“It was. She managed to get her hooks into Dad’s memories and started to twist them. Her plan was to get him to protect her instead of his client, but she overreached.”
Memories crowded in. His dad putting in longer and longer hours. His mom trying to share her concerns, only to have the conversation devolve into cold arguments that ended in colder silences. The way his father would sometimes look through him and his siblings, and eventually, Grayson’s mother. Tension had seeped into their once happy, normal home, fracturing their family and Grayson’s heart.
Horrified understanding flashed across Cass’s face. “Oh my gods, she didn’t!”
“She did,” he said grimly. “She warped his memories until he barely acknowledged us, but my mom…” The pressure on his chest deepened, tightening his throat, and his eyes burned.
Cass covered his fisted hand with hers, watching him with concern.
He swallowed once, hard, and got the rest out. “Mom knew something was wrong. She followed my dad one night when he was meeting the Muse. There was a confrontation, and when the dust settled, both my mom and the Muse were dead, and my dad was nearly catatonic.”
“Oh, Gray.”
Her compassion eased the ache of memories, and under her warm touch, he forced his hand open. “Without Mom, it fell on me to keep Shep and Rae safe because after he finally woke up, Dad was useless. He buried himself in a bottle and eventually stopped coming home.”
“Now I get what tonight was about,” she murmured as she played with his fingers. “Did you ever find out where he went?”
“I don’t know, and I never cared to find out. I had enough to worry about. I was fifteen going on twenty-five and had to figure out how to keep the three of us together.”
“But you did it.” There was no doubt in her voice.
“I did, but not without crossing the line.”
“Your less-than-legit sources.”
He inclined his head. “I’d been training with the Guild before things went to shit, but afterward, I needed money fast.” He looked up, and it was hard to hold her gaze, especially since he was about to admit to things that might extinguish the soft light of something beautiful. “It started with a few off-the-book jobs. The pay was good, especially since I didn’t have to hand over the Guild’s cut. Word spread, and more jobs popped up, each one a little more slippery than the last, but the money kept going up. Pretty soon, I was doing risky jobs no sane Key would consider with clients that were more likely to take their cut literally.”
There was no condemnation as she studied him, just tender empathy. “You went dark.”
He’d never admit it out loud, but he’d played in the inky depths until he almost disappeared. “It’s how I met my source.”
Apprehension colored her eyes, and when she spoke, it was cautiously. “I’ve got to ask: Do you still work in that arena?”
He didn’t take offense at her question, because he understood what drove it. He gave her fingers a gentle, reassuring squeeze. “No, but the contacts I made, the skills I earned, they’re still useful.”
“I bet.” She brought his hand up and brushed a kiss over his knuckles in silent apology. “I’m grateful, then.”
“Grateful?”
“Yeah.” She cocked her head. “Did you think I’d judge you?”
In a moment of clarity, it hit him that yes, he had, which was why he’d held off sharing. “Most would if they found out someone was messing with dark magic.”
“True, but you did what you had to do to survive.”
He found it hard to accept her understanding. “It’s dark magic, Cass.”
She let him go but not for long. She cupped his jaw in her hands, her touch gentle but firm as she held his gaze. “And I break the rules and use less-than-legal resources on the regular to help those the law won’t. Does that make me a bad person?”
“No.”
She smiled at his quick answer. “I remember someone telling me that life is a series of choices, good, bad, and everything in between. Regardless of which way you went, in the end, what matters is whether you can live with the ones you made.”
The last of his tension eased at what she was offering him. It was there in the warm light in her eyes, her soothing touch, and the sincerity of her voice.
He felt her slip deeper into his heart and dropped his forehead to rest against hers. “Is that your roundabout way of telling me the ends justify the means?”
Her hands slid around his neck as she angled her head to press a soft kiss to the corner of his mouth. “What do you think?”
