Page 66 of Sinister Hearts
As soon as Jax saw, he targeted her. “Get that knife off of her, or so help your gods,” he threatened, challenging her.
“Cute… a Grim,.” She laughed. “Since when do you need a man to protect you, prima?” Darkness filled her eyes as dark veins ravished her skin, spreading like wild fire.
“What are you?” I gasped.
“You’re not the only hybrid that walks this land,” she answered.
Clearly.
“The girl who cheated death,” Ryker interfered in our conversation from behind us. “Shifters can cross between realms. From the living and the dead.”
“A shifter? A shifter into what?” I asked, curiously.Cheated death? What?
Ryker could sense the tension. “We had a feeling Vadon and his family had something to do with it, but we didn’t have evidence. They hide well.”
Jaxon interrupted Rocky’s talent show. “Penny is in on this as well?”
I looked to Rocky for answers.
“Penelope is a Robles and a Nightbloom, of course she is.” Rocky and I followed the Grimwood’s deeper into the earth.
“The three hybrids, it’s the trinity sacrifice. They wouldn’t need another sacrifice for three more centuries,” Ryker commented, with the flickering lantern in his hands.
“They’re after all of us, prima, not just you. This is our fight, too. Luckily, you got away. I can’t say the same for Penny.” Rocky shoved past me in the narrow tunnel.
“What do you mean? What’s happened to her?” I asked, fear beginning to cave my chest.
“Why do you think I’m here with these Reapers?” she huffed, as if disgusted. “They took her, Faye!” Her tears were now visible to me. I now understood her targeted anger.
“I… I felt it. I knew it. I knew something wasn’t right.” I stopped Rocky while the Grims moved on. “Hey, we’re gonna get her back, I promise,” I reassured her.
Rocky gulped, nodding at me as we hugged in the dark catacomb. Rocky never dealt with grief like other people did. She hid it away like it was a kept secret, never to be shown the light of day.If you didn’t think about it, you didn’t feel itI, was her way of thinking. But even secrets demanded attention sometimes. Emotions were like catastrophic waves, they came and went, the waves sweeping you under. Rocky? She just floated. Never diving deep into the sea of emotions that kept her from going to shore. Floating was no way to live, but neither was drowning. There was something my cousin wasn’t telling me. Something harboring her there like an anchor. I could sense it like a feral itch beneath my nerves.
We finally stopped as the walls began to shake around us. Bjorn pressed a hidden stone in the wall, and it opened a stone door to another hidden part of the cave, where there was a huge room. These tunnels were like a maze. There were so many hidden passageways and cave-like rooms.
“Come,” he said, leading us into the path, lighting the way with his lantern.
The walls were dressed with ancient Nordic Militia weapons—things civilians and humans didn’t have access to. Bjorn beganloading and locking an old vintage shotgun with Nordic designs on the handle.
I then spotted a vintage gold pistol wrapped in Latin scripture. I picked it up, surprised by the heaviness in such a small item.
“Ah the ole’ gal, Sally.” Bjorn came up behind me. “Nice pickin’s, Faye. She has a kick to her, don’t let her looks deceive you.”
“Interesting, because so do I.” There was a gleam in my eye as I inspected the pistol.
“You know, Diana always loved you. You were the daughter she never had. I know your Ma and my wife never got along in the end, but?—”
“Wait, what do you mean in the end?”
“Diana, Stefani, Catori, and Selene, they were inseparable growing up. They were best friends, Faye. Your ma, she didn’t tell you?” he asked nervously.
“Apparently that woman didn’t tell me a lot,” I huffed in annoyance.
“Stefani decided she wanted a normal life, and there was no way that Diana could give that to her being in love with a Reaper,” he replied with remorse in his gaze.
“Wow, the audacity of this woman. You know, I just found out my father abandoned me, because he’s apparently a god or some shit.” I laughed cynically. “She had no right to judge Diana for being with a Reaper, it’s hypocritical.” I did not understand why Ma would keep their friendship from me.
“Listen, Faye, I’m not here to bash Stefani. She and I respected each other. After she had you, you have to understand her priorities changed. Diana was pregnant with Jaxon, and we understood her stance when it came to you, so we backed off. It was hard for Diana, she grieved your mom for years. But then you and Jax… We never saw it coming. Diana said it was alwaysa sign to bring her and Stefani back together—that it was fate and all this other crazy stuff she would babble on about.”
