Page 73 of Gunpowder

He didn’t know the fate of those he’d shot in the warehouse, but the man before him was undeniably dead. Blair had made sure of it.

Three years, Blair had been part of Incindious without killing anyone. He’d never seen the need to end a life if the same result could be achieved by threatening or incapacitating them instead. Until he’d seen Wren’s blood. That was all it took for Blair to forget all his reservations about removing another person from the world, and even now, his only regret was that he didn’t get there in time to keep Wren from getting hurt.

He looked up to see Wren stepping over the body to stand in front of him. “I’m sorry you had to see me do that. I’m so sorry for all of this, I never wanted you in danger, I just—” Blair sucked in a breath that took the rest of his words with it as Wren dropped to his knees and grabbed his shoulders.

“Shut up. I’m okay.”

“But you got hurt,” Blair said, looking at the hair matted to the side of Wren’s head. He ran his thumb over the blood that had dripped down to his cheek, cooling just enough to be sticky. “And now I can’t even stay, I have to go up and—”

“Then what are you still doing here?” Wren asked.

Blair blinked but Wren didn’t look upset. Quite the opposite, his expression softened as he stood and gave Blair a push. “There’s no one else in the building and I haven’t heard anything on the roof in awhile. Go check on the rest of your pathetic gang, I’m fine.”

Blair took Wren’s offered hand to get back on his feet. He picked up the M9A3 and traded it with the 92 at his back. The M9A3 was of no more use to him since he got reckless with the rest of the clip, but he would do it again. He wiped away the last of the blood on Wren’s face with his sleeve.

“I’ll be right back.”

Wren waved him off, and Blair’s anxiety set back in as soon as he pushed through the door to the back of the building. The ladder mounted to the building about twenty feet away was more intimidating than it should have been. He went down to it and found even the first step up to be a trial, with his arms sore and his leg screaming at him the worst it had done since he was shot. It felt like hours before he pushed himself onto the roof.

He got to his feet and recognized the now too-familiar feeling of blood around his shoes. At the center of the pool was a crumpled form that he almost couldn’t will himself to approach.

Spencer knelt at the edge of the roof, holding someone against his chest. The person bleeding out became irrelevant as Blair recognized the sandy colored hair under Spencer’s chin. There was a bloody knife laying no more than a foot from them.

“It’s okay, you’re going to be okay,” Spencer said, voice strained from trying to sound calm.

Marie sat next to her rifle with her knees pulled to her chest, watching with watery eyes.

“Julian?” Blair said. He forced himself forward. “Hey, Julian.”

The limp hands on Spencer’s shoulders clenched and a cry split the air that made Blair go cold. “I didn’t mean to!” Julian wailed. His words began to come as gasps between sobs into Spencer’s chest. “I didn’t… I didn’t mean to kill him.”

“He was just trying to get the knife away from him,” Marie said, looking at the body Blair had first noticed.

Blair knelt down and rested his hand on Julian’s shoulder. “Jules, he was trying to kill you.”

“He was a person just like me, which side he was on doesn’t make him any less human!” Julian cried.

Blair shared a look with Spencer, who shook his head. Leave it for now, Spencer’s expression seemed to say. Blair backed away and dropped down next to Marie. The relief he felt at finding Julian alive was belied at the sight of his suffering. Julian wanted to be part of Incindious’ violence least of them all. He just wanted to be with his friends. Blair found that killing someone was a small price to pay for Wren’s safety, but Julian… he probably would have forfeit his own life to keep from taking another.

“Let’s get down from here,” Spencer said and stood, gently pulling Julian up with him.

Marie folded the bipod on her rifle and pulled the strap over her head, letting the AXMC sit between her shoulder blades. She went down the ladder first, then Blair. Felix was on the sidewalk when they climbed down. He crushed his cigarette out under his boot. “Seems like whatever they did to the electronics and our phones has been working in our favor for people nearby not bein’ able to call the cops, but they’ll show up eventually. We need to split while we can. And Spencer,” he said, looking back as Spencer stepped off the ladder. “Take Marie with you, Jules is gonna ride with me.”

“Got it.”

Blair jumped as a door came open, but it was just Wren coming out to join them. He slid his arm around Wren’s waist. He didn’t know who was leaning on who at that point, or if it mattered.

“It’s been a long night,” Felix said, taking his keys out of his coat. “Everybody just...go home. We’ll meet up tomorrow.”

There wasn’t much else to say as they walked down to where they’d left their cars. Spencer had them all check under their seats for explosives—which Blair didn’t think was Phantom’s style, but there wasn’t much left that night that could have surprised him—and said they would get all their vehicles scanned for tracking devices the next day just in case. Blair stared after Julian as he lowered himself into Felix’s Mustang; his eyes were red and puffy, and Blair hoped it was only because he was looking from a distance that they also seemed so empty.

He sunk into the passenger’s side so much as the rigid bucket seats would allow. Even Wren got behind the wheel with less grace than usual.

“Let’s go back to your place,” Wren said, starting the car.

Blair put his hand on the console. “Sure, why mine?”

Wren took it, as sweaty and filthy as it was, his fingers cold between Blair’s. He made an odd sound that was something like a laugh. “There’s a lot of lines on the road.”

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