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“Yes.”
“But I thought you didn’t carve anymore.” She holds the lavender rose into the moonlight to study it. “The detail is incredible. It’s almost exactly like the ones we found.”
“If you have the time to go back and get it, then we can, otherwise I’ll keep it safe for you.”
She looks up at me with water in her eyes. A single tear falls down her cheek and I reach out to wipe it away. She doesn’t need to cry. This goodbye doesn’t need to be permanent…unless it is. “Griffin I—I don’t know what to say.”
Say you’ll come back, is what I want to say, but when I open my mouth to say that, the sound of crunching leaves has me turning around with my knife drawn. I expect to find a rotter, but I’m even more surprised to find a human standing in front of me. I don’t recognize him, but if he followed us from the school, then it can’t be for anything good. “Can I help you?”
Emily stands closer to me and looks at the man. He’s standing in the shadows, so I can’t make out anything else about him.
The man steps out of the shadows and into the moonlight and grins, long dark hair falling around his shoulders. Emily gasps, and I hear Max unhooking his morning star from his back. “What the fuck do you want?” he growls. It’s a tone he reserves for the worst people we’ve come across. Even the dregs we last encountered didn’t get to hear that voice.
“Long time no see, brother,” the mystery man responds.
“Nate,” William says, tossing the car jack into the back of the car and drawing his own knife.
Emily shakes beside me with a little gasp. I’ve never met Max’s brother, but I’ve heard enough about him to want to kill him on sight.
“You survived. Good to know.” Max’s words are dry and I can tell he’s really holding himself back.
“So have you. I thought you were a goner for sure.”
“Because you left me for dead,” Max says.
A sudden rustle to my side jolts me, and I catch sight of Emily nervously inching backward. Nathan’s grin grows even wider, his eyes sparkling with delight as the movement captures his attention. Max’s jaw clenches as he steps in front of her, his fist clenching the morning star, and his gaze piercing with a fiery intensity. “Are you two an item?”
“None of your business,” Max growls out through gritted teeth.
Nate laughs. “I hope you like my leftovers, little brother. I’m surprised to see she’s alive, too.”
Max frowns. “What are you talking about?”
“Oh, but haven’t you told them, lover?”
“Wait…” William says.
“How’s the rest of your colony? Anyone get bit?”
“Colony…” I echo.
“Lover?” Max spits the word out, turning his attention to the girl we’re all crazy about.
My head snaps to the side to look at Emily and I see her panicked expression. The urge to be protective of her is at war with the realization that’s washing over me like a bucket of cold water. “Is that why you don’t want us going with you to help your friend? Because you don’t want us in your colony?”
“That’s—that’s not…that’s—” she stutters.
I turn to face her fully, my body shaking with a mixture of anger and deep, intense hurt. My mind is a mess. Everything we’ve talked about, all my deep insecurities that I shared with her. That I trusted her with. Was it all a lie from the start? “I gave you everything. We gave you everything. Protection, weapons, food, shelter, even killed other people for you. We walked into a possibly dangerous situation to get medicine for your friend, who we might never even meet. You know our weaknesses, deepest desires, know how badly a colony means to me, and you kept this from me? From us?”
Buddy moves to stand in between us and growls.
Her eyes are as wide as saucers and a tear leaks down her cheek. I don’t brush it away like I would have wanted to, because at this moment I don’t know what I would do if I were to touch her. My pain is so deep that I can’t trust myself. She tore open my deepest wound, tossed salt into it, and laughed. She might as well be dancing on my grave.
“Tell me it’s not true, pet. Tell me you haven’t been with my brother all this time,” Max says, his voice filled with such an intense hurt that I haven’t heard since the day William and I found him.
Emily turns to face him and opens her mouth, but no words come out.
“Is this true, Emily?” William asks next, his face crestfallen. “Have you been orchestrating a grand performance this whole time?”
