Page 91 of The Syndicater (Dark Verse 6)

Her words fell on Tristan like bullets, knocking him back physically as he slumped on the couch; Morana's hand came on his arm, and his eyes remained on his sister, standing in the center like a vengeful goddess owning her truth.

Luna looked around at all of them slowly, seeing all eyes on her, and turned to face him again. "Or do you want me to explain how I saw you all at a club one night? How I served you drinks and notoneof you even saw me, except maybe Amara? Or why I remember that vividly because I was so envious of what you all had? It was right before I went to my room and tried to kill myself. I almost succeeded too."

Amara gasped, her hands flying to her mouth as the memory apparently hit her. The only club he'd been to in years had been the one in Gladestone, and he hadn't even looked aroundat anything. And she'd been there,right there,right before she wanted to kill herself.

His eyes began to burn as tears streaked freely down her face.

She lost some of her fire, her body deflating as she saw the emotions in his eyes.

"I was broken, brother," she told him softly. "Too broken to even breathe.Heresusciated me.Hesaved me that night, so many nights I've lost count at this point.Hegave me a home, such a beautiful home I would love to see you all visit.Hegave me his name and everything he had, andhegave me all of you. I'm not lying when I tell you, the only reason you're even looking at me breathing is becausehemade me, even forced me to keep breathing against my will when all I wanted was todie.Hewouldn't let me. You found me becausehewanted you to."

Morana inhaled sharply at his side, and Luna nodded. "Yes, Morana.Hefoundyoubecausehewas looking formypast. He doesn't give a shit about anything else, no offense. Everything he has done foryearshas beenfor me." She pointed at herself. "And if he'd wanted, you never would have found me. I would have lived without knowing my past, and so would you."

There was silence for a long moment after her tirade, silence so heavy it felt suffocating to him. His lungs felt rigid, like they couldn't draw oxygen, as his brain processed everything he had heard. He would have taken ten years of torture if it would've spared her. He still would.

"Then why did he tell us? Tell you?" Morana asked from his side as he sat there stumped, emotions mixing inside him so intensely he couldn't tell which was which.

A soft, breathtaking smile came over her face. "Because he loves me."

The Shadow Man loved his sister. His brain couldn't compute.

"Because I told him that love was selfless and giving meyouis the most selfless thing he could have done to show me that."

"So, he's a good guy?" Dante voiced.

His sister chuckled, the sound dry. "Oh no. He couldn't be who he is if he was. He's the monster monsters fear, the devil of his own kingdom. But he'smydevil. And only good to me, now to you, because I asked him to be."

His sister truly loved the guy. He could see it in the way she talked about him, in the way she became confident when he was mentioned. The idea of what her life had been and how he had saved her made gratitude fill his heart, but there was fury there too, fury that the fucker had known but never led them to her sooner. He could have found her sooner, saved her sooner, helped her sooner.

"He was hunting Hector for you." Alpha's quiet rumble from the side made Luna turn to him. Tristan suddenly remembered what Alpha had told them, that Hector had broken something of the Shadow Man's.

His eyes flew to his sister. Had it been her? Had Hector broken her and driven her to the point she'd wanted to die?

His heart cracked open.

"Yes," she confirmed. "Andheserved Hector to me on a platter. He hunted him and strung him up and gave me power for the first time in my life."

She gave a look around, took a breath, and admitted. "I killed Hector. I burned him alive andIt. Felt. Good."

This petite girl who was all things soft and gentle, his sister he had somehow idolized in his head? A killer? A vengeful murderer?

Zephyr gasped, her eyes red from crying throughout. "He murdered my sister."

"I know," Luna swallowed. "I'm the friend she left behind. I helped her escape and got punished for it." She turned to the others, who watched her in the same stunned silence. "Hector broke me, and…he,Shadow Man,broke Hector for me. When Igot to him, he was hanging to his life. And it felt good to take that from him."

His fists were shaking, Morana's hands trying to keep them steady. Nothing could keep him steady now. His insides had been carved open, pulled out, and left scattered. He didn't know how he was going to assimilate, to put it all back in and hold himself together again. It wasn't just the pain and the fury for everything she had suffered and kept from them; it was also a sense of loss for the girl he had hoped she would be, the girl he had unknowingly made up in his mind for years.

"So he knew who you were, who we were, and he never told you before?" Dante questioned, his tone telling Tristan he was shaken to the core as well. "Why?"

Luna turned to Dante, speaking plainly. "Because I didn't want to live. And he knew that. He could have told me, but looking back, I don't think I would have survived, even with all of you. Even now, when I'm in a much better place, I feel isolated in the group, like I don't belong, and it takes me time to tell myself it's all in my head. I never knew love, never believed in it, never felt I was worthy of it. It took me so much time to understand that I do deserve it, and more time to accept it. If I'd come to you the way I'd been, I think I would have killed myself. Andheknew that because he knows me better than anyone."

His sister suddenly crouched down before him, her hands coming to his knees, her gaze liquid and turned up to him.

"You are the best brother I could have dreamed of," she stated, breaking and fusing pieces of his heart together even more. "There were days I wished for nothing but an older brother somewhere, one who would love and protect me, even knowing I might never have it. That was the first thing I thought about when I found out about you. My silly little dreams as a child. It was like my wish had been granted."

She took a hold of his hands, and it struck him how their position—her on her knees holding his hand and looking up at him— was the reverse of their position when he'd found her. They had been crying then too.

"You are my wish granted, Tristan," she kept on. "Through you, I feel like I have a family now, friends, people who would care if I lived or died. I can accept your love now because I can accept my own."

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