Page 76 of Lavender and Lightning

Both of our heads whip around, and I suck in a breath. Lucas’s stormy blue-gray eyes are dark, his brow a dangerous line above them. He’s angry, angrier than I’ve ever seen before. He stares Rhett down, a silent battle of wills.

“Our omega is begging us to listen, and you, all of you, are refusing to do so. We don’t know these people like she does, and if she’s saying that it’s too risky to try to call the bluff, we have to trust her,” he says, each word sharp and pointed.

I swallow, my lips trembling even as they pull up into a grateful smile. Lucas looks at me, almost through me, and I shiver.

Lex lets out a long, heavy exhale. Lucas and I both look at her, and I’m caught off-guard by the conflict in her eyes.

“If your mother is intercepting our communications with Jason, we’ll have no way to warn him, to come up with a plan,” she starts, shaking her head.

My heart soars as my mind fully comprehends the meaning of her words.

“We can use that to our advantage. Lay a false trail, toss in red herrings,” Mateo adds, bobbing his head as his eyes swirl with thought.

I look back to Rhett, and my heart flips. The violence is still in his eyes, undimmed by everyone else’s shift to my side.

“I know it’ll be risky–”

“Risky? That’s a wee bit of an understatement, love,” Rhett returns harshly, his accent making his words nearly unintelligible.

I flinch back before I can contain the reaction, tucking my chin and closing my eyes.

“If you don’t agree, you don’t have to go. I can take Mateo–”

“If you think I’m going to let you go near that cunt without me, you’ve lost your bleeding mind!”

Rhett’s shout makes my eyes go wide, and my jaw falls open. There’s a wildness to his face, a near feral gleam to his eyes that sends up instinctual alarms. I push back from the table, starting toward the basement door.

“Lydia–”

I stop and look back at the sound of Lex’s voice. I simply shake my head and continue down to my nest. The whiskey and leather scent that lingers there brings a fresh wave of tears to my eyes. I pick up a velvet soft, threadbare t-shirt, taking it with me as I burrow under several layers of blankets. The ticking of the clock on the wall fills the air, and I sync my breathing to it, letting my mind drift away from my body, using the scent of campfires and graham crackers to calm me.

A sudden knock at my door drags me out of my trance, and I’m not sure if two minutes or two hours have passed.

“Lydia, please open the door. It’s urgent,” Lex calls through the wood.

My brow furrows, and I rise on shaky legs. When I open the door, the colorless expression of horror is the last thing I expect to see.

“Lydia, I-I’m so sorry. Wila’s… someone set fire to Wila’s.”

thirty-two

Lydia

SomeonesetfiretoWila’s.

The words echo in my head over and over as I sit in the passenger seat of Lex’s car. She’s tearing through the streets of Everton with Mateo, Rhett, and Lucas behind us, all of us dropping everything to head to Old Town. Everything since that moment has felt muffled, like I’m under a thick wool blanket, trying to listen to a conversation happening underwater. It’s like I blink and we’re suddenly turning the corner onto State Street, where the world erupts in lights and sirens and noise.

My heart slams against my ribs as the red and blue lights flash across my vision, and I have to shake my hands out as the sweat forms on my palms, too close to the feeling of blood as I’m thrown back to the night of my accident. But the orange glow that fills the air, along with the smell of ash and smoke, helps to chase away the memories.

We’re forced to a stop several blocks away from Wila’s, as police cars and firetrucks, and wooden barricades block the road. We pull off to park haphazardly in a spot, and I’m out of the car before Lex even has it fully in park. A small crowd of people has gathered along a wood barricade, but I push through until I’m at the front, looking down at the blocks of chaos in front of me. I try to sort through all the scents hitting me, but I can’t get past the smoke in the air to find caramel candy apple or freshly turned earth.

“Gran! Gabby!” I scream, straining onto my tiptoes to try to find them.

“Ma’am, please stay back—”

“My best friend and grandmother live in one of those buildings. Where are they?” I demand, turning on a firefighter that has stepped up to try to keep me back.

“I don’t know. But it’s not safe—”

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