Page 266 of Like Grim Death: Part One
She presses her temple to the barrel, her eyes on mine, hands by her sides. She’s scared—because everyone is—to die. Her chest heaves, her pulse jumps in the long column of her throat.
“No one has been good. But they asked. And I knew the answer.”
An animalistic noise leaves my lips. A roar, a scream, I don’t know, but I turn my head and spit on the floor before I stare at her again. “What are you talking about?” I don’t want to ask because I know she’s buying time. I know she’s only goading me. But I can’t help it. If this is the end of us, I have to hear her last words.“What thefuckare you talking about?”
She angles her head, ensuring the barrel digs into her skin. “They asked me,” she whispers, her mouth likely gone dry with terror, the way her words sound cracked. “Who you would choose.”
My nostrils flare, I can feel my abs flex and concave as I breathe. It’s the only way I know I’m doing it.
“And I told them.”
Her eyes are locked onto mine as she leans her body into the gun, like she’s daring me. “I told them you would choose Malachi, if you could, over Ella. I told them he haunted you.Infectedyou. And I told them you would do anything to have a chance to ask him for forgiveness.”
“Malachi is dead, Brook.” I say it instantly. I don’t even think about it. My stomach drops because I think my sister is unwell. If she fucked me over intentionally, she should die. But what if something is wrong inside her brain? “He… I pushed him.He’s dead.”
Brooklin smiles. “No,” she whispers.
And another voice, to my right, where Lucifer is with his family, digs into my brain. He must have been behind the Malikovs, hiding in fucking plain sight. “I felt every bone in my body break when you pushed me.”
“The 6 always count women out,” Brooklin whispers. “It’s no wonder we do too.”
I turn my head to Sevryn’s blue eyes. He’s stepping forward now, blocking my view of Ophelia, coming past my brother and his family, who let him walk toward me.
My skin crawls.
“He isn’t related to Sid at all,” Brooklin whispers. “He is the product of Elizabeth Astor and Adam Medici.”
Cain swears under his breath to my left.
No one else speaks.
My mind spins.
Brooklin’s temple is still pressed to my gun, and I want to pull the fucking trigger.
“Atlas was promised Natalie’s protection, only if he forfeited Ella’s life for it.” Brooklin keeps talking and I swing my gaze to hers.
“No,” I whisper.I left her alone in a room with him. I fucking left her. I walked out. I’m so fucking sorry.“How do you know any of that?”
“I put it together.” Her eyes shine. “I know how the 6 work. I know how revenge works too. Atlas gets your girl for what you did to him and gets to save his own and prove his worth to his father. And when Mikhail asked who you would choose, I knew the answer. And Sevryn, he was promised something too, to live among us.”
Sevryn laughs, a jagged sound, as he stops a few feet from me, less between him and the Malikovs.
I don’t move.
I keep the gun and my gaze trained on Brooklin as Sevryn speaks.
And Sevryn whispers so softly,“Brooklin.”
All at once, we turn to each other. Lucifer and Sid, huddled around Rain, are looking atme.Blood seems to rush from my head, rendering me unsteady.
I stagger backward into the wall, the gun in hand.
I think of being brought in for questioning. Attacked on the street. Tomas’s words to me. I thoughttheywere the enemy, I thoughthedid this, but now I’m not so sure. And I was tasked with watching over Rain. Doinganythingto keep him safe. That’s what Elijah wanted from me. He said things were dangerous. He said I had to be Rain and Sid’s angel.
But what did he tell my brothers to do?
In Lucifer’s wide blue eyes, I see the same thing. Realization.
