Page 9 of Detonation
What is it that Lana always says?It’s okay to feel the fire but don’t let it consume you.
Keep breathing.
I let myself feel the hurt, reminding myself that she isn’t leaving for good. She wants us to join her as soon as we have more training. It isn’t forever.
Taking one final, deep breath, I think of how strong my mate is and choose to put my faith in her plan because that’s our only option at this point.She can do this.
My fire pulls slowly back into my core and I unclench my hands from the couch. Looking over at my twin, who’s sitting with his eyes closed, unaware of how close I came to exploding, I ask, “How are we going to handle this with the other guys?”
His eyes remain closed as he sighs. “This is going to be really hard on all of us. Hale is the calm one who gets all our asses in line. He’s not going to be able to do that when he’s reeling from his own emotions.”
I let his words sink in and nod to myself. “Time to grow up and be there for our family.”
* * *
Hale
Present time
The blood in my vein’s ices over. Rage like never before courses through me.
I’ve always been the collected one who guided our family. But my family is broken now.
How could she leave us? As if we’re incapable of helping her save Ash. Like he isn’t just as important to us.
It’s always whatshewants. Not what we all need.
Well, maybe we’re just not as important to her as Ash is. That would explain it.
Zedd approaches me like I’m a skittish animal as I sit, crumpling Lana’s excuses of how she justhadto do this. “Hale ... Serenity is here.”
A dark, deep chuckle, that I don’t recognize, sounds from me. “I don’t give a shit.”
I uncrumple her note and run my eyes over it, like I don’t have it memorized already. I’ve been pouring over it for hours, ever since the twins woke us up to break the news.
Distantly, I hear Zedd’s sigh as he walks away.
I crumple it again. If I don’t destroy the piece of paper, I may destroy this entire fucking house. Why couldn’t she have said this to our faces? We weren’t worthy of an actual goodbye?
A leather boot appears in my line of vision and kicks me in the shin. A hiss escapes through my teeth and I glare up at the offending attacker.
Serenity. Here to give me a dose of her infinite wisdom, I’m sure.
She looks down at me, an odd mixture of disappointment and compassion in her eyes. “I bet it hurts that she left you behind like she did,” she says. With a shrug, she continues, like she has all the answers in the world, “Let that fuel you to train. Go to her as a man who can hold his own in battle.”
I’m to my feet and in her face in a breath. “Newsflash,Queen: this isn’t something you can snap your fingers at and fix with your powers. Sheleftus. Willingly. Like we’re nothing more than her peons, like we’re incapable of supporting her.”
She rolls her eyes, breezing over my disrespectful address of her, and flicks her hair behind her shoulder. “She has enough blood on her hands from her previous life. She doesn’t want to add to it. Remember, she’s carrying a heavy weight on her shoulders. She has to be the leader of a realm that’s already descended into chaos.” Her facial expression changes to one of contemplation. “Do I think she was ready for this on her own? Likely not. But considering that you were all helpless outside the door as Anshar tossed her from corner to corner like a ragdoll, not one of you is ready yet either."
I open my mouth to protest but she cuts me off, “I’m not done, Hale.”
Groaning, I fall back onto the couch, bracing myself for another lecture. She takes a seat in the corner of the sectional, crossing her legs beneath herself gracefully. “Boys!” I jump at her unexpected yell. “Come join us.”
She moves her gaze down to her nails, picking at them pointlessly, while the other three join us. Zedd sits on the floor, as he always does when he’s overwhelmed, while the twins sprawl on the couch like nothing’s wrong.
Am I the only one mad at Lana?Seriously?
Throwing my head back against the couch, I rub my eyes while Serenity starts her speech.
