Macklin walks in and shuts the door. Making his way over to the nearest chair, his head is down and his brow furrowed in thought.
“How is she?” Levi asks.
“Good. Still out like a light.”
“Then why do you look so upset?”
“I don’t like leaving her alone right now. What if she wakes up and we’re not there?”
“She’ll be out for awhile, Mack. This won’t take long and then you can get back up there and watch her like a creeper while she sleeps.”
His eyes narrow on me, but I just grin, which earns me an eye roll.
“I bet if you were up there, you wouldn’t be able to take your eyes off her either!”
“Nah. I’m not taking that bet because I’d lose.”
“Exactly.”
“Okay,” Cole cuts in. “Let’s get to it so we can get out of here. How are we all feeling?”
We all share looks, but no one speaks.
Sighing, I decide to dive in first. “Honestly, I feel exhausted. Like I’ve been awake for days, yet I took a nap this afternoon. A nap. That’s unheard of for me.”
“Same here, bro.” Thad drags his big hand through his loose hair. “I haven’t said anything, but it’s been damn hard to even get out of bed.”
Levi and Macklin nod.
“So we’re all feeling it then?” Cole asks.
“Yes. I was assuming it was from the potion beginning to degrade our powers and our bonds, but I think it’s more than that. I think it’s slowly draining our souls of their life force.” Macklin’s eyes scan over the group as if hoping one of us can dispute what he’s saying. Unfortunately, we can’t.
The entire room is silent as we consider what this means. Our time is running out, faster than the sands through an hourglass. We thought we had a week. Now it appears we may not even have days.
Cole clears his throat. “Macklin, how close are you to finding Asher?”
“I’ve narrowed it down to three small towns. I’m just waiting on some additional intel.”
“Is it time to call Nate?” Levi asks seriously.
Cole’s hand is rubbing against the stubble on his chin that normally would never be there. It might not seem significant, but no matter what we've gone through in the past, the man has always maintained a certain level of precision in everything he does. That includes his appearance. So the fact that he’s let this small thing go tells me just how much our current situation is affecting him. “I’ll talk to Fate. Convince her that we need to start looking at Option A more seriously.”
“Yeah, I don’t think that’s a good idea, bro,” Thad mutters.
“Why the fuck not?”
“Thad’s right. You’ll just piss her off, and knowing how precarious her emotional state is right now, that could send her right over the edge.” Levi seems thoughtful as he leans his sizable body against the arm of the sofa, his head in his gigantic hand.
“For fuck’s sake, give me some damn credit. I can handle this.”
“Cole…”
“Seriously, guys. I’ve got this.”
I study him a moment, wishing like hell I could pick up on his current emotions to determine if I really should pull out a veto on this one. Shaking my head, I decide to let him have a go at it. Better him than me, after all. “I don’t envy you, mate.”
He sits silently for a moment before he leans forward, his elbows hitting his knees.
“Fate isn’t the only one here who will lose something if this plan goes wrong. You all know that, right?”
“What do you mean?” Thad asks, his tone low and face serious.
“I just…” Cole looks around the room, eyes landing on each of us before they drop to study the tile. “Look, I think it just needs to be said. Thank you for helping me all those years ago despite the fact that I made it extremely difficult for all of you.”
“Cole, man. You don’t need to thank us,” Levi says. “We’re brothers. It’s what we’re here for.”
“But we didn’t know that then. You helped out a stranger, brought me into your group and accepted my leadership after I had been a drunken, angry ass.”
“I mean, you still kinda are...the ass part anyways,” I say with a smirk.
He chuckles. Let me repeat. Cole chuckles.
“And you all are a bunch of immature jackasses.” He grins for a moment before it slowly falls, his face once more taking on a thoughtful look that’s unusual for him. “I just want each of you to know that I value the time we’ve had. You really are brothers in every sense of the word, and I never would’ve made it without you. If shit goes sideways and I don’t make it, I know Fate will be in good hands.”
I watch as Mack discreetly wipes a tear from his cheek. “I second that,” he says, his voice a bit husky. “You all are my family, and Cole’s right. If this goes badly, Fate isn’t the only one that will be losing something. We’ll be losing each other, as well. But I know that she’ll be taken care of as long as any of you are with her.”
The twins share a look, probably talking in bro speak, before they turn to the rest of us. Levi is the first one to talk. “We know we’re a lot for most people to handle, but you all have done a bang up job of it from the moment Knox and Mack found us in Chicago. We’d have probably ended up in jail or worse.” He glances at his twin with a grin. “Or at least Thad would have if it wasn’t for you guys.”
“Thanks, bro. Throwing your blood under the bus. Again.”
Levi leans over, wrapping his big arm around his brother’s neck to effectively pin him in a headlock. “You know I love you, bro.” Levi starts rubbing his fist over Thad’s hair as he squirms, trying to extract himself from his twin’s hold.
“Knock it off, wankstain! Don’t mess up the hair.”
The room fills with our laughter as we watch the twins battle back and forth until Thad breaks free, hopping up from his seat.
“Fuck nugget, if we survive this, I’m going to wedgie you so damn bad you’ll be squealing like a little girl right in front of our woman.”
“You can try.”
“And that goes for all of you since you’re all just sitting there not helping a brother out.” He sits back down on the sofa, running his fingers through his hair to get the tangles out. He takes a deep breath, releasing it slowly. “But he’s right. And maybe it makes me a pussy to say this,” he pauses before finishing softly, “but I’m pretty sure I speak for my twin and I when I say we’ll miss you fuckers and we love each of you like blood.”
The room sobers once more as the laughter dies out and we’re all faced with the very real possibility that this might be the end. Not just of our relationship with Fate, but with each other as well.
“Dammit, I’m gonna miss you guys. And that’s honestly something I never thought I’d say.” I rub my hands down my face, my gut sinking with the realization that this could be it. “I remember waking up next to the creek. No memories. No home. No idea what I was supposed to do. Then I found Mack, and together, we found the twins. When we found Cole, we became family. We had purpose. We loved hard and fought harder, but we always came together in the end. I wouldn’t have wanted to spend the last fifty years with anyone else by my side.”