I groaned. “Don’t. Just don’t.”
She was grinning from ear to ear now. “He said he knew what he was doing, but then he cracked all the eggs right into the pan without shelling them.”
Elin lost it, laughing so hard she had to put her coffee down.
Rhea kept going. “He was so determined to make it work that he actually tried to pick the shells out with his fingers. While the eggs were still cooking.”
“I was, what, twelve?” I protested. “At least I tried.”
“Yeah. And you made me eat it anyway. I crunched down on, like, five pieces of eggshell and you told me it was extra calcium.”
Elin was practically in tears. “You are an absolute menace, Gavriel.”
I shrugged. “I was looking out for her bones. See, Rhea? I’ve always been a good brother.”
She rolled her eyes, but she was smiling now, real and soft. “You’re insane, you know that?”
“Runs in the family,” I shot back. “You’re just better at hiding it.”
We went back and forth for a while, trading old stories, each one a little more ridiculous than the last. I told the one about her trying to cut her own hair and ending up with half a shaved head. She countered with the story of me getting stuck on the roof the night I tried to sneak out to meet a girl. Elin soaked it all up, laughing like she was getting a secret look into another world.
Eventually, the food dwindled, but the conversation just kept rolling.
Rhea nudged me with her foot under the table. “So, what’s the plan, big brother? Am I supposed to become ‘Claire Maddox’ and just vanish into thin air? What if I don’t want to?”
I looked her in the eye, all joking gone. “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want. But if you want to be free, really free, this is how we get there.”
She considered that, her chin propped on her hand. “And you? What happens to you after I’m gone?”
I forced a smile. “Don’t worry about me. I’ve got Elin to keep me in line. Maybe I’ll open a pancake restaurant.”
Elin snorted. “You? Run a restaurant? You’d burn the place down within a week.”
“I’d hire you to run the books,” I replied. “And Rhea could be the face. People would actually come back for more just to hear her roast people.”
Rhea grinned. “I’d be awesome at that.”
For a second, it almost felt possible. A future where we actually got to be ourselves, not just tools or pawns in someone else’s game.
But the moment passed, leaving behind the taste of reality.
Rhea pushed her plate away and stretched, wincing as she flexed her hand. “Can I ask you something?”
“Anything.”
She hesitated, her voice softer now. “Are you scared?”
I thought about it for a second. “Yeah. I am.”
She nodded, like that was the answer she wanted. “Me too.”
Elin reached across the table, taking her hand carefully. “It’s okay, you know. To be scared. Bravery is doing the thing anyway.”
I looked at Elin, my heart stuttering a little. “You’re really good at this.”
She rolled her eyes. “At what? Handholding your wounded family through breakfast?”
“At making us feel like maybe we aren’t alone. It’s not something we’re used to.”
