Fuck everything.
Fuck.
FORTY-FOUR
Water crashesviolently against the rocks below me, hammering the coastline as I stand on the tall cliff and look out over the Atlantic Ocean.
It seems to go on forever.
I scan the endless stretch of water, where the sea folds into the sky, and massive rocky cliffs rise on either side of me. It feels so big out here, where everything is wild and open… and I’ve never felt smaller.
“Alright, we’re ready to go.” Kurt steps up beside me, but pauses as his eyes land on the view before us as well.
I glance back at my brothers as they all get their helmets on and settle on their bikes, ready to ride up the coast to St. John’s.
“I’ll call you when it’s clear for you to come up,” Kurt says, still watching the waves. Then he lets out a breath, shaking his head. “But clearly, the Wraiths have pull with the cops here. So far, they don’t seem to give a shit you got into a full-on shootout with the Wraiths out in the fucking open.”
I nod. “Got us in. That’s all that matters.”
He chuckles. “Yeah. Guess so.” Then he pulls in a deep breath. “This is fucking happening.”
The corner of my lips twitch. “It’s fucking happening.”
And I still can’t quite believe it. I knew this plan would work… but I wasn’t sure if the Wraiths and the Tides would be ready for it, or if we’d have to watch them burn before they saw what was coming. I thought we might have to fight harder and prove more. But once I got in with the Wraiths, and Kurt spoke to the Tides, it was clear they were already on edge and were already looking for a way to stop the Sons from pushing in. And we gave them one.
Atlantic Canada may be small and quiet, but we roar when we fucking need to.
“Black Tides should be here by tomorrow,” Kurt says. “Once we’re all in, we’ll meet and sort out first steps to get this plan off the ground.”
“Sounds good.”
Kurt nods and starts to turn back to his bike, but hesitates. Then he turns back to me. “Maple’s worried.”
I huff and keep my eyes on the waves crashing over a jagged rock just offshore. But the usual flare of anger and resentment doesn’t come at the sound of her name.
Instead, I see her wild, frantic eyes locked on me from under the table, and feel her hand on my arm, begging me not to run into gunfire.
“She’s worried about you,” Kurt continues.
“I’m sure,” I mutter.
“She is,” he says firmly, and turns to face me. But I don’t look at him. “Losing your dad was hard on all of us. But she lost her father… and then had to watch her brother step right into his shoes, and risk the same thing, every day. It was harder than she let on, because she knew she couldn’t stop you. You were born into this and built for it. So she did the only thing she could. She put on armour to protect herself.”
I turn my head to meet his eyes and see the weight of truth in them.
“Her biggest fear is losing someone else she loves,” he says.
“So she hates me instead?”
Kurt just shrugs a shoulder.
I roll my eyes and turn back to the water. “I get that,” I mutter.
But my gaze shifts towards the coastline, where the forest meets the sea. A mix of evergreens and hardwoods clings to the edge… but it’s the maple trees that catch my attention.
Resilient fuckers. They’re stronger than they look, which is evident in the way these ones are growing among rocky soil, exposed to wind and salt, with nothing but the open ocean in front of them.
And yet, given the worst conditions… they still grow. And they still come back, season after season.
