“No…” Sawyer began to collapse. “Henry…”
“You have other people who need you, Sawyer,” Jasper groaned desperately as he held her up. “Charlie and Liam. Jessie. Your other countless students that you saved. They need you. The team? They need you. Zander and I, we need you. You can’t stay here, Sawyer. You have to wake up.”
“Why?” Her voice broke. “Why can’t it just be over?”
“Because I’m not ready for it to be over,” he whispered into her ear. “Because I know you were once a dangerous assassin, and I’m not going to let that blind me to you. You have to wake up. It’s not over yet. Not for you. Not for any of us.”
She cried into his shoulder, and slammed a fist into his chest as the dream faded. He felt the tug of his own mind, calling him because he couldn’t stay in hers as she woke up.
He left her mind and reentered his own, blinking into the world of those who were alive and awake.
He couldn’t ignore his broken heart, though.
Who was Henry?
34
SAWYER
Sawyer gasped. Bright lights blinded her as she found herself in the very bed that Jasper had shown her. She stared at the ceiling, tears in her eyes.
Henry.
He was still dead and here she was, still alive.
“Sawyer?” Zander sounded mystified. She rolled her head towards his voice and found him at her bedside.
“Zander,” she whispered, her voice hoarse.
“Why are you crying?” he asked, reaching out to wipe a tear of her cheek.
“It doesn’t matter,” she sighed, leaning away from his touch. “So…”
“You’ve been asleep for four days,” Vincent told her from a seat at a small table across the room, “and we need to have a long discussion.”
She knew that. Not how long she’d been asleep, but that a talk was coming once she realized she wasn’t dead. She’d told him that she was Shadow the last time they spoke. Now it was time for her to deal with that decision.
“We need to know everything,” Zander whispered
She forced herself to sit up and meet her new reality.
“Then, I think a little field trip is in order,” she mumbled. “Where are we?”
“Atlanta,” Elijah answered her, and she nodded slowly.
“We won’t even have to leave the city,” she tried to say, her dry throat burning from the effort of all the talking she was doing.
“Right now?” Vincent frowned at her.
“It’s… important to the… information you want.” She couldn’t find a better way to phrase it.
“You still need time to heal,” Zander growled softly. “Just…”
“I’m fine,” she said, shaking her head. She turned and put her feet on the floor. She glared at the IVs she had in her arm and began pulling them out, causing several of the guys to give strangled and abrupt noises. Zander tried to stop her, but she swatted him away. “I’m not going to die with these out, am I?”
“No, but-”
“Then they are coming out,” she hissed weakly, yanking the last one from her arm. She looked down and groaned. A hospital gown. “Do I have anything to wear?”
“Yeah,” Elijah began shuffling around in bags near him and Vincent. When he couldn’t find what he wanted, he just dropped the bags on the bed next to her. “Somewhere in there.”
“Can I have the room?” she asked, standing up shakily. Four days of bedrest had made her legs stiff, but she could manage.
“Sadly, no,” Vincent mumbled, shaking his head.
She sighed and looked to her left wrist. They hadn’t put the bracelet back on her, so that was something.
She pushed Zander further away and pulled off the annoying hospital gown. She had underwear on, at least. No bra, but she figured it wasn’t something they would point out at that moment. Her mind was elsewhere as she searched for clothing.
She pulled on a simple pair of grey sweats, a sports bra, and a black tank top. That would have to work.
“Where are we going?” Jasper asked, still seated. She glanced at him as she found socks and tennis shoes.
Her eyes fell on his leg, and she felt her blood run a little cold. He must have noticed where she was looking because he shrugged.
“It happened during the fight,” he sighed. “After all of this, I’ll tell you more. It’s crutches for me for a little while.”
After this. She knew that after this was prison. That fact that he would visit her astounded her.
“Only because you wouldn’t use a wheelchair,” Elijah muttered, and Sawyer rolled her eyes.
“I could have told you he wouldn’t submit to a wheelchair,” she mumbled.
“You weren’t awake, little lady. Zander had to tell me.” Elijah eyed her, and she narrowed her eyes on him.
Guilt was bubbling up in her. Jasper was maimed because of her, because of what she was about to tell them.
“So, what happened while I was out?” She stretched slowly. “Tell me as I take you on this little field trip.”
“Will you try to run?” Vincent asked her, now waiting at the door.
“There’s no reason for me to run anymore. You know I’m Shadow. Now you need to know why, and I plan on telling you that.” She walked up to him and raised her chin a little to look him in the eye.
She wasn’t going to be a coward. She’d thrown her cards on the table, come what may. She was alive, and it was time to tell her story.
Her story. Midnight’s story. Henry’s story. They all had a little claim on it.
“Alright, where are we going?” Vincent pressed as she waited for him to let them all out of the hospital room.
“To a bank with a safety deposit box that you’ll find… interesting.” She lifted her shoulders in another shrug. “Georgia’s Own. I’ll need to have the box drilled open, though, since I purposefully lost the key a long time ago… I’m going to need to borrow some cash.”
“Borrow?” Elijah chuckled. “You don’t have any money, so you mean you just need some money.”
“I have money at y’alls house, cash I stashed before you pulled me out of New York,” she mumbled, waving her hand around to dismiss the topic.
“I’ll pay,” Vincent said before any of the guys could say anything. “We’ll take you.”
“Thank you,” she sighed.
They fell in around her as they walked silently out of the hospital. She was put into a Range Rover with a guy on each side of her. Quinn took the front seat while Vincent drove. Zander and Jasper flanked her, and she leaned back to get comfortable. This was so much different than the last ride she’d taken with them.
“Jon Aguirre betrayed us, hoping to catch Axel himself, using you as bait,” Vincent told her as they drove. “He killed himself when I confronted him.”
She rubbed her face at that piece of news, but Vincent wasn’t done with her.
“Three of his teammates were dead in the initial explosions. They had triggered the bombs and stood no chance. Two more passed away yesterday. One is still MIA. David Hamble.”
“He’s dead somewhere out there,” she groaned. She should have been surprised or shocked by the state of the other IMPO team, but she really wasn’t. She could relate, truthfully. She’d stood on the ledge in the aftermath of Axel’s cruelty and cunning more times than she could count. She just never jumped, the sole difference between her and Jon Aguirre. Not even Charlie could stop her from trying once or twice though, not until she stumbled on Liam and started that chapter of her life. “Missy was pretending to be him that day.”
“Missy?” Jasper frowned at her. She nodded slowly.
“I killed her in the hangar bay before you guys showed up. She is… she was a Doppler. I’m a little irked I didn’t realize it was her in the office.” She rubbed her forehead.
“As a Doppler, you’d never be able to tell, so I’m not sure why you’re beating yourself up over that,” Jasper whispered. She saw Quinn looking at he
r with interest. He had some fascination with the Legends, and with a Druid for a mother, she couldn’t blame him.
“Incorrect,” she said to Jasper. “A Doppler can completely mimic anyone, true, but they can’t remove their own disfigurements. Missy had a scar that ran from her left ear all the way down her neck. It was present in any form she took.”
“How do you know that?” Quinn was now frowning at her.
“Because I gave her the scar.” Sawyer chuckled bitterly. “She and I never liked each other… My relationship with Missy isn’t important to any of this, though. Either way, someday, you may find David’s body. If she took his place, then she definitely killed him to do so.”
“So, Jon got his entire team killed,” Vincent said with a bite. “After that… We have Axel, Talyn, and Toni in custody. Felix got away, and we recovered Colt’s body. We haven’t found Missy’s body, but they are still sifting through the wreckage of the building.”
“Well,” she took a deep breath, “what about me?”
“That depends on what we are about to learn,” Vincent said quietly.
No one said anything after that.
It took nearly an hour for the bank to break open her safety deposit box. She had paid for it ten years out when she bought it; and every year, she paid another ten years out so there had been no chance of them removing her things. She had a standing agreement with whoever was manager to allow her access at any time if she ever needed to get her things.
She had never expected to come back though.
They all stood in a tiny room while the manager brought in chairs for them. Vincent and Elijah set up a camera to record what she was about to tell them. They said it was so she didn’t need to repeat it to the WMC, but she wasn’t sure why it was important. She wasn’t going to try to escape her punishment.
She was tired. For the first time in Sawyer’s life, she was just tired—exhausted by carrying it around. She intended to pass these secrets and shadows, the nightmares she carried, onto the team and let them do with her what they would.
“You may begin,” Vincent whispered, taking a seat. She didn’t sit. She wanted to be on her feet for this.
“Don’t… don’t interrupt me once I get started,” she told them as she slowly opened the box. “I’m not sure… I’m not sure I’ll be able to keep going if you stop me. I’ve never told this story when I was sober or in good physical condition.”
“You’ve told it before?” Jasper frowned at her.
“Yes,” she whispered in the lowest voice she could muster. “Just once, and over a period of months. Never all at once like this.”
“Okay,” Vincent agreed, just as quiet as her.
“Wait,” Quinn growled, shuffling around. “I want to know something before this starts.”
She watched him place a picture on the table and her heart cracked a little more. She couldn’t take much more of this pain. Physical pain was easy, but the heart-wrenching emotional pain was going to slowly kill her. It festered in her soul.
“The boy’s name was Henry,” she choked out, “and the cat’s name was Midnight. And to tell you more about them, Quinn, you’ll need to hear the full story.”
“Okay.” Quinn nodded and leaned back, taking the picture with him. She resisted the urge to tell him to give it to Vincent. She was only able to do so because she knew Vincent would have no idea what that picture was about to mean to him.
35
SAWYER
“On June 10th, 2008,” Sawyer began with a whisper, “Zander and Jasper left for the IMAS. You might think that’s a weird starting point, but I see that day as the beginning of the end of my life. I was fifteen. On January 13th, 2009, my abilities manifested, and I was… the happiest person in the world. I had cool magic, and I thought I would one day rule the world in that stupid way teenagers always tend to think they will. Sixteen-year-olds tend to have a big head when they learn they can sublimate and blink and do all sorts of cool shit. On January 15th, the Reader came, did my official reading, and Registered me as a Magi. Little did I know that he was dirty.”
It happened. Readers could be bribed just like any other Magi. They were just Magi, and Magi were only human.
“On January 30th, I was adopted by the fucking old man who proceeded to pull me out of school and cut me off from any form of communication. As a minor, I knew escaping would only lead to being chased and caught. I figured I could suffer through it, turn eighteen, and go find you two.” She jerked her head towards Jasper and Zander. “That’s why I stopped replying to whatever letters you may have sent. I never got them.”
“It was March 5th, 2009 when I met Axel. My adopted parent was throwing a party. A dress was bought for me and I wore it. And Axel proceeded to sweep me off my feet. Oh, he promised me the world, and I ate it up, already falling prey to the loneliness of being cut off from the world I had known. It had all been a set-up. I was adopted and being recruited, but I didn’t know that at the time. I was sixteen, and this gorgeous man wanted me. The lanky, not-white girl who was taller than all the other boys. I ignored that he was older than me. He must have been… twenty at the time?” She considered that for a moment. He had already been a very powerful man at only twenty. She wouldn’t have believed it, but then she thought of herself at twenty and it became more plausible.
“Either way, he swept me away, and I never saw the asshole who adopted me again. I don’t even have a GED, can you believe that?” She gave a dark chuckle, but no one else did. They must have already known. They probably did. “He taught me how to be thief, and that was just fun. I’ll be honest. I enjoyed being a thief and that worked for a while. I even had my Midnight, my wonderful little bonded animal.”
“You said…” Quinn frowned at her. She would let his interruption slide. She had lied to them.
“Yes, I had a bonded animal. I lied to you all about it. She’s… she’s hard to talk about, hard to remember,” she told him. “Midnight, the little black house cat with yellow eyes. And life was good for a time. Axel kept me away from his real empire, and I just had fun with him. We had fun, traveling the world, planning my heists. Then, on October 20th, 2010, an assassin attacked. We were in bed,” she heard a strangle sound at that comment, “and he’d come to kill Axel. He was able to get a good hit in, too. The logistics don’t matter so I’ll cut to the chase. I saved Axel’s life, and killed the guy before he could kill Axel. None of this would have happened if I hadn’t been an eighteen-year-old fool madly in love with a man that I didn’t know was a monster, yet.”
She spent many nights wondering what her life would be like if she had run for it like the assassin had told her—if she had let him kill Axel, who could barely do his magic when he was in pain. What-ifs were a waste of time, she knew that, but she wondered nonetheless.
“How do you remember the exact dates?” Vincent asked quietly. He was asking because this probably seemed practiced. It wasn’t.
“Because I can’t seem to forget them, no matter how hard I try,” she sighed. “Continuing on. Axel realized I had potential to take a more… aggressive role in his empire. He trained me to fight, had the other Ghosts help. But when he told me to kill someone for him, I resisted. He took Midnight from me and held her hostage. I killed who he told me to, and he promised that if I just did as he asked, nothing had to really change. That was hit number one. January 2011. I tried to resist the second hit, but that only got me beaten. I did it swiftly, realizing he would never take no for an answer. And the pain I felt come from Midnight was a sharp reminder that someone’s life was at stake if I didn’t do as he asked.”
“Holy shit,” Elijah breathed. “He tortured your bonded animal.”
“Constantly,” she whispered bitterly. “Well, the ride isn’t over, yet, because on October 5th, 2011, he came home with a four-year-old boy named Henry.” She met Vincent’s eyes and took a shuddering breath. “His son—with a prostitute.”
Not a single sound. She watched Vincent process that h
e was, at one point, an uncle and never knew it.
“No,” Jasper gasped. “No.”
The second ‘no’ was one from a broken man. She blinked back tears, remembering what Jasper had seen in her dreams, and what she had thought. He knew.
“Shh, Jasper,” she pleaded. She needed to finish this before she broke. “Let me continue.”
“Please do,” Vincent growled.
“Henry was given to me, and I was told to care for him. When Axel asked me to do another hit a few months later, I wouldn’t do it. I wouldn’t kill people and raise his child. I wasn’t strong enough to cuddle a child with hands that killed people. I was a stupid nineteen-year-old who thought, maybe, Axel would care about that. He didn’t. In seconds, he proved that nothing was sacred. With a single text, Midnight was killed, and Henry was on the chopping block. From that point on, for the three jobs I did in 2012, I did them without complaint. My only goal on this earth was to keep that innocent child alive.”
“Why did he kill Midnight?” Quinn snarled. “Why?”
“Because Axel had no use for two pieces of collateral over me. He knew I had fallen for Henry, and Midnight was more expendable to him.” Sawyer forced the words out. Anger bubbled up in her, cold rage. Dark rage. A rage that had led her to killing without mercy or guilt. “And you know what? I fucking failed. I did everything he wanted, including agreeing to marry his fucking ass. I let him violate my body, all to keep Henry safe, happy, and away from Axel’s brand of love. He got pissy one night, and I offered myself for the beat down I knew he wanted to give. He chopped off my finger to take the stupid ring back. And Henry,” her voice broke, “I think Henry wanted to help me.”
“Sawyer.” Zander’s voice was full of emotions that Sawyer didn’t want to hear.
“Henry tried to stop his daddy from hurting his Sawyer, and Axel… flung him across the room without thinking.” Sawyer swayed at the memory as it flooded back to her. A dent in the wall. A pool of blood forming on the floor. She nearly dropped to the floor, but someone was holding her up. She didn’t know who. “And Axel took his body from me and left. I, to this day, can’t tell you where he buried him or if he even did. I wish I could, Vincent. He’s was such a sweet boy. And I tried. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
The Redemption Saga Box Set Page 31