now. He was who he was, and that’s who I cared about.
“Are you going to be back soon now that you know they have my mother? How do you know that, by the way?”
“She’s missing,” he answered. “Missing since she dropped off the paperwork.”
I glanced over at my empty living room. Evelyn had people come pick up everything and take it to the office she had found in the city. An office I had yet to visit, which was what I was going to do tomorrow if he didn’t return.
“She shouldn’t have come to flaunt,” I commented, returning my attention to the coffee. “That’s on her.”
Everett was quiet a few seconds. “The cleaning crew is on their way. I’ll be back in the morning, get some rest. When I get back,I had better find that you ate enough food and drank enough water,” he warned.
I glanced at the fridge, which I hadn’t touched since he left. Take out and coffee had been my go-to, but the excitement I felt at his return outweighed everything else. Shit.
I straightened, my heart picking up. Might as well have fun with it. I felt a smile spread across my face. “I’ve only had coffee and take out and I reveled in it.”
The other end of the line went eerily quiet. “Good, that gives me a valid reason to punish you.”
Not that he needed one. “Perfect,” I popped just as a knock sounded at my door.
Lucy jumped up, snarling viciously. “Olivia,” he said evenly.
But my eyes were trained on the door, my heart skipping a beat. Who was at my door this late at night?
“Olivia?” he asked, his voice changing ever so slightly.
I slowly pushed away from my counter. “There’s someone at my door,” I whispered, walking towards the kitchen entryway slowly.
I made it to the hall before Everett spoke again. “It’s Wade. There’s a party happening outside,” he paused. “I need to go, and remember, little writer, everything you do has consequences. Put your earpiece in just in case we need to reach you regarding your mother.”
I didn’t care what else they found, honestly, but I also didn’t want to miss the chance at talking to him again, so I would do what he said without question.
He hung up as I straightened. I frowned at the phone before turning to the door. A party?
I glanced at Lucy and back. I hadn’t gotten to know any of the neighbors at all. It was getting pretty rude of me at this point, but a party?
I pressed my lips into a line. I wasn’t going to sleep anyway,and I didn’t want to be the sad, lonely girl sitting in her dark house listening to everyone have fun while I just sit around and miss my partner.
With a huff, I waved Lucy off and headed for the door.
I pulled it open, finding Wade standing on the front porch with a smile on his face, casual attire, all of the neighbors out and the whole street lit up in Fourth of July colors.
“Hey, neighbor.”
I gave him a pressed smile. “Hey, you really are sticking with that, aren’t you?”
He laughed nervously. “It’s become an endearing term, yeah.” He gestured to the street, to the tables being set up with homemade food, people talking. “Come join,” he offered. “The whole block is invited.”
