Page 368 of Blood and Ruin: The Complete Series

He passes out.

Just before I swipe it across his neck, I freeze, my head whipping up to one of the windows just as Kai pushes it open and jumps down from it, landing on his feet.

I feel the anger bubble up inside me the closer Kai gets, remembering how my blood boiled, seeing him appear out of nowhere after all this time.

He was no longer my family. My only family are my parents now.

“Leave, Kai. We’re no longer family.” Anger laces my voice as I try to get control of my emotions. I remember hating myself for letting Kai’s presence alone evoke something inside me when I could usually push every other emotion away to focus on the tasks laid before me.

Kai stays calm, his face never changing from the peaceful negotiator he always is. “We’ve always been family, and that will never change. No matter how far apart we are or how long it may take us to come back to one another.”

Lies. I remember thinking, just as I start to shake from the build-up of rage inside me needing an outlet.

Kai continues, not seeing how volatile I am at that moment. Or he does, and he doesn’t care. “I should never have let you all go. No matter what your families wanted. We should have stuck together.”

“What does it matter now? It would never have lasted. We’re all too broken to put back together now that Kiarra has left. Let’s leave it that way and move on.”

“No.”

One word that sounds more like a command than a statement, and I want to turn my blade on him. “My place is not your choice. Now leave.”

Kai opens his mouth to reply but pauses, looking at something over my shoulder. His eyes narrow to near splits as he snarls toward the spot.

“Yes, leave.” I turn my head to my mother just as she walks into the room, followed by my father.

She gives me a disapproving look; one I’m used to by now.

“I’m not leaving without Rion,” Kai grits out.

My mother doesn’t reply to him, instead she looks at me, raising a brow. I nod my head as she turns back to Kai, a slight smile now on her face.

“I’m not going anywhere with you, Kai. Not now, not ever. My place is with my parents.”

Kai frowns. “The parents who don’t give two shits about you? They’re using you, Rion. Why can’t you see that?”

“Nothing but lies,” my mother tells him, raising her chin.

Kai’s eyes pulse red. “I’ve never lied to Rion.”

“You brainwashed him,” my mother snarls, losing her composure while my father merely rolls his eyes. Already over this.

“We gave him a family. Something you never did. One who cares for him… loves him.” Kai looks at me, his eyes softening. “You’re my brother, Rion, no matter what our blood says. Andnothingabout that will ever change.” The vehemence in his tone shakes something inside me, but I push it away.

“Don’t believe a word he says. He left you. We never will, son.”

Kai winces before shaking his head. “They didn’t tell you, did they?”

“They didn’t tell me what?” I’m over Kai’s games, but something in the back of my mind niggles at me, telling me to hear him out.

Kai nods his head toward the unconscious man. “That he’s innocent?”

My mother cuts in before I have time to reply, scoffing at Kai. “In this world, there is no such thing as innocence.”

Kai narrows his eyes on her with nothing but hate in his. Surprisingly, it doesn’t bother me as much as it should.

“Inmyworld, the real world, there is.” Kai looks at me. “The others they made you kill were criminals, dirtbags, and vile creatures that never should have walked the earth, but this man did nothing but call your parents out on their own vile behavior. And now they’re using you to cover their tracks and do their dirty work for them.”

No. They would never set me up. This is just Kai trying to get me back to where he wants me. I freeze for a moment just hearing what Kai really said.

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