With a little smirk, he nodded. “It just needs calming, a kind of coping mechanism.”
I laughed. “Well, thank you.” His only response was a gentle nod, pulling his attention off me and to the fields. I started toward the house, knowing to distance myself unless Iwanted to lose control again. “Would’ve been nice to know a long time ago, though!” I joked because I always felt a need to break the tension.
But Laken didn’t joke in return.
“Reece?” he prompted, and I halted. “You haven’t really said much about the whole Wraith thing.”
I almost laughed but whirled around instead. “Did you expect me to?”
He stood there, seeming a bit nauseous with a sick expression. Worried eyes. “Well, kind of, yes.”
I bit my cheek and considered not asking, but this whole new world here, a new identity, a secret life… I couldn’t wrap my mind around it. I’d pushed it back this entire time because I didn’t want to hear why he left. I didn’t want to know what he’d done—or who he’d done. I’d rather leave it up to my silly little imagination, where I could pretend he’d been off on some life-changing journey, moping about how much he missed me, instead of hearing how he found love in some other kingdom while running down criminals and slaying people. But I couldn’t live in ignorant bliss forever.
“Why did you do it? Why did you join?”Why did you leave me for this?
Laken cleared his throat, a nervous habit of his. “Mom got sick.” He scratched his head, folded his arms, unfolded his arms, raked a hand through his hair, and finally dropped them again. “Healing elixir isn’t free, and hers cost a lot of coin.”
Laken’s mother.
“And Reece—” His voice cracked, but he turned away. “I am really sorry for it. All of it.”
A dam broke somewhere in the darkest parts of me. My own mother had passed long before I became a teenager. As with many young girls, when my period had come, I spiraled, absolutely clueless about what the hell to do. Because of the terrible luck always biting my ass, my period came at school. Faye, Laken’s mother, taught there. Though many classes were held outside, we had a tower with three classrooms and a space where supplies were kept. She talked me through the whole thing and made a care basket later that day with everything from chocolates to herbs for the cramps. I think she talked to my father about it, too. About certain things to avoid saying, to avoid acting weird around me.
“What? You never told me… I never heard about it?”
A shock ran through my skin, numbing my bones. Nothing happened in Honey Brooke without everybody knowing. Even then, Laken did not tell me. Which, he didn’t have to, but I would have thought…
“If I’d told you, you would have followed me.”
True.
“It would have compromised me and been dangerous for you. And I couldn’t say goodbye, so—”
“So you left,” I finished for him. “And wrote your mother the next week explaining everything, but not to tell anyone.”
I didn’t blame him. But his reasoning didn’t erase my feelings. It didn’t save the pillowcases I’d cried into.
I nearly rolled my eyes, little poor golden boy saving theday by sacrificing himself. Even all these years later, I couldn’t deny it was one of his characteristics that had hooked me in the first place. The snarky, strong, beautiful man hiding a heart of gold.
“That’s why I wasn’t there with you that morning. The morning the hellblazers burned the town center.”
Yeah. That checks out now. “How did you even get in?” One does not simply walk in and join the Wraiths. I’d expect a soul contract, perhaps a sacrificial goat and signing your name in blood.
“Dad.” His head tilted up.
Oh.“He’s…” I inclined my head forward, hoping he understood my question.
“Retired.” Laken clarified. “But yes, he was.”
It felt like puzzle pieces coming together. Laken’s father being randomly absent when we were kids. The secrecy and vagueness of where they’d moved here from, where the rest of their family lived.
“What exactly is your job? Your deal? What—why was that the path you chose?”
“I needed a lot of money really fast. It offered that.”
“And the deal? What is it you do?”
Laken’s lips quivered. His throat tightened, a muscle in his jaw feathered. “Don’t make me explain it.”
