Page 39 of Unrequited
“A text,” I tell her. “A message sent to this… man named Seamus. I saw a message on his phone that my family is going to the Wolf and Moon. The text to him said… destroy them.”
She goes silent for a beat. Then, “All right. I need a few minutes. I’ve got a mountain of hay and a thousand needles buried in it, okay? But tell me, what did this Irish guy you know say toyou? What does he think you know?” she asks. She isn’t speaking sharply anymore. She sounds knowing… wise.
“He told me to go home,” I say quietly. “Said I’d be safe there.”
I want to cry.
“I see.”
Does she though? Fuck my life.
“I think you should probably do what he said and stay home. It sounds like the wisest choice, doesn’t it?”
I swallow… hard. My throat is tight, feels like there's barbed wire wrapped around it.
“Yes,” I manage.
Aria sighs. “Stay home, Zoya.”
She whispers it like a secret she doesn’t want the world to hear.
I pull out the tracking app, my fingers trembling. It’s basic, but it works. We all have them, though Rafail’s is leagues beyond. His is wired into something ten steps ahead of the rest of ours.
I look for every one of them.
Yana, my sister, is in her home in South Africa.
Rodion and Ember are at their place.
And it looks like Vadka and Ruthie are together.
I track the rest of them—Rafail, Polina, Semyon, Anya, Matvei, and Anissa.
Then, a few minutes later, my phone rings.
It’s Aria.
My hands tremble, and my stomach bottoms out like I’ve just stepped off a cliff.
“Okay. All right,” Aria says. Her voice is flat now, not emotionless but controlled. Brutally steady.
“This is where the shit hits the fan, Zoya. The Irish rivals have ordered a hit on your family.”
The Irish rivals. TheIrish fucking rivals.
IknewI shouldn't have been with Seamus.
I knew it. Iknewit. But I still went. I still spoke to him, touched him, trusted him.
I still let myselffall in love.
And he never gave me a single reason to thinkhewas my enemy. Not one.
But he got a message. A message that said he needed to destroy my family.
So what does that make him? My enemy? Or just another puppet in this godforsaken war?
Am I just lying to myself again?
