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He eyed him for many seconds. “Let’s hope you never have to do that.”
Pain eyed Kult as he continued toward the end of the hall, wondering. Did Handy know? Would he be inheriting those memories thatweren’tsealed? Was that what Kult feared? Why would he unless...
His gaze snapped up, locking on Kult at the door now watching him. Kult feared for Handy. How very interesting.
****
“MAYBE WE SHOULD JUSTlet her meet Kaphas,” Harlow suggested quietly. “Who knows, she could forgetallabout Handy.”
Quantum eyed him with raised brows. “And his punishment? Is everybody done with that?”
“I never saidthat,” he assured. “But we have a lot more options with the living imposter than we do with the dead on that front.” Harlow eyed Quantum’s problematic expression and let out a sigh. “Fine, you want me to say it? Yes, my inner-scientist is salivating a little with him.”
“Thank the powers that be,” he muttered. “He could be the beginning of a new breed of being. The first of his kind.”
“Or theonlyone of his kind,” Harlow said, happy to finally voice what he’d been denying.
“Will our brothers feel the same?” Quantum wondered, right as the lab door opened.
“Guess we’re about to find out,” Harlow mumbled, eyeing Kult and Pain, then Kult again, alarmed. “What’s wrong?”
“Do we have any idea what memories Kaphas is getting?”
“Kaphas?” Harlow smiled.
“No, thekidin there that’s turningseventeentoday and possibly getting a birthday gift of our collective hells.”
“The program doesn’t detail that information,” Quantum said.
“So we have no clue if it’s the first five years of his lifewith usor is it the first five years ofourlives,” Kult said, pissed.
“Either one would be fucked up,” Harlow realized. “He was privy to all our memories.”
“Except the ones we sealed or hid from him,” Kult reminded.
“What do you mean the ones we hid from him?” Harlow wondered, confused. “I don’t recall us hiding anything.”
“Because it was hidden from you as well,” Kult informed.
“Augustine’s stuff?”
“No.”
Harlow looked at Pain who shook his head. “Not me.”
Kult was nodding when he eyed him next. “Yes. Me. Because Fetch, Fathom, and Fin weren’t ready to seal everything. Only thatonething was done with. The other shit needed their expertise still. And if the kid somehow has this in his head from all the fiddling he’s been doing between then and now, well... that’s a lot to be coming into for five people much less one kid.”
Harlow eyed him then Pain. “Is he...worriedabout Kaphas?” He regarded Kult again, getting his glare. “The one you wanted to kill? What am I missing?”
“Doyoustill want to kill him?” Kult challenged, eyeing him. “After everything he said yesterday?”
Harlow couldn’t stop his grin. “I’m just enjoying the extremely rare occasion when you show signs of humanity.”
“I don’t hurtkids! You know this,” Kult said, then pointed at the containment wall. “And he knew that. And now that I’ve heard it from his own mouth, heard his reasons—which were just if we’re considering everything—I’ve decided nobody is touching him. Becausehe’sinnocent. Plain and simple. He did something none of us would’ve had the balls to do and he did it while stuck between realms, while barely existing, while abandoned by all his brothers he’d been protecting. You heard it right from his twelve-year-old British mouth! We left him in the dark.Wedid that, Harlow. And if it makes me a pussy to do what we should’ve done all along, then I will gladly be the biggest pussy on this planet.”
Harlow lowered his head, taking his words in, trying his damnedest to digest them. “But it wasn’tyouhe was driving nuts.”
He eyed Kult now standing before him with those fierce eyes drilling down. “He was ahand, Harlow,” he said quietly. “That’s all he got. Maybe I’m psychotic to see him as more.” He shrugged. “Add it to my book of dysfunctions. But he’s right, he is a part of all of us. He’s made of all of us, ouroffspring,and dear God I know how fucked up that sounds but that’s what it is. Correct me if I’m wrong,” he said, eyeing Quantum now.
