Page 54 of Secrets and Ruin

Eventually, we reached a decent tree to climb that gave us a view of the shack’s door. It wasn’t my first choice, but Landon’s logic was sound. If Fenris thought to check the trees, he would check the easiest to climb first. We would have time to react if that was the case.

Climbing as high as I felt comfortable, nearly twenty feet in the air, I could just barely see the shack through the leaves. Landon stopped underneath me but was still over fifteen feet up.

“I couldn’t smell him,” I whispered. “Dirk.”

“Could you smell our traitor?” Landon asked, now worried more so than he had been when we found the clearing. “It was really clear they had both been there. Niko snooped around the clearing a bit, but he was probably doing what we are right now.”

“I could smell Niko,” I said, frowning. “But neither werewolf.”

“Must be magic,” he said, his distaste for magic not hidden. “A cheap trick of our traitor given to him thanks to his…deal.”

“Yeah. Let’s just keep watch—”

“Will you tell me more about what you said to Dirk?” he asked before I could get the silence I would have preferred. There was something boyish to the way he asked, but I could smell his fury, which had moved into the background of his scent while we talked to Dirk about getting him out. “While we have the chance?”

I was reluctant to say anything. Since the night Dirk became a werewolf, he and I had been treading the fine line of our freedom and keeping family secrets. I had been doing it for longer, but that night had been the closest we had come to exposing something weknewwould get people hurt. Landon had been smart that night. He’d asked but had heard my warning and never pried after that. He knew what secrets could do and respected that.

Dirk had forced my hand tonight. I was the only person who could ever know that story. No fae could replicate it without going through my memories, and it seemed very far-fetched they would go through all that trouble to capture or consume Niko’s son.

Even though Landon now knew what Hasan had said to Dirk as a boy, I had been careful not to say it was Hasan’s Talent to smell it on a person. That way, Landon knew but couldn’tknow.

And I can’t break that line of defense right now. Not here, with so many predators hiding in the shadows.

“When we’re safe,” I said, knowing there would be no getting Landon off it now. He knew Hasan had hurt Dirk and would never forget that. Eventually, he would need the entire truth, and it was better if I handled it over Landon simmering in fury until Dirk revealed it. That way Dirk couldn’t be implicated in its reveal, and no one could claim Landon used his relationship with Dirk to convince Dirk to tell him.

I had a snowball’s chance in hell of making Hasan see it that way if he ever discovered that his secret was known by someone outside the family, but I had to try.

I had to have hope, even when it all felt hopeless.

“Does Pa know?” Again, there was something boyish in the way Landon talked. Not the steel wall he normally presented, but instead a somewhat vulnerable, younger man.

“No.”

He didn’t respond. I looked down to see Landon was looking at the shack, his expression unreadable from my position. Finally noticing the chill in the air, I wrapped my jacket around me tighter.

The wait was quiet. I don’t know how long we sat in shared silence. I was able to calm down a bit, but with that calm came the real exhaustion of the long day. We had slept on the plane, but since then, we’d had a long drive and an even longer walk deep into the forest. I was struggling but didn’t want to miss our chance to get Dirk or let Fenris get the jump on us. Even worse, I knew sleeping where I was would only be asking for more trouble to find us. I forced myself to stay awake and alert because there was no other option. Even fighting it, knowing the stakes of our situation, my eyes threatened to drift closed.

A horn blew, shocking us both. I felt the tree rock as Landon caught himself before he was startled off his branch. I held the trunk, wondering who or what had decided to do that.

A moment later, I saw them. The couple was back, riding their horses through the trees and under us as they moved. They avoided trees, but the bushes and other undergrowth didn’t touch them as she raced a length ahead of him. They stopped in the clearing near the shack, almost out of sight, thanks to the thick trees.

Moving down slowly to see if I could find a better gap, I ended up on the same side of the tree as Landon, where he had a prime view.

The man said something in German, making the woman laugh. Her horse pranced around as though it was enjoying the night as she was. She stopped beside her husband and began to say something but was cut off by a third speaker in German.

I recognized the voice—Fenris but not. The accent didn’t seem unnatural when paired with German, but I recognized it.

He slowly came into view, walking up to the riders. He was different. His posture was more upright and proper, holding himself with pride and class even though he wore casual clothing that needed to be washed, the mud stains apparent from our hiding spot in the trees. He seemed unafraid of the riders, crossing his arms in annoyance as the husband said something.

I can’t believe Fenris. No, not Fenris. Rainer. That is Rainer Brandt, and I don’t know him.

I wished, darkly and full of regret, I’d had Dirk teach me German. He might have hated it, but it would have been nice.

Rainer dropped his arms, putting his hands on his hips as he listened to what the riders had to say.

When Rainer laughed, I began to shake. There was something terrible in it. It wasn’t Fenris. It wasn’t my wild, mad wolf who proved even the most traumatized of warriors could find a new life. This wasn’t the man who would say dirty jokes and laugh as everyone turned red. He wasn’t the man I’d fought beside.

The laugh was one of a man who had no love in his heart, no joy in his life, and no hope for his future or anyone else’s for that matter.

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