Page 162 of You Only Love Twice
"And Ghost.... He thought it poetic justice to send you after her and put a bullet in her heart. That was the first task he set upon you and it made me ill. But what I hadn't counted on—what I'd never expected—was her feelin's for you." Silas paused, as if seeing it all over again. "I was there as your handler when she ran across that bridge to you. Malloryn was going to kill you, but she threw herself between you." His head bowed low. "I didn't know until then."
"And the explosion?"
The one Gemma believed he'd died in.
Another shudder tore through Silas. "Jelena, I think." He held his hands up as Obsidian took a menacing step toward him. "I don't know. But she wanted you dead. Called you a traitor. And her and Ghost had words afterwards. He had plans for you."
"You son of a bitch."
Silas swallowed. "What are you goin' to do?"
"The same as before. Kill Ghost. Destroy his precious brotherhood. Remind him of what I promised him if he hurt Gemma."
"And me?"
All of this could be laid at Silas's door. Rage burst through him. He'd lost hismindbecause of Silas's treachery, and he wasn't fool enough to think Silas would have confessed if he'd never brought it up.
"I ought to kill you."
Silas turned and darted for the edge of the roof, but Obsidian had been waiting for it.
Drawing his dartgun from within his coat, he shot his brother in the neck with a hemlock dart.
Silas took two more steps before his right knee began to weaken beneath him. As Obsidian lowered the dartgun, Silas went down like a marionette with his strings cut. All it would take to end this would be to draw the knife at his side.
He took Gemma from you.
The darkness whispered through him.
A void where the darkest recesses of his soul blinked endless, bottomless eyes back at him."Are you ever afraid of what you're capable of?"Gemma had asked him.
Yes.
Obsidian stalked slowly toward his fallen brother, and there was such an emptiness within him, he didn't know if he could do it or not.
Flames swirled around him again. Fear choking him. Silas coming out of nowhere to rescue him.
He could recall the almost crippling grief he'd felt when he'd thought Gemma betrayed him. The loss of all he'd hoped for between them. His heart had grieved for her. For the lie he'd fallen for.
The relief he'd felt when Silas saved him—an act that proved someone had his back, no matter how easily love had proved to be a lie—was turned on its head.
Silas had never been there for him.
Obsidian closed his eyes.
Time to put more of his pieces back together. But this time, he'd do it properly.
Kneeling down, he flipped Silas over and grabbed him by the throat. Hauling him upwards until the toes of his boots dangled off the ground, Obsidian bared his teeth.
"I could kill you. But I won't," he said, his fingers tightening on Silas's throat. "You are not my brother. You are not my family. You are nothing to me. I've been holding on to the past because of you. Ibelievedthere was an unbreakable bond between us. I would have risked my life to save you.
"But time and time again, you have proven you value your own skin before mine.Forged in the fires of Falkirk. What a joke. Blinded by the smoke of Falkirk, to be honest." He let Silas drop to his knees, and lowered his hand to his side. "There is nothing left for me in the brotherhood. There never was a brotherhood."
As much as the pain of betrayal burned within him, it felt like there was a weight lifted off his shoulders at the words.
He finally knew what mattered.
He knew who he could trust.
