Page 107
Suddenly, I feel strange saying it. Girlfriend. It sounds so frivolous out here. Not even companion sounds right, but I couldn’t bring myself to say the G-word when Titus’s life depended on it, either. “Nothing. How can someone who brings so much calm and contentment in my life make me so violent at the same time?”
“I ask myself the same question. Did you mean what you said earlier? About the two of us staying here.”
“Yes.”
“And if you never see your family again?”
“They’ll be fine without me. They have Jack to look after them.”
“Who’s Jack?”
“My father’s closest friend.”
“One you trust to look after your family?”
“Yes. In spite of his nickname, he’s actually a decent guy.” At the look of confusion wrinkling his face, I keep on. “We called him Jack Snake Eye Hunter because his one eye--”
“Looks like a snake’s.” His eyes darken as he backs away from me. “What was it you told me about your father?”
“Just that he was a Legion officer, a high ranking one, killed by an … Alpha.” The contempt I once had for his kind has changed, and I no longer feel the need to spit the word as before.
“This Alpha. Would he happen to be light-haired? And have a tattoo of a--”
“Skull across his ribcage.”
An urgency burns in his eyes. “You’ve seen him?”
“Yes. Jack brought him to us as a gift.”
“A gift?”
“So we could face my father’s killer. My mother spared his life, but he was forced to live in an underground tunnel. Purgatory.”
“Atticus,” he mutters.
“What is he to you?” I already know the answer to the question, though. I don’t know why I didn’t make the connection before. Why I didn’t consider they’d know each other, having come from the same place. “He’s one of your brothers.”
Instead of answering, his expression turns more grave, setting my teeth on edge. “It wasn’t an Alpha who killed your father, Thalia.”
I stare blankly at him, searching for the lies. “Why are you saying this?”
“I was there. I saw what happened.”
“Tell me what you saw.”
“Snake Eye was with Remus …”
“Remus? That doesn’t make any sense. How … how would he know Remus?”
“I don’t know. But the two of them were raiding a hive. Atticus and I happened to be there that night. They shot me multiple times with the poison. Atticus, too. I thought they were going to finish me off, but your father showed up. He threatened to have Jack relieved of his position. That’s when they killed him. Jack killed your father and blamed it on Atticus.”
Words spinning like a vortex inside my head, I’m desperate to grasp something that makes sense. Something that doesn’t reek of disloyalty and betrayal. “No. Jack has been like a second father to me. He wouldn’t betray my father.”
“He would, if pride and his security were threatened.”
“He wouldn’t have lied to me. And to my mother’s face. He couldn’t have.”
“Thalia. I’m just telling you what I saw.”
