Page 53 of Property of Prophet

“Blade?”

“Yes. Whatever happens, it happens before or after they arrive...” He pauses. “We plan for before.”

“Great.” I nod. That’s the work, and work is something I know how to do.

“You don’t seem scared.”

I pick up my rifle. “I’m fucking terrified.”

“Could’ve fooled me.”

“Good. Let’s keep it that way.”

Blade is coming.

The brothers are coming.

I nod toward the door. “Trapline. If I leave the traps out there to freeze, we’ll waste two hours digging them out later.”

“I’ll come,” he says.

“I know.”

Bear is waiting at the door while Prophet adjusts his cut.

“Prophet.”

He looks at me over his shoulder.

“Calix is wrong.”

“About which part?”

“The part where he said you’re nothing.”

He holds my eyes for a moment. “Yeah,” he says. “I know.”

And this time I think he actually believes it.

Chapter Sixteen

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Prophet

The call to Blade was two days ago.

Two days of waiting. Two days of listening to the mountain breathe around us while the daylight slipped away far too early and darkness settled over the cabin long before either Lily or I were ready for it. Too much time to think. Too much time to replay Calix’s words until they echoed through every quiet moment, reminding me of everything Heaven had stripped away.

I told myself my brothers would come.

They always have before.

Yet the closer I came to hearing them in the distance, the harder it became to silence the one question I couldn’t escape.

What if they looked at me and didn’t see their brother anymore?

I had stood beside these men, fought wars with them, buried friends with them, and celebrated victories with them. They had known me as something almost untouchable, a creature forged in Heaven’s grace.