The room grows so silent I can hear the rumbling of the storm outside.
“Do these take place in the human world?” Blaise finally asks, rotating on the bed and bringing one of his legs up, knee bent, arms resting on his knee.
I shake my head. “I’m not sure, but I don’t think so.”
More silence.
I pull the blanket tighter around me. “What’s wrong?”
None of them say anything right away, trading unsettling looks instead.
“Don’t lie to me,” I warn, feeling way too vulnerable at the moment.
I’m only in my underwear after showering with Alex, and now they’re going to try to lie to me? I knew better than to trust them, yet my stupid reaper hormones fogged my brain.
I start to scoot toward the edge of the bed. Fuck this. I’ll take walking into the darkness of the house over their evasiveness. But before I can get that far, Alex slants forward, slips an arm around me, and draws me back toward him.
“After the fire,” he starts, his mouth grazing across the back of my head, “Rhyland went after Elise because he suspected she was the one behind it. When he tracked her down, she more than admitted it. She said … you were the target.”
“What does this have to do with these memories I’m having?” My voice conveys my frustration.
“Because …” He hesitates, gripping me tighter, as if he thinks I’m going to flee.
“Because she also said you aren’t what we thought you were,” Blaise chimes in, watching me with his pretty blue eyes. “She said that you were something more.”
Tight pressure fills my chest. “What?”
“She took her own life before Rhyland could drag the truth out of her,” Blaise explains. “And that’s why Rhyland isn’t here right now. He set off on a mission to track down more information.”
“Oh.” The word sounds so stupid coming out of my mouth in this type of situation, but I can’t think of anything else to say. It was bad enough that I discovered I was a cursed fire reaper, and the last one. And now they’re telling me I could be something else entirely?
“Hey.” Blaise extends his arm across the bed toward me. “I know this seems bad right now, but everything will be okay. We can figure this out.”
“But then what?” I question, this horrible, awful sickness winding in my stomach. “What am I supposed to do after we figure this out?” I tuck a strand of damp hair behind my ear. “I don’t think I can take much more of this shit.”
It feels like I’m cracking apart, like before when I hadn’t fed. Only, my skin is smooth and free of cracks and ash. It’s the inside of me that’s shattering. I think I’m going to cry. My eyes feel so damn hot.
Blaise shifts, kneeling on the bed in front of me. “Don’t cry, sweetheart.” He cups my face between his hands and wipes away the tears with his fingers. “Even if you are a different creature, we’ll still be yours. And the fact that you can feed on us means you have cursed fire reaper blood in you—that much is true.”
“But then, why would Elise say I was something different if I have cursed fire reaper blood in my veins?”
“If Elise was telling the truth—and that’s a big if,” Blaise says, looking me directly in the eyes, “it would mean you’re a hybrid which, while rare, isn’t completely uncommon.”
Alex hugs me closer to his chest. “We already thought that your mom was a cursed fire reaper, but we don’t know who your father is. So, if what Elise is saying is true, it means your father probably didn’t have reaper blood.” He kisses the arch of my neck. “But we’ll figure this out. Rhyland, he’s always been good at putting together mysteries.”
I recline into him, seeking comfort in ways I didn’t know was possible. “But isn’t it dangerous? I imagine it is since I already have darkness and other creatures trying to track me down. And I’m still at risk of being found out since we haven’t found Indigo yet.”
None of them utter a word, the silence dragging out to an irritating length.
My lips part to demand they confess their secrets, but surprisingly, Jaxon speaks first. He’s been quiet almost this entire time. Even for him, that’s a bit extreme. I’m not sure if this is normal for him—to go through spouts where he barely speaks.
“The man you believed is your father isn’t going to be a problem for now.” Jaxon turns toward me, the shadows of the candlelight dancing across his face.
I’m confused as fuck at first, but then … “Wait, did you guys kill him?” I wait for the rush of fear to course through me and the sorrow, but it never comes. In fact, I feel really still inside.
Is this what it’s like to be a reaper? That is, if I even am one.
Jaxon shakes his head. “No. Although some of us thought that was a better idea than what we ended up doing.” His gaze strays to Blaise.
I direct my attention back to him. “You wanted to kill him?”
Blaise withdraws his hands from my face, tosses Jaxon a dirty look, then looks back at me. “Honestly, yeah. He seems like a waste of space. I don’t give a shit if he’s not your birth father. He raised you for years, and then just fed you to Rider for basically nothing. He’s a piece of shit.”
He’s right. I know he is.
“But my sisters will be all alone now, and Social Services will come and take them, and they’ll get separated.” I reach for my necklace to see what’s going on back in Honeyton, but Blaise snatches a hold of my hand.
“They’re fine. We set them up with a better house—a better life—and Social Services won’t bother them.”
“They’ll be all alone without anyone to take care of them,” I say in a shaky tone. “They’re too young for that. They deserve to be young, you know?” That’s the thing about my life. I had to grow up too fast, and take on too much responsibility when I was too young. I don’t want that for them. I want them to enjoy their childhood.
“They’re not alone,” Alex assures me, sweeping my hair to the side so he can rest his chin on my shoulder. “We found someone to care for them—a creature we know that’s half-pixie, half-human. She’s very nice and has always wanted children. She also can protect them if something happens.”
“She moved in with your sisters in a new house we bought a couple of days ago,” Blaise adds. “They’ll have a nice life with her. And when we get you settled into your new life and figure stuff out, we can go visit them.”
While it hurts my heart to admit … “It sounds like a nice setup. Well, except for them being with a pixie. I know nothing about pixies.”
“Stella—that’s her name—is kind, protective, and very trustworthy.” Blaise brushes his fingers down the side of my face. “And you can always check on them through the necklace I gave you.” His fingers travel downward and brush across the pendant resting against my chest.
My chest that’s only concealed by a blanket.
“Why didn’t you guys just tell me this once I woke up?” I wonder. “Why did you wait until now?”
Blaise elevates his brow. “Other than we were trying to outrun a storm?”