Page 37 of Twisted Empire

“It won’t work, Doll,” Elias muttered, pulling on my jacket hood. “Come on, we have to go.”

“Wait,” I said, catching a glimpse of something on Henry’s right arm. Black ink. “Look.”

“What?”

“He’s written something on his arm. What if it’s a note for us?”

Elias crouched down next to me and gingerly peeled back Henry’s gray shirt sleeve. “Tea, hummus, eggs, avocado, rhubarb, kale,” he read out. He sighed heavily. “It’s just a grocery list. He was probably planning on stopping by the store at some point today.”

My shoulders slumped with defeat. “Oh.”

“Come on. We gotta go.”

We headed back up to the van. Elias made the 911 call and ditched the phone on the edge of the road. We drove away in a morose silence, heading north along the coastal drive, and I sat as still as a statue, staring out the window.

“He didn’t even know me,” I finally said in a broken whisper. “But he still tried to help. I got him killed.”

Elias stopped on the edge of the road, tires squealing in the dust at the abrupt maneuver. Then he reached over and grabbed my shoulders. “Look at me.”

I refused to meet his eyes. Guilt and shame were shredding me from the inside out, pain flowing from my every pore.

“Come on, look at me.” Elias gently shook me. “You didn’t do this, baby girl. It’s not your fault.”

“Yes, it is,” I insisted, meeting his hard gaze for a split-second. “All of this is my fault. You’ve lost everything trying to save me, and you even had to kill a guy in the woods for me. Now this. Henry is dead, and it’s all because of me.”

“You have to stop blaming yourself for everything. We both do,” Elias said, fingers interlacing with mine as he grabbed my hands and squeezed them tight. “This is the society’s fault. They did this. Not us. And if you think for one second that I would’ve left you behind to die, just so I could keep living my usual life, then you don’t know how much I fucking care about you. I told you, I’d do anything for you.”

“I know. I just… I feel so fucking horrible. So guilty,” I choked out, eyes brimming over. “I even feel bad for crying, because Henry was yourfriend.”

“Don’t feel bad for being emotional, Doll,” Elias said, gently rubbing one thumb across my cheek to wipe away the tears. “Like you said, he was trying to help us, and he died because of it. Of course you’re gonna feel like shit. We both will for a long time.”

I swallowed hard. “I don’t even know anything about him, apart from what happened when he left the society. I don’t know his birthday. His favorite color. His favorite food. I don’t even know how old he was.”

“He was twenty-seven, and his birthday was February the fourteenth,” Elias said softly. “We used to give him a ton of shit for it, because that’s Valentine’s Day. I’m pretty sure his favorite color was dark blue, considering what he wore most often, and his favorite food was cheese and bacon pizza. He practically lived off that shit.”

“When did you last see him?” My eyes snapped up to look at Elias properly for the first time since we left the beach.

“About two years ago. I’d just finished my undergrad course at Roden. Henry was starting to act weird, and he basically stopped talking to anyone. We all thought he was just being a dick, but then we found out he’d left Crown and Dagger after making it to the third level. We thought he left because he didn’t want anything to do with our world anymore. It felt like…” He paused midsentence and frowned.

“A betrayal?”

He nodded curtly. “Yeah. That’s it. Like he thought he was above us, or something. So we didn’t bother trying with him anymore.” He sighed deeply. “He must’ve been so fucking lonely, going through all that by himself.”

“He was obviously a good friend, though,” I said, wiping my cheeks again. “After all that time, he was still going to help you. Help us.”

“I know.” Elias steeled his jaw. “From now on, this isn’t just about us. When we take down the society, it’ll be for him, too.”

I nodded. “We’ll make sure everyone knows what really happened to him. He deserves that much,” I added.

For a while, we sat in silence again, lost in our thoughts.

Elias finally started the van again. “There’s a town about five miles from here,” he said. “They have a drive-through café that’s open twenty-four hours. I think we both need a hot drink.”

“Is that safe?”

He nodded. “We’re both disguised. Besides, I doubt some random café waitress would be secretly working for the society.”

Ten minutes later, we pulled up to the colorful café’s drive-through window. Elias glanced at me. “Coffee?”

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