Page 102 of Like Grim Death: Part One
It means fuck all, clearly.
Elijah cocks his head, his hands clasped together on the table in front of him, the 6 ring—the shape of a snake curved into the number—on his finger glinting from the sconces along the wall.
“Why don’t you sit down?” His deep voice makes me think of Ezra, and I wonder once more what the fuck happened with his mom. He doesn’t seem to care and no one has said anything else to me about it. If RC has found anything, they haven’t told me.
Was it Jeremiah?
An overseer, trying to teachDominushimself a lesson?
Briefly, my thoughts flicker to Phil Cooper. His hospitalization. The headline Sid found, detached from the original article so it can never be searched for again. That piece of news no longer exists in history, deleted, erased, like so much of what powerful men don’t want you to see.
It dates back to a time when our fathers were still in elementary school, so I hold onto that. I makeexcuseswith that.
I clench my fingers along the wooden seatback in front of me, shifting my stance too so I’m leaning into it. We all got dressed in the darkness of the isolation room, but before I could decide what to say to our new initiate, Elijah opened the door and summoned me.
Now I’m here and all I want is to smoke a cigarette as I drive home to my family. But Julie’s bloated body swims through my mind, and thoughts of Finn, alone and afraid, curl in my brain. I don’t leave yet.
“Why don’t you tell me what the fuck was up with last night?”
Elijah’s shoulders tense and I watch a muscle in his jaw jump. For a long moment, he says nothing and we silently stare at one another. My skin crawls, thinking of what I did. What I allowed.
His voice breaks my memories. “Sid herself had an initiation.”
My entire body goes rigid, but I don’t dare speak a word.
Elijah arches a dark brow. “But maybe you love your brothers enough… it didn’t matter they had her?”
My pulse flies fast inside my chest, and it’s hard to get air into my lungs.
“The bond the five of you share is impenetrable.” He sounds almost amazed when he says it.
I think of them. Mav, Ezra, Cain, Atlas. Once upon a time, I think I’d have died for them. But then I met Sid at a fucking intersection and everything… changed.
She’s the only thing that matters. Her, and Rain. I meant what I told her after our walk last week. Her and our son are the only people I have to think about in my life. I’m already proving it with all the ways I am fucking up.
Ella.
Nikita.
Betrayal.
“Perhaps letting them…initiateher didn’t bother you because of it?”
I don’t want to say anything. He’s baiting me, trying to get me to lash out so he can twist my words and attempt to teach me some strange lesson. But I can’t stop myself from saying it. “Itdidbother me.” I sound like a child, the words spoken through gritted teeth as I press my fingertips into the wood of the chair back so hard I hear it creak beneath my grip.
“But you still let it happen.” He’s so patient, like he’s merely observing the weather, and I want to throw this chair across the room.
“I didn’t have a fucking choice.”
Elijah smiles, his lips turning upward and faint dimples flashing in his dark skin. “But didn’t you?”
My stomach flips. I bite the inside of my cheek, refusing to play this game.
“Did you think we were watching from the window, Lucifer?” He’s still smiling. “That if they didn’t all… sleep with her, we’d… what, exactly?” He lifts one massive shoulder in a half-shrug. “Murder her?” He scoffs, as if the idea is laughable.
This time, I smile too, straightening to my full height and looking down my nose at him. “If I hadn’t killed my father, you would’ve done just that.” The coldness in my tone isn’t forced. I feel shaky with rage, just thinking about Sacrificium and what could’ve happened to Sid if we hadn’t arrived early.
Elijah nods once. “Very good.”
