Page 45 of Tethered Souls
My skin itches and crawls, feeling too tight across my bones, but I don’t shift to relieve the building pressure. I don’t give him anything at all to pick up on, don’t want him to know I’m looking for a traitor in our own godsdamn family. He might not hate me now, but I do not trust he will side with me if whoever it is forces them all to choose.
“You’ll stay away from Mother too. I don’t want you two scheming,” I say.
And there is that anger again, but there’s also a flash of relief. He doesn’t want to be around her, and I suddenly realize he hasn’t been home for nearly a month. That isn’t unusual for Talon; he often works late and sleeps here or at one of our other warehouses, a suite of rooms upstairs for him, but the look in his eyes says that, this time, it’s more than that.
I backtrack dates, and my shoulders stiffen, as does my spine. Father’s birthday was last month. The anniversary of his death was the one before that. And Talon always was a daddy’s boy.
He was devastated the first time our father walked out. His grades dropped. His motivation to do anything died. He barely ate, barely slept. He didn’t speak a word for months. Mother pushed him into counseling, and he gradually got better.
But then Father came back, getting up his hopes, only to destroy them again just as fast. This time, it wasn’t grief that came. It was rage. When he hit his ascension, electrical fires started popping up all around town. When one of those fires had the body of another kid in it, some runaway girl who had snuck into the abandoned building, I started giving him jobs in the Family business. He needed an outlet, and at eighteen, I had no idea how the fuck to parent him.
It was a good call though – blind fucking luck that I take no credit for. By the time he was sixteen, he was damn near back to being a model citizen. Back in school. Excelling at math and economics. He even came over to Mother’s side, finally understanding that she’d kept this family together when he walked out. So whatever beef Talon now has with her, I know it will pass.
My eyes dip to the helfire still in my hands, that train of thought leading to somewhere dangerous. Phantom screams of Father’s disgust soon knock round my head. Smashed bottles. Thrown chairs. Cocked guns pointed at his own temple. Then comes the sound of crying. All my brothers other than Khalid and Enoch did it openly. Our mother and Enoch did it behind closed doors. But I heard them all, my senses sharp since both. And now here’s the guilt that I tore our parents apart. Tore everyone apart.
Looking up at my brother, I ask, “Do you blame me for Father leaving?”
Talon’s mouth drops open as he rears back, his green eyes wide. Silence descends with a heavy fist, but then he shakes his head.
“No. No, of course not.” His face twists both in pain and anger. He runs his hand through his hair as he ducks his head. Then he sighs, the alcohol loosening his tongue, and he looks at me, his eyes strained. “I blameher.Father had his faults, but to have hated her so much he killed himself?” He shakes his head. “What did she do to him? His birthday was last month, and that’s all I can fucking think about.”
The glass feeling heavy in my hand, I’m almost tempted to knock it back. But I want my head clear enough to drive home.
Back to Micha so I can work out my growing restlessness between her legs.
But before I go, I have one more question… One more thought that’s been bugging me for over a year, pulled out of the shadows of my subconscious by the suspicion in my brother’s eyes. Or perhaps by the burning of the helfire.
“You think she deserved the curse?” I ask softly.
His jaw works. The vein at his temple ticks.
Then he says, “Don’t you?”
Fourteen
HIM
My talk with Talon has left me restless and wanting to fuck Micha until I can’t think, but when I get home, she’s out. Mother’s car is gone from the drive. They’re most likely shopping for the engagement party, Micha’s clothes not fit for her new station, but this is the first time she hasn’t been here when I want her.
Grabbing the bag of goods I purchased on the way home, I step out of the car. When I enter the house, I can hear two of my brothers shouting in the living room, but there’s a sense of emptiness to the place I do not like. My skin itches, becoming too tight across my bones. The restlessness builds. Like a fucking addiction only she can soothe.
It’s just the fucking alcohol,I tell myself even as I dig out my phone and shoot a text to Mother.
Varius:Bring her back.
Shoving the mobile back into my pants pocket, I enter the living room. In the room adjacent, Enoch and Ezriel sit across side by side at the table, their laptops open, a video game flashing on their screens. Irritation, anger, and stress seep from their pores – all markers of an attack. If they’re the traitors and I’m alone with them, I’m as good as dead.
But neither of them so much as turn around to look at me. They’re screaming at each other way too much to even notice I’ve come home.
“I told you to buy wards!” Ezriel shouts, clicking madly on his mouse.
“And I toldyouto stop face-checking bushes and to keep an eye on the fucking map. You can see where everyone is, dipshit; you shouldn’t be getting ganked.”
“That’s your job! Oh my gods, you are theworstsupport ever.”
“You want to see me be a bad support?”
“Go ahead! I won’t notice a fucking difference!”
