Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 88849 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 444(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88849 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 444(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
“Wha…” His mouth hung open for a split second. Then it snapped shut. “Fine. You can ask the other two anytime.”
I could tell he was annoyed, but impressed. Good. That was what he got for keeping who knows what else from me. I wanted to ask about the painter. I wanted to ask if he knew what I was since I wasn’t a demon and how long had he known. I wanted to ask if anyone else knew. There were so many questions, but I also wanted to know if Gus and Vespar were still my siblings. If Kellan was actually my brother. Since I didn’t want to waste the last two questions, I was determined to answer as much as I could by myself. I needed to pick those last two questions carefully. Kellan wasn’t normally a sharing being. I knew this honest side of him wouldn’t last.
A mile from home, Kellan brought up another topic I hadn’t considered. “What are you going to say to Vespar and Gus?”
“What do you mean?”
He sighed. “They can’t know about you. They won’t understand.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Again. What are you talking about?”
“You don’t look the same. Your new revelations tonight changed you. They’ll notice. They’ll want to know why.”
And therein lays the problem. Gus and Vespar couldn’t know, but know what? “They can’t know I’m not a demon? Because they wouldn’t be able to handle that, would they?”
Kellan chose his words carefully. “They’re already on edge. You saw that this morning. They’re scared that you might alert people about us.”
“Like messengers?”
“Or others.”
He was being evasive again. It was starting to piss me off. “Why can’t you just tell me what the problem is? What are you hiding from me?”
“Are those your last two questions?” He grinned and then saw he shouldn’t have joked. “Relax. Sorry. They’re not as powerful as you or me. They have good reason for being scared. There are beings more powerful than them around. They could come here, and Gus and Vespar might not hold up against them very well.”
“They’re scared of being killed?”
“Or tortured. Witches, anyone who knows demon lore, knows our laws and how to get around them could hurt us. Some people enjoy hurting a demon. They think they can because we’re essentially dark and evil.”
“You guys are evil.”
Kellan’s jaw clenched, and his knuckles tightened on the steering wheel. “Regardless, our brother and sister don’t deserve to be tortured for fun. No one deserves that.”
“Isn’t that what you do?”
He didn’t respond, and the tension was suddenly thick in the air. His anger boiled. I felt it snap at me. And I knew the demon wanted to harm me, but Kellan fought it back. We kept driving, and he still hadn’t replied until we got to our driveway. When he did comment, it wasn’t about that. “You can’t say anything to them about tonight. Matt. Your visitor tonight. Your paintings. None of it. Nothing.”
“They can’t know about Matt?”
“No, you’re right. We dealt with Matt tonight. They’ll know that he’s been altered. They’ll want to know why. We’ll tell them the truth about that.”
As we drove around the house and parked in front of the garage, I asked, “What about Leah tonight?”
“What about her?” Kellan turned off the car and glanced toward the house. All the windows were dark, but we both knew our siblings were up. In fact, I knew they were watching. Gus stood in front of the living room window, and Vespar was framed by his bedroom window on the second floor. Both watched with somber expressions.
“What happened to her?” I asked him the question, but I saw the answer was with our other siblings. Blood. I felt it dripping from their hands. Of course, I couldn’t see it, but I sensed it. It was there, and it had changed them. Somehow.
“Leah will be fine,” Kellan said shortly and got out of the car.
“They killed her father, didn’t they?” Who else knew? How could this be covered up?
“Stepfather,” he corrected me, walking in front of me to the door.
My feet stopped in their place. Kellan knew they had killed him. He probably knew their intent in the first place, where they were headed once they left that afternoon. I saw that he didn’t condone it. In fact, he approved. Then my eyes widened, and I asked, hushed, “Did you tell them to do it?”
“Shay.”
I saw that he had. Something fell away inside of me. Maybe it was truth, maybe it was loyalty, maybe it was idealism? “I thought you had changed from today. I was wrong. I was stupidly wrong.”
“What’s the problem? It’s not like you don’t know we do this sometimes.”
“You could’ve wiped his memory. You could’ve broken his legs. You could’ve—you didn’t have to kill him.”
“I didn’t kill him.”
“You had them kill him. His blood is on you, too.” I gestured to the house, to our siblings, and then back to Kellan, to his hands. “I can’t believe…after tonight…”