The noise escalates while Rowan and Luca argue about whether Thailand or British Columbia was more likely to let him go pantsless.
One phone rings, and the kitchen flows back into motion, as if Grayson’s silence had been tacit agreement that they were escaping before the tribunal could decide for them. That some stranger could determine Grayson’s truth and put him straightinto Dahlia Kirwan’s clutches to fulfill whatever deranged prophecy she and her superiors had cooked up.
Gideon begins speaking into his Bluetooth as the second phone shrills and vibrates on the counter.
He sways, then catches himself because it’s that or he falls apart entirely. He’s on a runaway train—almost literally. He looks back at the passports. He looks at Gideon, who is determined, all power and gravity all at once.
The rest of his mates flow in and around them in all directions, intent on tasks he’d no doubt handed out the minute his eyes opened. Tasks that moved them farther and farther away from here.
“Stop!” he shouts.
Everyone freezes except Mari, still riding the room’s vibe, whacking Rowan in the chin with her sock again and again until he gently lowers her hand, kisses her head, and murmurs, “shush.”
Gideon hangs up on whoever is on the other end of the phone. He pulls out the Bluetooth earpiece to lean against the counter. “Okay. So you’re saying this isn’t a done deal.”
When Grayson doesn’t answer, Jay sets his hand at the back of his neck. The touch does what it always does: steadies the panic climbing his chest. If Jay is here, he can do what he has to do. He isn’t alone.
“Just breathe, pretty. You have choices. We can do this Truthseeker thing, and you can let chips fall where they may. We have a house leased two miles from the Academy. Lots of room for the kids and for Rowan’s wolf. From what I’ve seen online this morning, it’s a nice spot. There’s a private airstrip nearby, and we’ll make it work. Three or four years and we’re back here. No sweat.”
“No sweat?” It’s the very thing he’d run through in his head this morning, and the way Jay tosses it out so casually only winds him tighter. “What about Phoenix Records? The band?”
“Leo and I can write anywhere, and the band is on hiatus, remember?” Jay scoops Skye high onto his shoulders so the boy can tangle his little fingers in Jay’s wild hair. A surprised smile flashes across Jay’s face, and Jay’s big hands cradle the boy’s skinny calves.
“What about Skye? They won’t let him leave.”
“Extenuating circumstances,” Finn shrugs, from the doorway to his library, another load of books in his arms.
“What about Ruckus? You haven’t even got it started.”
Gideon shrugs. “Meh. You’re right, it’s not open. It can sit until I’m ready. Untilwe’reready…what is this really about?”
Grayson feels each nail in his coffin driven home, one-by-one. He looks at his mates’ faces. They range from resolved to eager for adventure. He knows they’ll do anything to keep the family safe and together. Just as he would have done—no matter the sacrifice.
“Fuck! This is all my fault, all of it. It’s too much to ask. You’re all going to resent me.”
Leo comes in, slips an arm around his waist. “Hardly. We’re a pack. You have never been, nor ever will be, too much for any of us. We loved you before you were magical. We love you like this. Haven’t we had this conversation recently? I feel like we have.”
“What about Kirwan and the tribunal?” Grayson says, and now the room hears the real question inside the question. “She’s crazy.They’re crazy.We should be done with this prophecy shit.”
Gideon breathes once, deep enough to move his shoulders. “If you say the word, we face them. If not…” He waves a hand over the stacks of passports.
Given everyone was packing like this was their last time in this housebeforethe tribunal, it’s obvious they’d voted to run.
“You have to know that if we run, it won’t ever be the same. This is it, for real. It will break apart our lives.” Grayson grips the edge of the island, feeling the weight of his mates’ gazes. It’s pure panic, and it overflows The Plain’s river like a tsunami.
A sudden surge of golden light swirls through their soul, soothing his connection to The Plain. He hadn’t noticed that Nix wasn’t adding his precious new belongings to the ever-growing pile in the foyer like it was a done deal.
“Fuck. Where’s Nix?” He can’t believe he hadn’t noticed the chaos.
Skye points to the slightly-steaming pool where Nix is floating on his back, his angelic profile and soft belly the only things visible as he floats on his back in the water.
Hedoesn’t look like he’s packing up his life to move to Switzerland or Canada. It’s like he knows they’renot going anywhere. The sight lands low in Grayson’s ribs. It spreads with quiet certainty, building on that sliver of clarity he’d found this morning on his run.
Could Nix know something they don’t?
What if they stay, and the tribunal isn’t the end of life as they know it? What if something goes right and Kirwan and her cronies don’t get what they came for? They hadn’t yesterday, and that had been when the pack hadn’t known what was coming for them.
There had been a time not so long ago when Grayson had been so focused on avoiding the worst-case scenario that he’d nearly missed out on one of the best things to ever happen to him. The moment he’d decided to choose to risk it all for the chance at a beautiful life.
