My teeth clench. "Watch it."
He spreads his hands in mock innocence. "Just sayin'. You left her behind and now you think you get to swoop in and play hero? That’s not how life works, Mars. You know she deserves better than you. A guy like you shouldn’t be anywhere near a girl like her. You’re one of us. Stay in your lane, cousin."
I scoff and shake my head. "I was never one of you."
His eyes narrow with an offended look. "You were when it paid your rent."
That hits low because it’s true. Rafe gave me work when I didn’t have a choice. Construction jobs that were mostly legal. Other jobs that weren’t. I never liked it, but it kept me alive after I walked away from home with nothing.
Rafe takes a step forward. "The thing is, I’ve got plans. Big ones. Now that we’ve got a city with no rules, I plan to own a large piece of it. I could be a goddamn warlord, Mars. We could rule with you as my second."
That's rich. Him thinking I would be a second to someone like him. “Not interested."
"You don’t get to say no."
"The fuck I don’t."
I push forward and Rafe waves his hand signaling the two goons to move in, closing ranks.
"You really want to do this?"
Rafe smiles. "If I have to bloody you to keep you in line, remind you of where you sit in the pecking order, I will."
I close my eyes with regret that he’s forcing my hand. What he said was true. He did help me when I had no one and nothing, but that doesn’t mean he gets to put a collar on my neck and hold the fucking leash. I breathe out the regret and focus, feel the shadows stir and lift at my will. They rise around my boots, hissing across the pavement like snakes. The guy with the bat swings. I raise a hand, form a thought, and that’s all it takes for shadows to explode outward like a detonation of darkness.
They hit all three of them hard. I don’t hold back, not this time. The bat goes flying and the knuckle-cracker screams as something in his wrist snaps. Rafe stumbles back, coughing, trying to claw the darkness off his face.
I walk straight up to him as he drops to his knees, shadows coiling around his throat like the leash he tried to put on me. He gasps, his face red, hands scraping at the tendrils.
"You ever come near me again," I tell him, my voice flat and menacing, "I’ll snap your fucking neck."
His eyes blaze with hate. I loosen the darkness enough for him to catch a breath, so he can speak.
"You’ll regret this," he spits.
"No. You will if I ever see your face again."
The shadows tighten just a little more before I release them. He falls to the pavement, gasping and choking, and I don’tbother waiting for him to recover. I step past him into the mouth of the alley, shadows rolling behind me like a cloak.
The city is burning. The world is ending.
And I’m going home. To Luna.
Chapter 53 - Reid
The bus creaks like it’s going to fall apart any second, crawling forward through bumper-to-bumper traffic on the outskirts of Vancouver. The sky looks bruised with smoke, a thick orange haze bleeding into everything. People line the shoulders of the highway, dragging suitcases, pushing bikes loaded with bags, or just sitting in clusters like they gave up trying to get anywhere. But all of them are heading east, away from the ocean and what danger it might bring next. It’s chaos. Barely controlled for now.
I shift my aching ass on the incredibly uncomfortable school bus seat and press my forehead to the window. I watch the little patch of fog that forms on the window when my breath hits it and then I just close my eyes to block out the madness, but that doesn't really work. My phone’s still fucked from the water. It won’t even turn on. Julian’s isn’t any better. We keep trying though, as if sheer hope and repetition might fix the circuits. I hate the uncertainty, the waiting. The way my brain loops the same damn questions on repeat. Is Luna safe? Is she scared? Is she thinking about us? Is she thinking about me?
I squeeze my hands together in my lap until my knuckles ache. I’ve loved that girl since I was eighteen years old and have been too much of a coward to say anything real. Too afraid to make a move because what if she didn’t want me like that? What if I wrecked everything by opening my mouth? What if I wasn’t enough? When her family died, all those wants got put on the back burner. She needed me, us, to be her friends, to protect and care for her as she healed. After two years, we were finally getting to a place where she’s ready to start living again, and now this happens.
Now the world’s fucking ending as we know it, and I’m done with what-ifs. I’m going to get to her. I’m going to tell her. No more fear. No more hiding behind Jules and letting the others take the lead. If she doesn’t feel the same way, it will hurt beyond belief, but I need her to know. She needs to know how much I love her, how much I ache to touch her. When we get home, I’m laying all my cards on the table. If we ever get home.
We’ve been on this bus all day and haven’t even made it out of the Lower Mainland. Every lane going east is clogged. Jules has already argued twice with the driver about switching to the westbound lanes, that no one is using anyway, to get us moving faster. People are panicking and making a mess of things. When the driver tells us we’ve burned too much fuel in stop-and-go driving and we need to wait for a tanker, I groan in frustration. He pulls over at the edge of a strip mall parking lot, telling the frustrated passengers that we’re shut down until morning or until gas arrives. Whichever comes first.
Julian curses and drags me up from the seat to get us off and stretch our legs. My spine cracks like bubble wrap. Everything smells like exhaust and human desperation. Except…
I sniff. “Do you smell that?”
