Page 122 of Snake

Vicky keeps shaking her head, her eyes growing larger and larger. Eventually she lets out a tight, “No! Knox, no. It wasn’t...that’s not...”

She trails off with a sigh, looking away. I’m waiting for her to stand and say she’s going to bed, that the day’s festivities have exhausted her or some other polite bullshit, because she never could give me the whole of the answer.

No wonder Nim and I were so starved for truth. We’ve only ever been fed tidbits our entire lives.

“Lorenzo was...enchanted with you.” She whispers this, like it’s a cardinal sin to say his name. “He always had a problem with obsession. Me, my sister. You.” Her hard face softens a little. “But Bianca was too young to carry you to full term. She went into premature labor. The doctors don’t know how you survived, only that you did. My parents paid them off, had Lorenzo believe that she’d miscarried.”

I watch her, impatient but reluctant at the same time.

“Bianca didn’t make it. Too much bleeding, too much trauma. We thought...we hoped that Lorenzo would leave our family alone after that. But then he turned his attention to me. I became his next target. And when he found out about Nim, about how desperate our group was to keep her secret, he used it against me.”

“How did no one know about me?” I shake my head, eyes narrowing. “You might have paid off the doctors, but come on, I was a kid. Did your family lock me in the fucking basement or something?”

Vicky scans my face. “You don’t remember?”

“Remember what?”

“The foster home?”

I shake my head. “If I did, don’t you think I’d have had questions by now?”

She looks away, her cheeks coloring faintly. “No, of course not.” Then she looks at Jet, and as if he senses her eyes on him, he turns to us. A puff of his cigar clouds his face, clearing a moment later when another chill breeze chases through the air. “That’s one of the reasons I agreed to marry Lorenzo.” She puts a hand on Jet’s leg. “He was so kind to me. He helped me put you in a foster home until I was done with college. But Lorenzo found out about you too, eventually.”

Her hand slides off Jet’s leg, and instead she grabs my wrist, pulling one hand off my tumbler so she can wrap hers around it. “I know I should have told you sooner, but everything would have unraveled if I’d tried. Pieces of your past were woven in with Nim’s, and I’d sworn an oath to the Harts and the Furinos that I would never break their trust.” She searches my face. “You understand, don’t you?”

Of course I do, but I’m still too raw to forgive her. I pull away my hand, standing. “It’s late,” I say to no one in particular. “And we have an early start in the morning.”

Mason yawns dramatically, earning an eye roll from Silas. Nim has her head on Bennett’s shoulder, her eyelashes fluttering at the sudden commotion.

Not a moment too soon, I guess.

“There are guest beds set up for you just down the hall,” Jet says. “Nim, I hope you don’t mind bunking with Romi.”

I turn away from Hart before he can see the curl on my lips.

Yeah, anyone coming to check on Nim in the morning will find her in Romi’s room...but she’s not going to be sleeping there tonight.

I don’t think we’ll let our girl out of our sight for a single night again.

She said she’s staying, that she’s made up her mind to live in Cinderhart...but who’s to say she won’t wake up feeling different?

Only one thing for us to do then, isn’t there?

We have to make sure that she wakes up with us every morning. So if she does have any nagging concerns, we can sort them out for her straight away.

Nim Winters—Nim Hart—belongs to us now.

It’ll just be a lot better for everyone involved if they learn to accept that fact.

And sooner, rather than later.

Because Nim isn’t the outsider I always made her out to be. She’s one of us. Jet can go on about paperwork and “making it official”, but we made it official the day she walked into Cinderhart Academy and Mason threw her over his shoulder.

Nim isn’t a stranger.

She’s the heart of this town. She brings light to its dark, corrupted depths.

Nim Winters is no more. The Serpents are no more. We dissolved, and became something much better.

We’re her guardians, her lovers, her soul mates.

Nim Hart is our everything. Now, and forever.

Now until forever.

---