Page 6 of We Will Rise

The emotional turmoil seemed to be enough to take Camilla out, but the rest of us are wide awake grappling with the reality of the situation we’ve found ourselves in.

“What are our next steps?” Kaos asks, breaking the silence we descended into an hour ago.

“We find whoever tampered with Kovu’s car and find out who orchestrated this,” Crew replies, his face still buried in Camilla’s hair.

“But we already know who did it,” Kaos snaps, and I shoot him a glare.

“Keep your voice down, she needs the rest,” I snap.

His eyes flick to Camilla before some of the tension melts from his shoulders.

“We don’t know that for sure.” Crew sighs. “Of course that is the most likely answer, but we can’t rule out any other threats right now. We need to know if this was Caleb, Charles, or someone else looking to take us out while they think we’re weak.”

I press my eyes closed for a moment as my stomach rolls uncomfortably. There are any number of people who would want to see us fall, and what better way than to kill one of us?

“Elias is running point on getting our allies together and finding whoever tampered with the car, but until then, we need to stick together. The only way we’re making it through this is together.”

Except we’re not whole anymore. We’re missing an integral part of our family.

Kovu may have thought he was just a psycho, but he was my brother. He and Kaos were the best friends I ever had, and from the day he walked into our shitty one-bedroom apartment, terrified and covered in his parents blood, he was one of us.

How are we meant to go on without him?

Crew’s phone vibrates on the bedside table, and for a moment I think he’s going to ignore it, but that’s not in his nature. He reaches for it but never pries his body from Camilla, as if he’s using her to ground him the same way I am.

He reads the message before tapping out a quick response with one hand and dropping the phone to the mattress behind him.

“Wyatt found the guy. They’re going to pick him up and bring him to the basement for us to question.”

“I can’t fucking wait to tear this asshole apart,” Kaos rumbles.

I allow my eyes to drift closed and drop a kiss to Camilla’s forehead.

I don’t need to be able to see the future to know it’s going to be a long few days, we may as well get some rest while we can.

CHAPTER FOUR

CAMILLA

Their warmth is almost impossible to drag myself away from, but I can’t just lay here.

Not when Kovu’s dead.

Not when his killer is sitting in the basement.

Not when we’re on the cusp of a war none of us ever asked for.

I expect at least one of them to wake up as I slip out from between them, but not even Kaos moves as I pry my legs from his vise-like grip and shimmy down the mattress beside him.

With one final look, I quietly move from the room, heading for the stairs that lead back to the level my bedroom is on. As much as I would like to remain in just Kovu’s shirt, with only his scent engulfing me, I can’t do what I need to do without at least some pants.

My bedroom seems even more empty than usual, and I realize it’s because I rarely spend time in here without Kovu. From the moment I woke up in this bed, he was like a security blanket I didn’t know I needed. A security blanket with a penance for knives and blood, but a security blanket nonetheless.

Emotion bubbles in my chest, but I force it down as I move through the motions of tugging on a pair of black jeans and tucking the front of Kovu’s shirt into the waistband. I should probably put a bra on too, but I can’t bring myself to take off his clothes, even for a moment.

I tie my hair back in a messy knot before slipping on a pair of black Converse, avoiding the mirror at all costs.

I don’t need to know how terrible I look right now, but at least Bishop wiped my makeup away with a warm cloth before I fell asleep.

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