Chapter 30 Breaking the News
Breaking the News
Tatum
My attention is fixed on my Schattensicht, waiting for the moment to call. One minute before I’m supposed to call, and the alarm has been raised at the Academy already.
I’ve managed to slip away, not wanting anything to delay me from making the call I need to. Now it’s time to let everyone know. I look at my tablet screen as I sit on the hood of my car in the Academy garage. It’s quiet in here – for now.
I hit the group call button, calling Mom, Uncle Ray, Uncle Liam, Grandad Al, and Leo. Mom is the first to answer. I notice instantly she’s home, and I don’t mean the Rossi Mansion but the home we shared with Dad. Our own home.
I want to ask her what she’s doing there, but Uncle Ray and Leo have picked up, too, although the other two haven’t yet. I glance at the time. Fuck, come on. I need Uncle Liam here before he feels five links snap in about thirty seconds.
“What is going on, Tatum?” Mom asks, towelling her wet hair. “Everything alright? Why have you group-called?”
Leo is covered in muck and blood, and he’s in a car.
Uncle Ray looks to be in the bathroom of one of the Rossi Hotels.
He’s in a suit, meaning he must have been at a business meeting.
The world had known the Rossi business tycoon had died, but there was no body.
The story they then told is that he had been found by someone and had been in a coma on an isolated island where no one recognised him until he awakened.
Well, his return did make the business boom even more.
Uncle Liam now appears on screen. He’s sitting at his dinner table. I can see Aunty Raven’s hair from the side of the screen. Granddad Al is the last to join.
Ten seconds. I had better get to it fast.
“Alright, before everyone panics, I need you to listen to me. You are all about to feel some pack-links break, no one’s dead though, so stay calm.”
I, myself, feel Heaven’s pack-link snap and feel the Alpha power leave me simultaneously. Uncle Liam drops his spoon, his aura surging. They’ve crossed over. We all felt it, and he just felt five at once.
“The boys,” Uncle Liam mutters.
Uncle Rayhan frowns. He must have felt the Alpha power bounce back, being the closest alpha of Ahren’s bloodline.
Grandad Al curses. “The fuck is going on? You better spill.”
Leo is frowning as he looks at me. “The Academy is on fucking alert because of those eight. Start talking and fast. Can someone tell Maria?”
“I will,” Aunty Raven’s voice comes; she sounds a little shaken up, but I hear her move away.
“What happened?” Uncle Liam asks. He’s slightly pale, but he’s calm. Mom doesn’t know about Heaven yet…
“Well-”
“Sorry to interrupt, darling, mind adding your grandmother in?” Aunty Raven asks, her face appearing beside Uncle Liam.
I nod and add Jaddati, who joins almost immediately; she’s tight-lipped, her eyes colder than I’ve ever seen before. “Explain, Tatum. I just had to notify everyone that it is under control. However, I want to know where they have gone during school hours.”
“They’ve gone to get Sienna.” It’s blunt, but that’s the hard part done.
“Gone, how?” Mom asks, her voice shaking. “Heaven as well? She’s gone, too, hasn’t she?”
“Yeah.”
Mom closes her eyes as she covers her face with a hand, rocking gently in her seat, and then her screen goes black even though she’s there.
“As well as the quints, Allie, and Ahren,” I continue.
“How did they cross over?” Jaddati asks.
“With the help of a god. Look, I’m just the messenger, so don’t shoot me, but Heaven said they are protected, and they’ll all make it back, Sienna included.”
“And her words are supposed to be comforting?” Leo frowns.
“The actual fuck? I agree with Leo, and I don’t get it. How did all five of the Westwoods go?” Granddad Al asks.
“Why are you surprised?” Uncle Liam asks, his voice calm, but his eyes hold a storm of emotions.
“I just want to know why. I get Jayce going, why the rest?” Grandad Al answers.
“Maybe because we’re tighter than you think we are,” I cut in.
“Whatever shit happened with Sienna wasn’t anyone’s fault…
but they still went because while the plan to get there may have been Heaven’s, how to get Sienna back was Jayce’s.
He’s been looking for a way this entire time.
And there’s only one way to do that, which involves all of the Westwood Quints. ”
“And what exactly is that?” Uncle Ray asks quietly.
“They are going to duel Helios, just as Andronikos did.”
Mom’s face comes back on screen, ashen, but it’s only for a moment before she disappears again. At the same time, I hear something smash, and Uncle Liam turns away; he gets up, disappearing from the screen.
“Hey… It’s going to be ok. They’ll be ok.” I hear his voice, realising he’s reassuring Aunty Raven.
Leo sighs. “So, because they are quints, they are one… Five against one god might work. Might. I don’t know, Jayce is strong, but the leader of the fucking Indomitable managed to do him over, and he isn’t even a fucking god.”
Uncle Ray closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. “There’s nothing we can do now that they’re gone but believe that they’ll return. All of them. I’m sorry, Liam.”
“No need to be,” Uncle Liam replies after a while before he returns to the screen, Aunty Raven by his side, his arm tightly around her small frame. “I have faith in them, all eight of them. Right now, all we can do is place our trust in their skill and training, like you said, Rayhan.”
“You’re fucking calm…” Granddad Al murmurs as he rubs his face. “As for my little death ball, when she returns, she’s grounded for life. Little fucking menace, and not for going after Sienna, but for not fucking telling us. We could have gone.”
Or you guys might be too old to keep up. I don’t voice that. Granddad Al is pissed, even if he isn’t shouting.
“Ri?” Aunty Raven asks now, looking at the phone with concern.
“Yeah, I’m here,” Mom says. Her screen moves, and her face comes into view. She’s trying to keep it together, but she’s not doing great. “I should have trained her better. What if she-”
“Hey, she’s a strong kid. She’ll make it back,” Granddad Al cuts in. “Where are you? I’m going to come to you.”
Mom shakes her head. “No, I’m fine. I just wish I had taught her everything she wanted to know… I should have. For so long, I kept saying not yet, not now… and now that I finally agreed, it’s too late.”
“It’s not too late. I know we all just want to protect our pups, but I think we need to do exactly what Mom did with Kiara.
She didn’t coddle her like the rest of us did.
She forced her to make up for her disadvantages, made her become stronger, because the truth is the only thing we can give our kids is the skill and training to reach their full potential.
We can’t keep sheltering them; we need to push them, so they have the tools to survive,” Uncle Liam says quietly.
“We can all do better in that department. I think everyone doesn’t want to see their kids grow up. ”
He’s pretty reasonable, and he isn’t wrong either.
Mom nods, and Granddad Al lights a cigarette.
“No, I wanted my fuckers to grow,” he grunts.
“Because you’re old, so seeing little kids running around you was probably weird,” Aunty Raven says, managing a weak smile. She’s trying to lighten the mood, although she’s just been told five of her kids are not in this world anymore.
Uncle Liam manages a small smile. “I agree.”
And I’m glad they haven’t taken their anger out on me. They’re more worried than anything else.
“Fuckers,” Granddad Al counters.
“I’ll tell Del when I’m home, if everyone can try to keep it on the low until then,” Uncle Rayhan says quietly.
Everyone nods, and I look at Mom. “Mom? Want me to come down? When did you go there?”
“Of course not. I was just looking for some stuff here and thought it’s late and to just stay,” she says quietly.
I nod, but I’m going to go anyway. She’s alone and doesn’t have anyone to comfort her.
“And why do you look like shit?” Granddad Al asks Leo.
Leo frowns. “Working, unlike you.”
“That’s part of the job, fucker,” Granddad Al retorts arrogantly. “Right, I’m going to go tell Kiara that our little bottle of poison has gone to another fucking world. That shit doesn’t even make sense.”
Jaddati closes her eyes and sighs. “May they be brought back safely, all of them. Raihana?”
“Hmm?”
“Are you alright?” Jaddati asks her.
“Yes, I’m going to go get some work done,” Mom says, trying to keep herself together, but she won’t be able to for long. I’ll ask Jaddati for leave and go to her.
“So, what exactly do you know about all of this, Tatum?” Leo asks. “When did they start planning, and how did they contact a god? We need all the details. Once I’m home, I’m calling you.”
Clearly, he can’t speak properly wherever he is.
Great, because he’ll be sorely disappointed as I know a lot less than he’ll probably want to know, and that will just piss him off.
It’s a while later, and I now stare up at our home, a house I haven’t stepped into since Dad died and we moved out shortly after. The memory of that day causes my chest to tighten.
I take a slow breath and continue down the pathway, glad Jaddati allowed me to leave; she was worried about Mom, too.
Memories of Dad in this place are around every corner. I look around the garden, remembering tossing a ball around with him here. We sometimes jogged around the length of the property whilst we caught up on how our day went. It was just our time before dinner…
I reach the front door and key in the code, Dad’s voice echoing in my head as he tells me to hurry up and open the door because he’s carrying two huge bouquets, one for Mom and the other for Heaven.
Shaking my head, I step inside, forcing myself to calm my emotions. Mom’s scent lingers, and I follow it up the stairs. She’s not in their bedroom. I walk down the hall and pause when I realise she’s in Dad’s office.