Prologue
The woodpile lay in a haphazard pile behind the cabin. They’d been throwing logs into it since last summer. Now the wood had an entire year to sit. It was Nash’s job to chop it. Nash didn’t like chopping wood, though. It wasn’t his favorite thing because the pile never got smaller. No end in sight left him feeling as if he could never finish the job. When it was Axel’s turn to chop, the pile got smaller. How? Nash had no darn clue, but it did. Axel said it was because Nash spent too much time complaining and not enough time doing the work. It was probably true, not that he would ever give Axel the satisfaction of admitting it.
The pile being behind the house also made it boring. No one came back there, and there was no one to talk to. Axel had his own chores and had already called the radio. Faint traces of music floated on the summer breeze, but that was all Nash got. He was alone with his thoughts and the sound of the ax coming down on his next victim.
Dad said the chopping had to be done year-round because winters would be extra cold without wood for the fire.
He set a smaller log on top of the chopping block and lifted the ax. The trick was to aim with his body rather than with the ax, then bring the ax straight down.
He had a good pile to stack when he heard the music grow closer. The lyrics to the rock song became clearer as Axel walked around the side of the cabin. He held out his hand. “I’m done with my chores. I’ll do yours so long as you don’t tell Dad.”
Nash shouldn’t have let him, but who would know? Mom and Dad were in town getting supplies. They would arrive soon. Still, they wouldn’t see Axel or Nash from the driveway, but Nash and Axel would hear the crunch of tires.
“Just for like ten minutes. Then I’ll do it.” It wasn’t fair for Axel to do all the chores while Nash just sat around and watched.
“I can chop faster than you. Vaeris is coming over. We’re going to the drive-in theater in Elizabethville. You can come too if we get this finished in time.”
The theater was Axel’s favorite thing. He and Vaeris made out in the backseat of Vaeris’s mom’s station wagon. The big boat of a car always smelled like moldy cheese and smoky warlocks.
Nash didn’t like seeing his brother and friend kissing. He could bring a blanket and sit on the grass. He’d be able to hear if they left the speaker on the pole instead of hooking it on the car window. They wouldn’t watch anyway, so they wouldn’t need it.
“I can chop fast.” Just because Nash was smaller didn’t mean he was weak. Axel was always saying stuff about Nash’s size. Just because he was shorter than Axel didn’t make him small. He was normal for a kid dragon-shifter. He was bigger than Vaeris, so Axel should just shut up.
“Not fast enough to make the movie. Dusk will come soon. Also, it’s not a competition—” Whatever else Axel was going to saygot cut off by a cough so violently it made Axel choke. His eyes watered, and he dropped the ax.
The smell hit Nash, chemical and strong like the bleach their mom used to clean the kitchen sink, except a ton stronger. The inside of his nose burned, and his lungs constricted.
Axel pulled Nash to him, pulling Nash up. “Put it—”. A violent cough assaulted him again before he could finish his instruction.
Nash understood and held his shirt over his mouth and nose.
Axel held onto him as they rounded the front of the house. The burning grew worse.
Panic tightened his chest even more when he saw his mom and dad in the yard. He’d never heard them drive up or the man with the gun in his hand, either. The car door was open, as if his parents had just arrived home. Nash could see the tops of the paper grocery bags in the backseat through the window. The man with the gun must have driven the black sedan. Someone sat behind the wheel, as if waiting for the man with the gun. He didn’t get out of the car.
His parents lay on their stomachs in their human form. His father must have come around to his mom’s side of the car right before he died. Blood soaked the ground around his mother’s head, darkening the gravel. His father’s lifeless eyes stared at her. Some of the blood was probably his.
When he saw Nash and Axel, he aimed the gun at them. “Ah, there you are.”
Axel pushed Nash behind him. He swayed on his feet. Or was that Nash? He wasn’t sure.
Nash passed out before he could think of running.
Chapter One
Abi sat in his car. He’d shut it off ten minutes ago. The cold from outside had seeped in a little at a time, strangling the heat that had been there until it left Abi to fend for himself.
A train blew its horn, but it was a distance away. A mile south of Abi’s location.
“Abner Price, you’re a fucking idiot.” Saying it aloud made the scene feel a little more real. It was less like a movie the gods had forced him to watch and more like a train wreck. That was because Colin Cunningham had just put Abi’s heart on the train tracks and watched the train run right over it.
It might have been just a metaphor, but his heart ached as if it were real. If Colin had cut his heart out and watched a train smash it to smithereens, he would probably do it with a smile on his face. The fucker.
He certainly smiled while the poor little dude kneeled on the cold, wet pavement in nothing but skinny jeans and a loose blouse, sucking Colin’s dick.
The building's lights illuminated the entire thing, as though they were the center of attention. Colin could have been on a stage in front of anaudience for all he seemed to care. The gods knew Colin was the center of his own universe. The narcissist shithead hadn’t thought about a single person other than himself the entire time he had claimed to be Abi’s mate, which was a total of two weeks. He had lasted as long as all the others.
It was a Wednesday night. The club parking lot wasn’t full.
