The wild rose laughed, causing my smile to grow, her little wolf snarling quietly, her ears pinned back. “While you all stand around, lying to yourselves about the fear you feel for your youngest brother, I admire him, strive to be him,understandhis motives. Weeds will always grow back unless you pull the entire root out. Even if there is a morsel of a root left, a breath of one, it will sprout through cracks in the concrete just to thrive again.
“What you guys have failed to see is the connection between us all. How nobody has gone after them,” she gestured towards the boys, “untilafterthey found us. A weakness. Azrael showing up exactly when he must to give us a few crumbs, as if he knew what was going to happen before it happened.”
I watched her unblinkingly, daring her to go on.
“Something about who came after us and who he is hunting inside that church is connected. All of us alerting all at once is exactly what can’t happen because if it did—”
“Then they’ll either run or attack,” the mouse finished, glancing in my direction before turning back to the rose.
She nodded. “What Azrael is trying to do issmart. Unless you want to hunt down your father and kill him?” she asked the daffodil. “Perhaps we save his newest victim, but what about the others? Let’s give it best case scenario and we storm whatever church he’s embedded himself into. Kill them all, save the children, keep them from hunting us down. Go us,” she cheered, earning a deadly glare from the hound. “But what about the others?”
The cub looked over. “Others?”
My eyes remained on the rose, proud of how much she had put together since the last time I visited her. She deserved all the praise that mountain boy was willing to give. All I could offer her was another morsel. “There are seven main establishments, branches from each one, daycares, and perhaps a school or two, but I can’t confirm that yet.”
The rose turned back to them. “We destroyed one church and forced them to close ranks, now what? His cover is blown, perhaps they commit mass genocide and cut their losses. Now everyone’s dead, congratulations, Zo, you saved the fucking day.”
She worked her jaw, straightening, but kept her mouth shut.
The rose shook her head. “Don’t prove to the world that old dogs can’t learn new tricks. You all are smarter than this, I know it, I’ve seen it. The best thing Everett and Evie ever taught me was to use the anger to benefit us, not control us. This is just another test. Trust me when I say, just because the Delepski’s are all dead, doesn’t mean I don’t want the world to pay for what happened to me. I was almostsoldto your father, Rae. He violated me too, but the only way to make him really pay for what he’s done is to let him get away with this until he doesn’t. There are, according to Azrael, manymanyothers out there justlike him. We cannot allow this to be just another handful of people that we take down, only to lose the majority of them. We have to play this smart. You have to trust him.”
The daffodil, who had walked several feet away, finally turned back to me, her eyes flaming, a war going on in her head. “Why didn’t you tell us three years ago?” she asked. “All you’ve done since I met you is hide things and keep secrets, telling us to be patient, but not telling us why. Why didn’t you allow us to help?”
“Because,” Red answered before I had decided whether or not it was worth the repetition, “we care too much.”
When everyone turned to her, she only shrugged. “He doesn’t like repeating himself and everyone here knows that. He let me in the church, not that he had a choice,” she went on, shooting a glare at me. “Someone else is in there with him, so Olivia is not just asking you to trust him, she’s asking you to trust us both. We’ll bring you in the very second we know that we can take them down without leaving roots, as she put it. For now, we have to rely on patience.”
They all exchanged looks, the anger and frustration dimming to what I hoped was bitter acceptance.
The daffodil finally shook her head, taking Jacky boy’s hand as she did. “I’m not waiting another three years, Azrael. I won’t. If the game is finally being played, then you won’t have the time to stop us all. One of us will get through, and I will make him pay for what he did to Liv and I.”
My eyes shifted to Jacky boy, his gaze telling a lifetime’s worth of stories before he spoke. “We’ll give you the time you need.”
I gave him a small nod, my gaze finding the cub’s. Out of them all, he hated me most, but I could still see the battle he was facing.
“This is it, Azrael,” he told me, straightening. “If this doesn’t end, I’m done with you for good.”
My smile remained. “Little cub, we’re bound by more than just contracts. You will never be rid of me.”
He gave me a disgusted look and headed for the alley, leaving his little mouse behind.
She watched me for a long time, understanding shining in her bright green eyes. “Cracked universes live within us all, yours just runs colder than the rest, more chaotic, less…warmth. It’s difficult for most to get used to, especially when you have history.”
“Dear sweet, little mouse, your poetry means almost nothing to me, but if we’re using the stars to compare souls and scars, perhaps you should look at him. There is a reason your dear little professor holds such a hatred towards me.”
She shook her head. “It’s not hatred, Azrael, it’s fear. You should know that more than anyone.”
I lifted my chin. “I do.”
“Then you should also know that it’s not a fear of you, it’s a fearforyou. You’re his little brother; all he’s ever wanted was for you to be happy.”
I chuckled. “My joy comes from bloodshed, he will never accept that.”
Her eyes hardened ever so slightly. “Jack and Everett kill. Olivia, Rae, Zo, and Evie have had their fair share of bloodshed too. It isn’t the killing that affects him, Azrael, it’s the way you go about it. You kill innocent people.”
“Innocent to him,” I replied.
“No, just innocent,” she argued.
