Page 74 of Unraveling Connections

My blood runs cold.

“Fuck,” Atlas and I curse at the same time.

“My thoughts exactly, I’m going to push harder for a meeting, we need to end this sooner rather than later, he cannot get his hands on Shadow,” Liam replies.

It doesn’t escape my notice that not only does he say, we, as if he is fully invested now, but also that he doesn’t say Ever or even her; he doesn’t give any hint about Ever’s identity. Which tells me he is not entirely sure that he is not being listened to.

“Got it,” Atlas replies, “I will let the others know. You fill in Alaric, get that meeting, we can use that to get to him.”

“Will do,” Liam says, which surprises me because there was a time when there was no way that he would take an order from Atlas.

It has clearly caught Atlas by surprise as well because he hesitates before replying, “Great.”

“Wait, before you hang up,” Liam says, and Atlas and I share a look.

“What?” Atlas asks again, impatience in his tone.

“Amelia’s funeral is next week,” Liam starts, and my eyebrows rise, “I just wanted to let Ever know in case she wanted to go.”

I'm not sure how Ever’s going to feel about that.

“We’ll tell her,” Atlas replies.

“I’ll text you the details,” Liam adds.

“Fine,” Atlas promptly hangs up, clearly having had enough of talking to his father.

“Well, fuck,” I say.

“Summed it up perfectly, brother,” Atlas smirks, “let’s finish checking this and get the horses in and then we can go and fill in the others.”

“Good plan.” I say as I continue to look over the generator, “I think I’m going to need to head into town, this part here islooking a bit worn, it’s got some life left in it but if we’ve got bad weather heading our way, I’d rather not risk it.”

Atlas nods, “Alright, let's go and get the horses. We can head into town this afternoon?”

“Yeah, sounds good,” I reply.

Trick

We have checked everything that could possibly need checking. Rafe’s made a list of things that we could need if the power goes out or if we run out of heat or get stuck up here. We do have a generator which seems to be working perfectly, so if the power goes out, we have at least got a backup. We would all rather be over-prepared though, just in case for some reason, the generator packs in too.

The exterior of the cabin looks good and thankfully nothing looks like it needs repairing.

“Right, I’m going to head into town this afternoon to grab all of this stuff, but first lunch,” Rafe says.

“Thank god I’m starving,” Riot agrees.

“I think I’m wasting away,” Luc smirks, being overly dramatic.

“Me too,” Pete adds with a smile. “Do you need a hand?”

Rafe nods, “Yeah, that would be great.”

Before they walk off, I say, “Pete, I need to check in with Elijah and the guys and see how they are getting on. Do you want to join the conversation?”

Pete smiles and shakes his head, “No, it’s okay. I spoke to him last night. He is managing to stay in contact quite regularly, and I don’t want to get in the way of the debriefing.”

“You just want first dibs on the food,” Luc grins.

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