I wish she’d stayed. I wish we were enough for her. But all of my wishes fall on deaf ears as the Fates laugh down on the plights of us mortals.
“You could take Eli out to do something,” he offers. “Fuck knows the kid’s gotten the short end of the stick.”
Taking a few deep breaths, I rub the scar that carves from shoulder to chest, the last thing I have to remind me of the fiery girl. I just always feel off balance, the same way I would if Kinsley up and abandoned us, like I’m missing a pivotal part of my identity. But when our parents died in the human uprising all those years ago I stepped up, and it’s not fair to just abandon the position this late in the game. I’ve always made sure our family was safe. I just can’t do the same for my flight, broken before it ever even had a chance.
“Yeah, alright.” I grab the keys to the SUV, figuring I can pick them up later since we share a car.
Eli’s in the middle of one of his workbooks when I get home, not even looking up when he hears someone in the house. “How’s it going?”
Shrugging, he doesn’t pull his head out of his book to answer. “Not bad.”
I have to pry conversation out of my little brother at this point and I despise how hard everything is, but I know it’s my own fault. We pretty much just had Ezra raise him and worried about the bills and keeping them safe, but it left some real gaps in our relationship because of it. I had thought that things were okay until the day she moved out and we were left with awkward silence in her wake. Our parents, sister, and then Saige left us too, so I can’t blame him for having attachment issues, but I wish that I knew how to fix at least one of my innumerable problems.
“Want to get out of here for a while?” I offer, brainstorming something to do in the typically dull town.
He gives me a strange look, finally giving me the time of day. “Sure, I guess. What do you want to do?”
I force myself to push down all of my moping and aggression for his sake. It’s not going to get any better, so I need to learn how to live with it, to still have a semblance of a life beyond just pining over the girl that rejected us.
“Want to raid Kin’s stash? Fuck with the newbloods?” Because despite them being my brothers-in-law and living here for this long, they will always just be out of towners to me.
Eli stays guarded, but intrigued enough to roll with it, meeting me halfway. “Might be fun.”
Half-smiling, a faint fluttering of contentment stirs to life. “Worth a shot at least.”
We head to Kinsley’s room that he took back, and we both pointedly ignore his desk, namely the drawings he left out that hurt to look at. I head to his closet, opening it a crack and feeling around to unhook the booby-trap he keeps rigged up. I start rummaging around in his stockpile, passing stuff back to Elias and letting him choose what interests him to get a feel for what sort of damage we’ll be doing.
He sets his chosen torture devices to the side and gestures to them with a flourish, a genuine smile replacing the half-assed attempt from earlier. Excitement actually takes root and I don’t bother cleaning up our mess, just tug a couple of backpacks free for each of us to load up.
“Shall we work out our frustrations, good sir?” Elias asks with a teasing grin, sounding as bad as our sister.
“A fine plan indeed,” I agree, cracking my neck and choosing to forget my problems for at least a little while.
We set up shop on the neighboring roof to our sister’s house, not knowing how many of them are at home right now, so we don’t want to give away our position. Slipping our binoculars out of our bags, we stretch out on our stomachs at the edge of the flat roof. Before we get ahead of ourselves, we need to make sure of who is currently home or preparing to leave to get a sense of how long we have to work.
As soon as I adjust the settings, I instantly slap Eli’s out of his hands while gagging. “Don’t look into the house of horrors, Eli. Just.” I shudder, stomach heaving. No one should have to know what sort of kinky shit their sister’s into. No one. “Save yourself.”
He retches at the very thought. “Well now we’re going to have to up our game.”
Agreeing, I get to my feet. Since everyone is obviously otherwiseoccupied,we climb off the roof and get to work. Eli finishes rigging up the bucket above the front door and syncing the release to the gift before putting the lid back on the box and setting it on the door mat. He starts pouring the special glue Kins invented, the one that stays wet for fifteen minutes before hardening like a rock, over the handrails and doorknob.
All the while I attack the back, lining up the slip ‘n’ slide right against the door and using the entire bottle of dish soap on it. It drapes over the couple of steps down to the yard, leading to a small pool in the end. I gag, plugging my nose as I pour the entire gallon jug of oil scented like skunk ass before sprinting away back to my brother, desperate to draw in a breath that won’t kill me.
Fuck, I’ve missed this.
“How do we make sure they open it?” Eli whispers, crouched low. “Ez thinks everything’s a trap.”
Withdrawing a permanent marker from my pocket, I scrawl on the box with my left hand to disguise the writing.
Looking to upgrade flights? We can give you things they never could. –Charlie
Eli stifles a laugh, clamping a hand over his mouth to muffle the sound while I grin. He’s right, and they’ll completely expect anything and everything to be a trap, so might as well just play on their pride instead. Hiding in plain sight usually works better than anything.
“Okay, count to five, we both knock, then make a break for behind the neighbor’s house. If we hurry, we should be able to watch from the roof.”
He nods and I run on silent steps to the back door, knock, and then sprint away. We just barely manage to get situated and our phones held over the lip of the roof to record so we aren’t spotted before we hear shouting.
We muffle our laughter as Cai snarls, “Who the hell is Charlie?!”
