“I need to know more,” I finally say as we exit the Tunnel of Love. “Show me all the files. Let me see the monsters in your past. I need to feel it.”
Elias stops and spins me so we’re facing each other. Carnival music plays from every side, conflicting, just like my emotions are conflicting inside me. Lights cast freakish shadows over his sculpted cheekbones.
“I’ll bring you in, Little Sapphire,” he begins, his eyes narrowed in suspicion. Something about his tone makes my hair stand on end. “But you have to know there’s only one way out of this family. Only question is if I join you in the coffin… or send you there.”
20
ELIAS
Ilock a pouting Jules in my trailer, letting her go through the files again with the lights on and not skulking in the dark. I’m only halfway to the Big Top, where I’ve gathered my brothers, when I start feeling an ache of withdrawal.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I mutter to myself. When did I turn into such a pussy?
“Talking to yourself?” Marek asks as he falls into step beside me. “I thought I was supposed to be the odd one.”
I wrap my arm around his shoulders and pull him close. “We live in a carnival,” I say with a smirk. “Being weird comes with the territory.”
“They won’t be happy,” he comments neutrally as I push aside the side entrance flap. “Well, Jonah will silently feel relieved.”
I scoff. “That’s an understatement.” Spotting our brothers sitting in the front row, I turn in that direction. “How about you? How do you feel about it?”
Marek is silent for a moment. “She’ll be good for you,” isall he says when we reach the others. He sits next to Jonah while I lean against the guardrail.
Silas is standing as well, facing me, and it’s him I turn to first. “Go on, then,” I drawl, crossing my arms and mimicking his pose.
“You don’t need me to say anything, Elias,” he begins. “You know she shouldn’t be alive right now. She’s probably halfway to the nearest police station right now.”
I sigh, disappointed even though I expected the backlash. “She’s locked in my trailer. And even if she weren’t, the carnival’s still locked down. More importantly, she’s considering joining us.”
“Joining us?” Cole asks, his eyebrows hiding behind his floppy black hair. “I didn’t know we had a membership. Are we a knitting circle now?”
“Very funny,” I mutter. “Join us on our mission to eliminate the remaining Prophets.”
Logan barks out a laugh. “She has you twisted, man. She’s going to turn tail and bail. Chicken out.”
“She can prove it,” Rowe says quietly, surprisingly going against his brother’s stance. “Bring Ezekiel in early. Let’s see how she stomachs our ways.”
I blink at him at the same time as Silas speaks up.
“This is insane,” he growls. “Kill her and be done with it. Stop thinking with your dick, El.”
“I’m not thinking with my dick,” I protest before reevaluating when his eyebrows pop up. “Okay, I’m notjustthinking with my dick. She means something to me. Let this play out. If it’s the wrong move, I’ll kill her myself.”
Saying the words makes me nauseous, and I don’t want to dwell too long on the thought.
Silas blows air out of his nose, like a father tired of a teenager’s antics. “Fine. This is on you.”
“Let’s go get him,” Logan says gleefully, jumping to his feet.
Whatever happens with Jules, Ezekiel Moore’s life is about to get very unpleasant.
???
Ezekiel Moore is the type of man who worries what his neighbors might think. So all traces of the graffiti art we gifted him on our previous visit are now erased. Like they never were. Too bad we’re about to give the good Prophet a nightmare he will never wake up from.
“Knock, knock, motherfucker,” Cole says gleefully as we burst into Moore’s bedroom.
The man of the hour sits up in bed, eyes wide, breaths audible. God, he’s aged but… he hasn’t changed that much. Not enough for me to look at him without wanting to bathe in blood.
