by Lola StVil
Lucas is the first one to look away, and I say a silent thank you in my head. He looks around at the others. No one will quite meet his eye.
“You all think she did the right thing, don’t you?” Lucas demands.
“Yeah,” Nix says, finally looking up from the ground. “She did what she had to do to stop you from starting a war. Or getting yourself killed. Or both.”
“Well you would say that, wouldn’t you?” Lucas snaps.
“Luc—” he tries to speak again.
“You would find a way to justify breaking someone’s trust.”
Trust. From the one who didn’t think to mention his wife. That’s rich.
“What are you talking about?” asks RJ. He looks genuinely puzzled.
Milo and I exchange a glance.
“Lucas, that’s enough,” I caution him.
“It’s okay,” Nix interrupts.
“Nix,” I start.
“You were right. About the secrets. We need to be honest with each other. We’re a team and we should be able to trust each other.”
“Now I’m really lost,” RJ says.
I can tell by the looks on Parker and Ryder’s faces that they feel the same confusion. I didn’t start this with the intention of Nix telling his story, but I’m glad he’s going to. It’s hard half of the team knowing something so big and the other half being in the dark.
“I tried to have Summit killed,” Nix says.
As an explanation, it’s not great.
Ryder, Parker, and RJ burst into a series of questions and accusations. Nix sits still, looking calmer than I can imagine him feeling.
When it becomes clear that he’s not going to answer any of the garbled questions, the group falls back into an uneasy silence.
“I don’t get it. Why would you do that?” Parker finally speaks up.
“It’s a long story, but I think it’s time you all heard it.”
No one says anything, but no one moves.
“A couple of days ago, Summit and Milo were attacked by a group from the Shadow and Serpent,” Nix begins.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Lucas demands of me, his anger momentarily forgotten when he hears I’ve been attacked. “Did they hurt you? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, just a little sore,” I answer
“The makeup,” Parker says. “You started wearing it to hide the bruises, didn’t you?”
I nod.
“I thought…” she starts.
“I know what you thought,” I break in before she can finish the sentence. The whole team doesn’t need to hear that part.
“I wanted to tell you, but there was so much going on, the last thing we needed was more drama.”
“Do you need a healing potion?” she asks.
I shake my head.
“No. I’m mostly fixed now anyway. Honestly, I’m just a bit sore.”
“I’m going to make you something after the meeting anyway,” she confirms. “It’s silly to be in pain when you don’t have to be.”
“Okay, thank you,” I agree.
She’s right. I could do without the layer of makeup and the pain in my ribs.
Nix continues.
“I got there in time to save Summit, but I was too late to do much of anything else. They knew where to find her because I told them. My plan was to turn up and fight them at Summit’s side to show them I’m not one of them. But I got held up.”
“Why would they think you were one of them?” Ryder asks.
It’s the question I asked Nix straight after the battle, but I didn’t wait around for an answer. I’m curious to hear it now.
“Because I was once,” Nix says.
That brings out another round of shocked questions.
“Look, I’m going to tell you all everything. Please, just let me tell it,” Nix says.
Reluctantly, the team quieted down.
“It all started a long time ago. We’d been discussing Malakaro in our Mortals and Morals class at school. You can all imagine how that went down.”
The team nod along. Ryder makes a sympathetic groaning sound. I can imagine all too well what happened to Nix that day. I’ve been on the receiving end of the hate at that school, and it’s not pleasant at all.
“Long story short, I defended myself and got pulled into the office, and my parents were called. My mother told me I was nothing like Malakaro, but the doubts were still there. You know? She suggested I visit the graves of some of his victims and see how it made me feel.
“I did as she suggested, and I met a girl whose mother had been a victim of my father. I told her who I was and she reacted badly. I told her I wasn’t like him, and I would do anything to protect innocent people.
“She told me if I was serious about that, she had a way I could stop the worst evil we’ve ever known from descending on us. I agreed to go with her—I didn’t know what I was getting into. Then she showed me a video of Lucas watching Summit. Of course, I don’t need to remind you that at that point, Summit had no idea who she was, and we wanted to keep it that way to keep the evil at bay.”
“So your solution was to try to kill her?” Milo blurts out.
“No. Of course it wasn’t,” Nix says.
“I figured I could fix the problem easily, so I talked to Lucas about it. But he didn’t listen. I even told Nikki, as you all know. But still, Lucas was too damn stubborn to hear what we were saying.”
“I wasn’t being stubborn. I tried to stay away from her, but I just couldn’t,” Lucas interrupts.
“Well you’re doing a pretty good job of it now,” Nix fires back.
“Yeah, it hardly seems fair that Lucas has two loves of his life hanging on his every word and I can’t even get mine to notice I exist,” Parker says almost to herself.
“I’m not hanging on his every word,” I snap.
Parker just smiles knowingly at me.
This isn’t going how I expected it to at all.
“It’s complicated,” Lucas says.
He directs it at me rather than Nix. I refuse to have this conversation in front of the rest of the team. There’s honesty, and then there’s just over sharing.
“What happened next?” I ask Nix.
“They called me back. They told me Summit had to be killed. They told me their motto: the blood of one for the lives of the many. In a cold, logical way, it made sense, but I told them I was out.
“I explained to them that I wanted to protect the innocent, and Summit was innocent. She had no idea who she was, or what Lucas stalking her meant for the future of the world. They agreed. But they said the problem had to be dealt with.
“I said I would talk to Lucas again, and they said it was too late for that. They said that if I wasn’t willing to do what had to be done, they would find someone who was.”
“So, you decided that it might as well be you?” RJ snaps.
“Shit, Nix, wouldn’t the thing to do have been to tell us what was going on?”
“I was ashamed that I’d gotten myself in so deep with a group that soon turned from protectors of the innocent to outright murderers,” Nix says.
“But why did you give in so easily?” Ryder asks.
“What you did was unforgiveable.”
RJ, Milo, and Lucas nod their heads in agreement.
“How can you sit here knowing what you did?” Milo snaps.
“Because he doesn’t care what he’s done,” Lucas says.
Parker shakes her head.
“No. That’s not true,” she says.
All eyes turn to Parker. She blushes ever so slightly, but she goes on.
“Nix saw the truth of the matter. He knew that if they found someone else to do their dirty work, they might see what he had seen. That Summit was truly innocent in all of this. And that could lead to only one conclusion. Lucas was the one who knew the consequences yet sought her out anyway. Lucas was the one putting the world in danger, not Summit. And by extension, Lucas was the ‘blood of one’ t
hey talked about. He knew they would kill his brother if he didn’t act.”
Nix shoots her a grateful look.
“Yeah. That pretty much sums it up, and if the wrong person came for Lucas and succeeded, there would be war anyways. You all know my father. He would lead the Omari to hunt down whoever did this, angel assassins hunting down a bunch of Quos and rogue angels.”
He looks at me for the first time since he began his story.
“I’m truly sorry, Summit, but I didn’t know you then. I chose my brother’s life over the life of a stranger.”
I don’t really know what to say to that. What he did is still bad, but is it more justifiable now I know why?
The thought of a world without Lucas in it turns my stomach. I can’t even bring myself to think about it fully.
“Now I do know you, I wouldn’t hesitate to give my life for you.”
“I’m not quite ready to play happy families just yet,” I tell him.
“I hope you can forgive me one day, Summit,” he says. “But for now, I just want you to know I’m completely behind you. And I hope you at least understand why I did what I did.”
“It doesn’t matter why you did it. It was still a betrayal,” Lucas says.
He isn’t looking at Nix; he’s looking at me. His eyes bore into me and I feel a strange mix of desire and anger. I’m getting just about sick of him playing the victim here.
“Lucas, over here now,” I say, getting to my feet.
I walk away from the group. I don’t look back to see if he’s following me. I can sense him behind me.
As I walk, I can hear Milo and RJ saying some pretty harsh things to Nix and I have to remind myself he almost had me killed not once but twice so that I can stop myself from feeling sorry for him. Parker continues to defend him. I cringe for her. She’s going to end up getting hurt, and she doesn’t deserve that.
When I’m sure we’re out of earshot of the rest of the team, I duck down behind some shrubs and sit down. I wait for Lucas to sit. At first, he stands towering over me, but he soon relents and sits down facing me. The tension in the air between us tingles like electricity.
“I know you’re pretty mad at me right now, but I need you to understand that as leader, sometimes I have to do things I don’t want to do, and taking your powers was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. But it was easier than risking you going off and getting yourself killed.”
“You don’t think I could take him?” Lucas asks.
“That’s not the point, Lucas, and you know it. The point is, one way or the other, what you were about to do was going to bring us a whole world of pain.”
“Yeah, cause it’s not like The Jackal didn’t do exactly that to Nikki,” he snaps back.
“This isn’t about Nikki,” I reply, trying to keep my voice calm. “It’s about you wanting to go off and play hero and putting all of us in danger.”
“Not about Nikki? You only took my powers because you were jealous that I wanted to go after the one who hurt her.”
That’s it. My calmness breaks. Lucas knows exactly how to get under my skin when we argue. He seems to instinctively know the worst parts of me, the darkest thoughts I have, and he throws them in my face.
“How can you even think that?” I shout back. “It’s like you don’t know me at all.”
“I don’t think I did know you. But I’m sure as hell starting to, and to be honest, I don’t like what I see anymore.”
“Well then, I guess that means we have nothing left to discuss then,” I say, ignoring the pain that stabs at me at his words. “You can either accept that sometimes I have to do things I don’t like, or you can leave the team.”
I go to stand up, but Lucas grabs my arm.
“Wait,” he says. I stay put, more because I’m not entirely sure if my legs will carry me the way they’re shaking than because I need to hear any more of his cruel words.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I don’t mean that you consciously did it because you’re jealous, but maybe deep down that’s why. I can’t think of any other reason why you would betray me.”
The hurt is replaced by another spark of anger. I’m done pussyfooting around him.
“I betrayed you?” I shout. “Are we reading the same story here? I stopped you from starting a war no one can win. The real betrayal happened the moment you took my virginity and then ran back into the arms of your ex-girlfriend the very next day. Because like it or not, Lucas, that’s what she is—your ex-girlfriend. Not because she was dead, but because you loved me.”
“Summit, that’s not fair,” Lucas says quietly.
“Life’s not fair, deal with it,” I shoot back.
I know I’m hurting him, but in that moment, I don’t care. I’ll regret it later, I already know that, but in the moment, I want to hurt him the way he hurt me. I’m so sick of putting my feelings second to his.
Yes, it’s a strange situation that none of us really know how to handle. Yes, it’s hard for him. But it’s hard for me too.
“And if you really want to talk about betrayal, then think about how you are betraying Nikki.”
“I just wanted justice for her.”
“I’m not talking about The Jackal. Every time you hold her, or take her hand in yours. Every time she says she loves you and you’re thinking about me. Every moment you spend with her without telling her what happened between us is you betraying her in the worst possible way. She got taken because you were following me.”
Someone behind me clears their throat to make their presence known. I stop my rant, but I know I’ve made my point. I spin around, my palms raised.
“Easy, Sunny,” Milo says, brandishing his cell phone in my direction.
I lower my palms.
“We have to go,” Milo says.
“Now’s not really a good time,” I say, not really hearing him.
“As much as I hate to interrupt my favorite teen drama, we have to go, NOW,” he says again.
“Go? Go where?” I demand.
“To get your sister out of jail.”
I must have misheard, because I thought Milo said Dylann was in jail. A quick glance at Lucas’s slack jaw and wide eyes tells me I heard him right.
Somehow, my little sister, who I am responsible for, has ended up in jail while I was too busy dealing with my own drama to take five minutes to talk to her.
I should have made more of an effort. I should have gone after her when she slipped away before we could talk. I should have made her hear me out.
Should have, should have, should have.
There are so many things I should have done differently, but I didn’t, and now here we are.
I unfurl my wings.
“Wait,” Milo says.
“Wait for what?” I ask. “I have to see her, Milo.”
“I know, but you can’t fly there.”
I frown at him, confused.
“Bliss, that’s the angel jail, is a no-fly zone,” he explains.
“We’ll have to go by car,” RJ says as he casually walks up to us.
The rest of the team have joined us now.
“Do any of you even have a car?” I ask.
Why would angels have cars?
I’m already picturing myself attempting to hot-wire a car. At least I know how to drive one.
“I do,” Lucas and RJ say in unison.
“Why?” I ask.
“They come in handy in no-fly zones,” RJ says.
“Can we borrow yours?” I ask RJ.
“We’ll all go together,” Ryder says.
I shake my head.
“That won’t be necessary. Milo and I will go.”
I glance at Milo, aware that I haven’t actually asked him if he’ll come with me. He nods.
“Summit, I know Dylann’s your sister, but she’s family to us too,” Parker says.
“We’re all going,” RJ agrees.
I shrug. Arguing about this would just be a waste of ti
me.
“Summit, Nix, Milo, you’re with me,” Lucas says.
“Meet me at the house.”
“I’ll go with RJ,” I say.
Lucas glances back at me.
“You’ll come with me. This could be dangerous, Summit, and as much as you hate me right now, you might need me.”
I don’t know how Lucas can go from accusing me of awful things and saying he doesn’t like me very much to caring about my safety, but it seems he can. I don’t know whether it’s adorable or annoying.
I go to tell him I don’t need a knight in shining armor, but before I can say anything, Milo steps in.
“Lucas is right, Summit. You three should go together. I’ll go with RJ.”
Is this because I said in a battle I wanted Lucas or Nix by my side? Has Milo really not forgiven me for that?
He throws a subtle look in RJ’s direction and I know it’s nothing to do with me. He just wants to be close to RJ. He’s going to get hurt.
I sigh. “Whatever. Let’s just go, okay.”
“Shotgun,” I hear Milo call out like a giddy three-year-old headed to the carousel.
After what seems like forever, we finally come to a stop. The journey here was awkward to say the least. I almost wished something dangerous would happen, just to change the mood.
Lucas, Nix, and I rode in silence, none of us making eye contact with each other. I spent most of the journey staring straight ahead.
I watched the car in front, RJ’s car, where it was clear the atmosphere was a lot happier. I could see the group chattering and laughing. I noticed Milo edging slightly closer to RJ in the front seat. I almost sent him a text telling him to stop, but I didn’t.
Instead, I tried to work out what I’m going to say to Dylann.
I still have no idea.
“Are you sure this is the right place?” I ask as we all stand together outside of the cars.
Wherever we are, it doesn’t look like a jail. We are parked inside what from the outside looked like a huge warehouse. Inside, it’s split into two sections. The part where we are parked is deserted except for the cars.
The other half is a blur of activity. It looks like a large open plan office, and angels and Quos dash around doing who knows what. A series of typewriters sit on a big desk, each of them typing away quickly. No one sits at them, and they appear to be typing by themselves, but I notice an angel standing off to the side, her arms raised and her fingers dancing over an unseen keyboard.