22. The Forest is Silent #2
“Sorry, sorry. Reading you loud and clear.” He winces, hands lifted in surrender.
“Jesus, you know I’d never call it that.
Hear me out, though. Maybe not now, but at least on the way back?
It’s been days without them. That’s bad enough on its own, but then pile on what you’ve gone through?
” His voice gentles. “Your parents are worried about you, cher . We all are.”
I shift on my feet, staring at the bottle in his hand, unable to confront the concern I know is written all over his face. He’s right, but there’s something he doesn’t know.
My cheeks heat, and I worry my lip.
It’s only been a day, and I don’t know if anything I can do will affect it, or if there’s even an “anything” to affect, but I won’t take the risk.
“Do you think they’re safe for pregnancy?” I ask quietly.
Benoit freezes. Every muscle in his face hardens as my meaning slams into him.
“Luna… did that motherfucker ra?—”
“No.” I cut him off fast. “I… I wanted it.”
The words come out easier than I would’ve expected, and once that truth is out in the world, peace settles over me. I wanted everything that happened yesterday in the waterfall. I want Orion.
Benoit’s posture sags, and pity creeps into the rest of his features. But not judgment. He nods his acceptance, and my breath releases from my chest.
I don’t know why I was worried. He’s never judged me before, and, even now, when he believes I’ve done the unthinkable by sleeping with the enemy, my friend still loves me the same.
“We’ll look it up together, okay?” He slides the medicine back into his jacket pocket. “But we don’t know when Fury will be back, and we need to go.”
“What’s the rush?” My eyes narrow. “It’s been days. Why do we need to go now ?”
His hard swallow bobs down his neck. “I… can’t tell you.”
“Can’t?” My brow raises. “Or won’t?”
“Can’t. Orders.” He winces. “Your dad didn’t want to worry you.”
“Benoit,” I warn. “You know I hate when you shadows get all secretive.”
“All I can say is”—his hands go up, palms out like he’s trying to calm a spooked animal—“since that Wilde got killed outside Masque, things are getting heated. People are getting… jumpy.”
“Okay, what’s ‘heated’ mean? Like arguing in the streets?
Tourists getting rowdy? Bar fights…” I run through more scenarios, letting my stream of consciousness flow with questions, until his tight-lipped silence makes a brittle, frustrated laugh huff out.
“Come on, Benny, tell me already. You’re scaring me.
Are my parents okay? Nox, Uncle Jaime? Oh God, it was the car chase. Did Jaime get hurt?——”
“Okay, chill, Lu. Your parents, Nox, Jaime, they’re all fine,” he rushes to say. “The car chase was child’s play. We’ve done worse on the track. But the sooner we get home?—”
“Benoit.” I step up to him. “Tell. Me.”
He closes his eyes, bracing himself for me to blow up on him. He’s quiet for so long, I have to physically bite my tongue to keep my racing thoughts in check.
His eyes open on a sigh. “It’s about the other daughters. Us shadows are watching them like hawks, closing ranks to make sure they’re protected. Brylie’s pissed as per usual, but Lucy…”
“What about her?” Dread pools in my stomach as he grimaces.
“She’s scared. To death . You being kidnapped majorly triggered her. Panic attacks, breakdowns, the whole nine. I’m sure she’ll be okay once you’re safe and sound, but we’re worried she’ll go rabbit on us again. Like she used to after she was… you know.”
Cold sweat prickles the back of my neck. He doesn’t need to elaborate. When we were kids, we were told to never, ever, ever bring up Lucy’s kidnapping. Just mentioning it would send her spiraling.
“But she hasn’t run away in years,” I say, guilt building in my chest. “Benny, that’d be literally the worst thing she could do in this situation.”
Her parents were always able to find her before, but she got better and better at hiding from her anxiety, not to mention the rest of us. Trauma taught her it was the only way to save herself.
Sure, Lucy and I would fantasize about leaving to find our own paths, out from under our parents’ and the public’s watchful eyes. But the only reason I even entertained those thoughts is because she’d grown out of the habit and hadn’t run away in years.
“Panic isn’t always logical.” He sighs, the sound jarring in the quiet forest.
Wait.
“And she was good at hiding as a kid,” he continues while my ears perk up. “Imagine what she can do now that she knows what she’s doing?—”
“Shh,” I cut him off, straining to hear.
He jolts. “What?”
I tap my ear, mouthing, Listen.
He stills. The world stills. I hold my breath for the cawing of birds, the rustle of scurrying animals, or even a trumpet from one of the lake swans calling to their mate. Anything.
But there’s just… silence.
“I don’t hear anything,” Benoit murmurs.
“Exactly.” My eyes sweep the dark woods beyond the porch. “Something’s out there?—”
“Luna, look out!”
The shove knocks me back just as two deafening bangs rip through the air.
Benoit jerks twice, twisting under the impacts. Blood blossoms across his green shirt, each bloom with a gaping cavity in his chest.
“Benoit!”
He stares down at the wounds in disbelief, then at me, eyes wide, unfocused.
Nononononono—
“Benny?” The world slows into a warped, muffled blur as if I’m underwater. My chest is tight as I sink.
I can’t breathe. This isn’t real. It can’t be.
He staggers toward me. My breath hitches with every step, each one smaller and slower than the last, until his legs buckle. I lunge in time to catch him, the role reversal a sickeningly familiar dance that sends my stomach lurching up my throat.
“No! Come on, Benny, don’t fall. Stand up with me?—”
But his weight, so heavy, folds into me. We collapse to the ground together, slamming my knees hard onto the wood floor.
“Okay, it’s okay, we’ll try again later.
” I fight for the words he’s said to me a million times.
“You… you just need to rest for a minute, that’s all.
Then we’ll get back up. J-just hold on until then, okay?
Someone will come. I-I-I’ll call for help.
Your phone—” I look around frantically for where I dropped it.
“Your phone is somewhere. I’ll call my dad.
He’s close, right? He can get help. And when Orion gets here, he’ll know what to do?—”
“Luna?” His plea stops me cold. I watch in horror as his hand comes away slick with blood. His lips tremble. “I think… I think I’m dying.”
“ No .” Pain like I’ve never known punches into my chest. I shake my head frantically, muttering the word over and over again.
He can’t die. Not him. Not my Benny who’s danced me through thousands of rehearsals since we were four. Who started as much trouble with me as we escaped. Who swore to protect me with his life since that fateful day in the auditorium ten years ago.
“Don’t worry, cher . Nox and I will protect you with our lives, I promise.”
It’d seemed so ridiculous then.
Benny’s been my shadow for years. My friend my whole life. Family. He took a vow right beside Nox to protect me, to be my shield against the worst of the world. But he wasn’t supposed to make good on it.
He was almost out.
Being one of my father’s men isn’t a life sentence anymore. Shadows protect. They don’t bleed. They don’t fall. They don’t…
They don’t die.
Tears glaze his eyes, and he gasps softly. His signature lopsided smile breaks through as he sees something beyond me. Something I can’t see.
“They’re here, Luna… my parents. I finally… I finally found them.”
Peace softens his brow, and he’s just my Benny again, more carefree and hopeful than I’ve ever seen him.
A heartbroken wail strangles my throat, and hot tears streak down, landing in a fresh puddle of blood.
He blinks and looks at me again. One hand still pressed to his heart, he seems to use all his strength as he lifts the other to cradle my jaw.
I capture his wrist to keep him there, and his thumb brushes gently over my cheek, but I can’t tell which he’s wiping away. My tears or his blood.
“Don’t cry for me, cher . I… I died protecting my family. I did what I never could,” he murmurs softly, voice fading with every word. “And now… I’m going home.”
“Benny, wait!” Pressure builds in my chest, cracking open my sternum and freeing a panicked shout. “Please, stay with me. Don’t?—”
His hand goes limp in mine and I tighten my grip. Life leaves his eyes in a blink, and his final breath slips out on a sigh.
“ No !” The scream rips my throat raw, ending in a sob that racks through me. “ Please , no.”
The words echo uselessly, choking out of my lungs only to get lost in the woods?—
Wild blond hair flashes between the trees. A man steps out, gun raised, stalking toward me with a cruel, triumphant grin slashed across his lips. Like he’s already won the battle my friend never got to fight in.
Instant, white-hot fury sears through my grief. My shadow, my friend , died to keep me alive. I won’t let his death go in vain.
I close Benoit’s eyes with shaking fingers, then lift my chin at the man who took my friend from me, every muscle coiled tight as the coward points the barrel at my head.