Page 148 of Eight of Swords, Part Two

‘Bullshit.’

‘She hired me in secret to get you out. It was only supposed to be a week, two tops, until the second part of the plan kicked in, but he got wind that she was trying to leave. He locked her down so tightly she’d never get free.’ Troy exhales slowly, staring at the city. ‘She never came for you.’

After a few beats, Riley whispers, ‘Is she dead?’

‘She is.’

Riley has always known deep down that Troy wasn’t his father, not kin, but there’s something he doesn’t understand at all.

‘Why did you keep me?’

‘I made a promise to keep you safe.’

‘How do you know she’s dead?’

Troy stares out at the city in the distance. ‘He had me come and clean up,’ he tells Riley. For the first time ever, Riley smells what might be genuine heartbreak in the man who typically smells of grey stone. Heartbreak is rare around here. To Riley, it smells of bitter sap bleeding from a branch. ‘Deal with her body.’

‘Did you see… my brother?’

‘No one was allowed near him. Sickly thing, all told. Always on the verge of death.’

‘What did she look like?’

‘Her hair was just like yours.’ Troy finishes the cigarette before stubbing it out and flicking it over the side of the tower. ‘I only met with her once a few weeks before you were born, when she hired me.’ He looks around. ‘She bought this place to hide you in.’

‘Why?’

‘Because the old man is smart and anyone who thinks different is an idiot. He’s got all kinds of people working for him, even psychics, Brightlings. He has ’em looking, listening, spying all the time. So, she had to get creative. This shithole,’ Troy says, patting the roof to which Riley is chained, ‘sits right on top of what she called ley lines.’

Riley frowns. ‘I don’t understand.’

‘She bought it through me ahead of time. I thought we’d only be here a few weeks until she got free, but he clocked something. Never let her out of his sight again. I even tried staging a break-in, but I couldn’t get her free. So I stayed here with you, where she said he couldn’t find you. I waited.’ Troy wipes his eyes, sniffing briskly. ‘I waited until I saw her body for myself and I remember one of the last things she ever said to me.’

‘What?’

‘She said, Don’t let him get his hands on him. She meant your father.’ Troy looks at Riley. ‘I know I’ve done the shittiest job possible of raising you. I’ve fucked you up good and proper, but I don’t have the capacity to take care of a kid and despite everything, I did the best with what I had. So I can’t let you die, and I can’t let you go, and much as we both might want it, I cannot let your aunt take you because if your father finds out that you’re alive, he’ll raise hell getting you back.’

‘Let him.’

‘No. I won’t do that. I swore to her.’

‘Why is… this thing… happening to me?’

‘I’ve been trying to learn more about anything that might help. Talked to a science guy a few weeks ago. He said that, uh, when they keep wolves in captivity, something happens to ’em. That the stress of being caged forces an unnatural hierarchy. It’s where all this Alpha wolf bullshit comes from. He told me that sometimes, the smaller ones, the ones that can’t win, their bodies change. Start putting out different signals. Smell different. Act different. Keep the others from tearing ’em apart when there’s too many in one space, but it makes them other. He called them Omegas. I don’t know if that applies to you, but I thought maybe…’

Riley never finds out what he thought, though.

‘She did everything she could to save you. Don’t let it be for nothing.’

Troy lets him sleep under the moon until the sun rises, and when he brings him back down the next day, Riley quietly asks what he can do about the bleeding.

✴

Through trial and error, the only thing that works is something called a mooncup. Tampons irritate and his body pushes them out. Pads don’t sit or fit because of his balls. Troy is non-judgemental the entire time he goes about getting these things for Riley, never reacts, although Riley strongly suspects he’s dying on the inside.

He seems relieved when Riley informs him that the cup works.

‘Good,’ Troy says with a nod. ‘I’ll get you a few more.’