In other words, they objected to the role Pallas played in her death.
“You didn’t have a choice,” Ryan said, knowing his brother was still upset over what he’d been forced to do.Putting Thea down was bound to mark him.Deserved though that death had been.
“I know.”
“She betrayed us,” Ryan told him.
Worse than that.She’d helped the Osiri restart their madness.
The more Ryan uncovered of her crimes, the more he wished she’d survived so he could kill her himself.
He would have made it painful.Agonizing.Drawn it out into weeks and months until her mind broke and there was nothing of Thea left.
Pallas’s lips twisted into a wry expression of acknowledgment.“I know.”
“Good.”
Ryan had need of his right hand.His brother didn’t have time to dwell on what had passed.
“Have you given any thought to what we’re going to call the new us?”Pallas asked as Ryan rose.
“The twenty-nine sounds nice.”
Pallas gave him a curious look.“Twenty-nine?Not thirty-one?”
“You know what they say.Always keep them on their toes.”
There was no need to advertise their exact numbers to the rest of the universe.
“And our House?”Pallas asked.
“I think House Asunder has a nice ring to it, don’t you?”
Asunder meant to rip apart.That was exactly what they would do to their enemies.
Pallas’s expression showed a slow appreciation.“Asunder it is.”
Ryan was glad he liked it.Many things would happen from here on out.It was important they have a name to operate under.One that encapsulated their future and who they would be as a people.No longer lost or abandoned children, but individuals with a home and shared goal.
“What is it about this place?”Pallas suddenly asked, looking around as he searched for the right words.“Why does it feel so—familiar?”
Home.
That’s the word Pallas was looking for.
It felt like home.
In an instant, Ryan rearranged plans that had been in the works for decades, discarding them in favor of something better.
Something blessed.
“Call youryer’se,” Ryan instructed.
Pallas sent him a startled glance.
“There’s been a change of plans,” Ryan said, taking in the hollow of the tree with a crooked little smile.
A most wondrous change of plans indeed.
