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Biting the inside ofmy cheek, I lean against the wall beside my brothers, watching Ben cut off Saige’s cast. Even Eli came out of his room, despite how much time he’s spent holed up in there the last several weeks. Between Ezra moving out into her flight’s house and us hiding Saige in Kinsley’s room, there’s been a lot to adjust to.
Her middle finger taps against her free thigh and I’m hit with the urge to cross the room to comfort her, but hold myself in check. Despite how much I might trust Ben, it’s never a good idea to lay all of your cards out there. But fuck, it kills me watching that nervous tick and to know her mind is a million miles away, trapped in a recurring nightmare. She looks so steady and composed, and I admire the hell out of her for that strength.
Ben finishes cutting her free and turns to us, dismissing her as a burden rather than a person, to rattle off some exercises to help her finish recuperating. He knows the kind of men we are, so wasn’t surprised when I came to him with some bullshit lie about finding her in the woods bordering Hadeon and feeling compelled to at least give her a shot with as many people as there are out there that would want to kill her. He didn’t like it, but bit back his arguments because he understood the impulse to fix people. That’s as far as it goes though, and if he had any idea where our minds actually were where Saige was concerned?
He’d kill her to save us from ourselves.
Because as soon as anyone realizes my brothers and I want to keep her, they’ll turn on us. Harboring a human is treason and we’d be expected to turn her over to the police to be executed, though now I know they’re really experimenting on them in sickening ways.
How can we just throw her to the wolves, especially after everything she did to save our family?
“I was never here,” Ben declares adamantly, looking each of us in the eye before letting himself out of the house.
Saige reaches down to scratch the newly freed skin, tearing at it until she draws blood while sighing in relief at the newly freed skin. Now that we’re alone again, Kaiden goes over to bat her hands away, scolding her for hurting herself and worrying over her in the only way he knows how.
She slowly gets to her feet, wavering for a moment as she tests her weight on the limb before taking a cautious step. Kaiden hovers, but keeps his hands to himself. After everything she went through, we try to touch her as little as humanly possible, despite wanting to. We don’t want to scare her, to be the reason anything triggers those memories.
I don’t think I could live with myself if she was scared of me, if those glacial eyes looked at me like I was something she had to fear.
“I took legs for granted,” she states on a wistful sigh, carefully walking around the confines of the room with her hand on the wall for balance.
Watching her face, it’s easy to notice when her color pales even further than it already is after never seeing the light of day. Her steps don’t come quickly or easily, and she looks a bit shaky, so I know she’s pushing herself too hard, but I imagine she’s sick of lying in bed for nearly two months.
“How about we celebrate by eating at the table for once?” I offer, since it’s been a nightly ritual of cramming in here so we could keep her leg elevated.
She gets a strange look on her face. “Alright,” she rasps warily, like she’s trying to figure out what sort of trap we’re laying out for her and I hate it.
Elias is already in the kitchen, finishing up dinner with a look I know well; he misses Ez. Shit, wealldo. They had a nightly routine for his entire life and even though she’s only a few blocks over, she feels so far away. I can’t blame his reluctance to spend any time with Saige. If even his own sister could leave him, there’s no point getting close to the human that already plans to. She’s said as much herself countless times, that after she’s healed up she’ll be on her way, like she’s so confident she’ll be okay out there.
“So, did you get your work done?” Kinsley asks Eli, trying to stay on top of things in a way we never had to before.
Without Ezra taking care of him, keeping track of the school stuff, doing the shopping and chores, we had to do some major overhaul to our lives. Elias agreed to homeschooling so that he could take point on keeping up with the house and be here if Saige fell or something while the three of us were at work, but we’ve been trying to rearrange the way we do things so one of us can be home. It isn’t fair to put all of that burden on a teenager, especially one that’s already struggling more than I think he admits.
“All but a math page I’m stuck on,” he admits truthfully around a mouthful of potatoes. He may be as angsty as any other thirteen year old, but he doesn’t lie at least.
“I could try to help if you want,” Saige offers quietly and we all look at her in surprise, my fork stilling halfway to my mouth. She easily picked up on Eli’s avoidance and has been staying off of his radar because of it, so I’m more than a little caught off guard by the offer. She slumps in her seat sheepishly. “Not saying I’ll actually be able to help, but I’m pretty good with numbers.”
With the way she juggles counting each second to make sense of patterns while easily carrying on a conversation, I wouldn’t doubt it. I can multitask with the best of them, but I can’t balance twenty different numbers and talk at the same time without losing track of something.
Eli frowns into his plate, but shrugs. “Just don’t get your hopes up; I don’t understand it for the life of me. Even if you’re some weird number savant, doesn’t mean you’ll be able to make it make sense to me.”
I pin him with a look, but he doesn’t back down, unafraid. With as little as we were around after our parents died in the war, Ezra became a sole parent in his eyes and he doesn’t have the same respect for the rest of us as he does her. Sure, he listens eventually, but it’s like pulling teeth compared to when our sister asks anything of him.
Fuck, can it be Sunday already? He’s in such a better mood when her flight shows up.
There’s a knock on the door and everything changes in an instant. Even Elias has his head in the game and jumps to his feet, grabbing Saige’s hand without reservation and bolting for the basement. They can listen in, and if things escalate, lock themselves in the panic room beneath the house. We just don’t want to force her in there unless we absolutely have no other choice for obvious reasons.
I grab her plate and toss it in the fridge so it doesn’t look like anyone else was sitting with us and the others put their hands on their weapons subtly in their pockets. We always carry something on us, paranoid on the best of days with the way the world has been going to hell, but more so now. Kinsley opens the door, easy going smile in place like usual before there’s a fist where his grin just was.
There’s a flurry of movement as he retaliates and Kaiden shoves his way past, hauling the other guy away from him. I get a clear look and smack the back of Kinsley’s head in annoyance on my way out of the house, knowing he deserved getting cold cocked in the face and brought this shit right to our front door.
“Boris,” I greet the furious, sparkly man.
Livid eyes meet mine, but the effect is ruined by all of the glitter trapped in his beard and hair. He’s like a little lumberjack fairy, murdering children in the woods for their teeth, or whatever stupid stories kids like these days.
“You’ve gone too far this time!” he snarls, thrashing, but Kaiden doesn’t budge, restraining him easily.
