"Brother," he says.
"Brother."
We don't hug. We've never been huggers. But he grips my shoulder, and I grip his..
Then his eyes move to Jonah, standing slightly behind me, and his expression shifts to something more assessing.
"So this is him."
"This is him," I confirm. "Jonah, my brother Jace. Jace, Jonah."
"The one you destroyed and then fell in love with," Jace says. "Quite the meet-cute."
Jonah grins. "I've been calling it a trauma bond, but meet-cute works too."
Jace's mouth twitches. "I can see why you like him."
"Most people find me exhausting within the first hour," Jonah says. "It's a gift."
"Get in the car." Jace opens the back door. "Elliot's waiting at the cabin. He made soup. Don't ask me what kind. He's been experimenting."
We climb into the SUV. Jace takes the driver's seat, and we pull away from the airstrip, winding up a narrow mountain road that climbs higher and higher into the peaks.
"The Ministry will know you're gone by now," Jace says, eyes on the road. "They'll start looking."
"I filed a transport order before we left. Told them I was taking the asset to a black site in Eastern Europe for processing. Should buy us a few days before they realize it was fake."
"And after that?"
"After that, we move fast." I watch the mountains pass. "Kreiss is in Geneva, supposedly. If we can get to his records, we can expose the Custodians who funded Project Omega. All of them."
"That's a big play."
"It's the only play."
Jace nods slowly. "Jinx wants in. He's been itching for action since Webb fell. I've been keeping him on a leash, but if this is really happening..."
"It's really happening." I look at him. "I'm not going back, Jace... not unless we’re at the top."
"I know." He glances in the rearview mirror, at Jonah, who's gazing out the window at the scenery. "Elliot told me something once. He said the hardest part of becoming human again was realizing you had a choice. That you'd always had one, but they trained you to forget."
"Sounds like Elliot."
"He's usually right." Jace's hands tighten on the wheel. "We're with you, brother. All the way.”
I don't trust myself to respond. So I just nod, and watch the road, and think about choices. About the ones I've made, and the ones still to come.
The cabin appears around a bend in the road, high up on the cliff. A-frame construction, all wood and glass, nestled into the mountainside like it grew there. Smoke rises from the chimney, and warm light glows in the windows. It looks like something out of a travel magazine, the kind of place where people go to escape their problems.
Our problems followed us here. But at least we have good scenery.
Elliot is waiting on the porch. He's smaller than I remember, dark-haired and sharp-eyed, wrapped in a sweater that's clearly too big for him. Jace's, probably. He waves as we pull up, and I see the way my brother's face softens at the sight.
I remember when Jace took Elliot. A trembling asset with a number instead of a name, terrified of his own shadow. Nowhe's standing on a porch in the Swiss Alps, rolling his eyes at something Jace is doing, looking for all the world like he belongs here.
That's what love does, I’d imagine. It makes you belong somewhere you never expected.
"Welcome, brother," Jace says again as we climb out of the SUV.
