Page 24 of Devour the Dark

But no, if she’s speaking to Roc, if she has some semblance of form within his monster, then she is not dead. It’s not just her power harming Roc, she is as well.

“Why does she want you to return?”

“I don’t know.” He starts across the beach. The kitten meows at him and falls in line at his heel. “She showed me my childhood home and told me to return. I refused her. With the Remaldi line mostly gone, Darkland succession is likely in chaos and I…” He trails off and stops where the beach meets the road.

“You what?”

“It wouldn’t be a good time for me to return.”

“Why?”

The kitten sits back on its hind legs and paws at his trousers. He bends down to scoop it up and sets it on his shoulder like a parrot. “I guess we’re keeping the kitten.”

I scowl. “We are not keeping the kitten.”

“How could you possibly turn away such an adorable creature?”

“Cats are beasts.”

He flashes his teeth at me. “And? We both know you love beasts.”

“They have claws. Claws ruin things.”

Roc turns to it, its face just inches from his. “He’ll come around,” he tells the cat and starts up the hill.

“Roc.”

He keeps walking.

“There are no cats allowed on my ship!”

But the cat remains a fixture on his shoulder as he continues up the street, and I’m not sure I have the energy to fight him.

“Bloody hell,” I mutter. I guess we have a fucking cat.

CHAPTER NINE

VANE

There is carnage everywhere.It immediately takes me back to Darkland when Roc and I both embraced our beasts. We were always ready to devour. Anything and anyone who stood in our way. Back then we had nothing to lose. And we sure as fuck weren’t concerned with the consequences.

Now I have things to protect. Now I have a life I actually like.

I round the corner of the wood shop and come face to face with my brother.

This, too, is a distant reminder of what we were together.

His clothing is torn. His face is bloody. But he’s on his feet, conscious. Another indication that whatever is going on with him, it’s not right. Usually after a devouring, we’re out for hours, sometimes days. He shouldn’t be coherent.

Hook stands beside him, his body tight, ready to fight me.

And there’s an orange kitten on Roc’s shoulder meowing loudly at me.

“Brother,” Roc says.

There are a dozen things I want to say to him. Words I’ve never had the strength to give oxygen to.

He’s come and gone on Neverland since I left our island, but we’ve never been as close as we were when we ruled the Darkland Umbrage. Before Lainey.

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