“Peter was scared of becoming another Uncle Max.”
“Oh.” All those small animals, their skins, their bones, their eggs. His bullying of younger kids. The chapel, set aflame. His engine of destruction, target unknown.
“Maybe that explains him,” Sebastian said. “All his demerits, from Mister Fluffernutter on, were a way of saving the rest of us.”
“He wanted to be culled? Suicide-by-Grandma?”
Sebastian nodded. “His death was on Elizabeth, and the rest of them—not you. That’s why I forgive you in advance, if you ever get me as an assignment.”
The car swerved a little, though my hands were tight on the wheel.
“Sebastian.”
“Don’t tell me it’s impossible.”
“That was Peter. We’re different.”
“Even prodigies screw up,” he said. “I have a confession to make.”
I let out a sigh. “You told the Lindqvists about Yvonne, Tobias, Zach, Tillie, Katie, Olive, and Ramsey.”
Sebastian was silent for a long moment. The sun was behind the hills now, and the tempest of our open windows had grown cold.
“Who else knows?” he finally asked.
“Gertie told me. I’ve told no one.”
“Thank fuck.”
“It’ll come out, sooner or later.”
“I swear, Jess, Bianca had half guessed already. Seven kids, and we never had a funeral. We all just pretended they never existed!”
“That’s not the same as the Lindqvists knowing who did it,” I said.
Uncle Max. My father.
Sebastian crumpled in his seat. “I couldn’t help it, Jess.”
I dropped a hand from the wheel, took hold of his. “You should’ve burned down a building. Or killed someone for cutting in line. That’s how we process these days.”
“No time for a Hefnd. Too much going on this year.”
“Such as?”
He didn’t answer, but I didn’t have the right to press, not after the secrets I’d kept from him. I owed him the truth.
“I have a confession too.”
Sebastian looked at me.
“Something’s happened, since the crash. I’m not sure I’m still a true Morton.”
That politicking smile. “You’re the best of us. In every way.”
I shook my head, wanting to tell him that music was on fire now. But that might just be a hallucination—something my pills would eventually cure.
There was only one unforgivable thing.
