Page 267 of Like Grim Death: Part One
We realize it was never the 6.
It was always us against ourselves.
I cut my gaze to Atlas, behind me. He denies nothing as he stares at me. He says nothing, the gun hanging limply in his hand.
The greatest betrayal. The worst sort of pain.
A moment of perfect stillness, disloyalty loud in the silence.
“I forgot it for a long time, but being around you, I remember now.Youpushed me from that balcony, I felt the crack of every bone that broke in my body.” Sevryn breaks the quiet.
The hairs all over my body stand on end. I don’t know what’s real anymore as I drag my gaze to Sevryn’s.
His blue eyes look liquid. “But Maddox Astor never wanted me. He would’ve beat me to death himself if he could have, and he tried as you might remember,many fucking times.”
Pressure builds behind my eyes.
“Brooklin was the only light in my childhood.Youwere overbearing, hot tempered, you were cowardly because you. Fucking.Pushed.Me.” Sevryn’s teeth flash as he says the words. “After I was born, it was only Lazar’s aversion to calling unnecessary attention in the news that kept me alive.”
Lucifer shifts his feet on the creaking hardwoods, his hands holding onto his wife’s shoulders, just beyond Sevryn.
“But whenyoupushed me over that balcony, it was the perfect opportunity to fake my death, for your father to send me to Moscow, to be…used.”Sevryn’s gaze slowly rakes the room until he turns slightly, and it lands on Lucifer. A smile pulls on his lips. “Your father used me too. My own uncle.” From this angle, I can see his smile widens. “And Edith tried to get me on her side. She gave me the papers, the ones I showed Sid. She explained to me what she has been trying to do. Butshedidn’t help me when I was forced away.”
Lucifer goes paler than unusual. I can’t breathe. Sid says nothing, her lips parted, but she’s motionless, Rain protected in her arms. Even Ophelia has her head up, her face ashen, but wisely, she does not speak.
“Theyoffered me my sister. They offered mehope.All I had to do was spy on you and your precious fucking family.” Sevryn tilts his head as he stares at Lucifer. “Did you know I dragged your wife from your bed one night, before her and I officially met?”
A low growl comes from Lucifer’s throat. It sounds inhuman.
“I slipped her from her sheets and held her in my arms. I took her thumbprints to give to Boaz in case they ever needed them. I thought it was onlyright,after all the things your family had takenfrom me.She thought it was a dream, and it’s funny, because she’s the one who hated me most, at first. Butyou,you wanted to trust me, didn’t you?”
My skin crawls. Lucifer is still.
“But one night while you were smoking outside, looking over that video you’re obsessed with of Ella being dragged into the dark by Father Tomas, I wrapped my fingers around Sid’s pretty little throat, and I kissed her head as I stole her prints.” Sevryn’s eyes shift to me when he faces me again. “And I crept into your home too, while you were away. I spied on your precious girl before you ever met me.” He smiles so big. “She is truly perfect, you know that? Always looking for you, thinking about you, worried over you.”
“You just said it,” I hiss, confirmation of what I didn’t want to believe. “You just said it wasFather Tomas.”I don’t know what he means by being dragged in the dark or Lucifer’s video, but he knows something. He knows who didthisto her. “You knew, and you said nothing.”
Sevryn shakes his head once. “Not until tonight. I didn’t know where she was going. What was happening.” He flicks his gaze to Lucifer, stepping back toward the wall so he can more easily see both of us, his brows lifting. “But you did, didn’t you?”
The rush of my pulse rings inside my ears as I turn to Luce, but I don’t move the gun from Brooklin’s temple.
Sevryn smiles. “You were the one who sent her to Tomas, weren’t you?”
Another second of quiet.
“And Atlas,my brother…”Sevryn laughs as he looks toward me, past me, to Atlas. “Youmusthave guessed yourself? But while I changed my mind—I couldn’t murder Sid, after the bravery she showed—youdidn’t decide if you would keep Ella alive yet, did you, Atlas?”
It’s like my heart has stopped beating.
“I didn’t know you were…” Atlas’s voice is a hoarse whisper to my right. “I didn’t know you were…Malachi.”
Sevryn sighs. There is real sadness in his tone when he says, “Neither did I. Not until Brooklin.”
I don’t know who to trust. I don’t know what’s happening. I want to wake up. I want to pretend this is a nightmare and when I wake up,she’llbe in my arms and I will never let anything or anyone get to her again.
But I blink.
I slam my fist into my thigh, over my bruises.
