Page 6 of Bound By Ruin

All four of us turn to look at the curtain. We can hear the medical team working just beyond, steadfast and determined to treat Ruin’s injuries. I have no idea of the extent of his injuries, but one slow survey of the room quickly proves that it’s not just Ruin I have to worry about, it’s all of the brothers. They may seem okay on the surface, but not all wounds are visible to the naked eye.

Some run deep, aching in the marrow of our memories and clawing at our souls. When I look at each man in the room, I can catch glimpses of that pain in the tight set of their shoulders, the dull haze clouding their once-bright eyes, the shake of their shallow breaths. They may want to charge ahead to rip their father’s life up from the root and throw it into the fire, but they’ll be running from one problem directly into the next. Because as much as my men may never want to admit it, they aren’t invulnerable.

They’re human.

Seeing the damage their father can still wreck on their lives might be a reminder they never wanted… and one I never knew they needed.

Chapter3

Rebel

By the timethe doctors are finished treating my brother, hours have passed, and I’m ready for a polar dip in the ocean and a long, cold slumber beneath the waves. Not permanently—but long enough to numb the thoughts running through my head. It’s not my body that hurts—it’s my heart.

I should have pulled Ruin out of the building before he ever had a chance to get hurt.

As Celia sits by Ruin’s bedside with his hand in hers, I watch the two of them together. The steady rise and fall of his chest. The way she gently folds herself over his lap, her eyes slipping closed even after she wills them open again. It won’t be long before she falls asleep, but it’ll be longer still before Ruin wakes up. I hope that he’s elated to find her lying beside him. I would be.

My fingers twitch with the need for a smoke. A joint. Hell, a hit of whatever shit they gave Ruin. But ever since I went on a bender and took a few too many pills, doctors don’t like to give me the good stuff. I’ve been left with some extra strength Tylenol and enough burn cream to lube up my entire body twice over, like that’ll be enough, but it’ll have to suffice.

Rage is giving me the side-eye, like he expects me to rummage through the locked cabinets in the back for something stronger.

To his credit, I might have a few years ago.

But back then, the point was to numb myself toeverything, and right now, I don’t want to miss a single second of time with Celia or Ruin. I just want to take the edge off so that I can get some sleep. We’re in for a long night in The Box, and it isn’t exactly what anyone would call comfortable.

Thanatos keeps pacing from one end of the building to the other, like he’s on edge, too. He keeps checking his cell phone like it’s some kind of lifeline, but I don’t know what he’s waiting for. News on Sara? Information about our father? A call from our boss Ezra to tell us how fucked we are?

I blow out a breath and fiddle with the cotton blanket in my lap. My burns already hurt, but the pain will double within the next few hours, and I desperately want to be knocked out when they do.

Ruin’s going to be in so much pain when he wakes up. I can hear him screaming in my head, the same way he did all those years ago after the first fire. He was only twelve then, but I’m sure he remembers every cursed moment during the blaze and all the seconds of agony soon after. I know that I do.

Especially after pulling him out of an inferno for a second time.

Rage leans against a desk and crosses his arms over his chest. “You good?” he asks, leveling me with one of thoseolder brotherlooks that means I shouldn’t bullshit him. He ran into the fire after me and Ruin, receiving the least amount of damage from the blaze, but he’s chugging water like his life depends on it. I’m sure he doesn’t like the reminder of our past any more than Ruin and I do.

“Thanks for showing up,” I tell him. “I mean it. I couldn’t have lifted that beam without you.” I tried. I even threw all my rings to the floor before wrapping some fabric around the wooden beam and lifting as hard as I could, using every muscle in my body the best I knew how, but it wasn’t enough. I wasn’t strong enough to pull my brother out from underneath it before Rage arrived.

We could have both died in there tonight.

Man,I need a fucking cigarette.

I tap my fingertips against my thigh. “I should have noticed all the gasoline on the floor sooner. I should have gone in there after him the second he tried to run ahead. But I just—” I clench the blanket in my fists. “I didn’t want Celia to go in there.” Pinching my bottom lip between my teeth, I try to roll my tongue over my snakebite, but the piercing is missing. I had to take it out shortly after we arrived to The Box. Sighing, I run a hand through my hair, grimacing at how goddamncrunchyit is. “I smell like shit,” I groan, flopping down on the mattress.

All burnt flesh and sour regret.

Guilt curls on my tongue, and I spit onto the ground. “Fucking hell, man. I can’t believe this shit.”

“It’s not your fault.” Rage uncrosses his ankles and comes to sit on the bed next to me. There are two dozen of them lined up into two tight rows in the back of the warehouse, none of them comfy, all of them having seen at least one death in their lifetime. Rage is completely unbothered by this, and I know I should be, too. But I look up at Ruin, hooked up to all of those monitors and tubes, and I can’t help but wonder if he’ll be another name scratched from the Reaper’s list of souls to take.

It’s unsettling, and I’m not fucking handling it well.

My stomach churns and bile rises to the back of my throat, hot and disgusting. I jump up from the bed and bend over a nearby trash can, choking on saliva and what little remains of my dinner. Fuckingnasty.

Rage hands me a water bottle as I slip back onto my bed. We stare at Celia and Ruin, both of them unconscious now, as I sip the cool liquid. “It’s not fair, y’know?” I peel the label off the bottle and drop it onto the floor. “We’ve already been through this bullshit once, and now she has to go through it, too.”

“It’s better this time,” Rage muses, his gaze fixed on the couple in front of us. “Don’t you think?”

I crinkle my nose. “There’s not abetter.There justis.And what this is, is bullshit.”

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