Chapter 18
Trey
The house is right there.
White shutters. Blue door. Two doors down from the community hall, exactly like Jonah said. I can see it from here. It’s got a porch with actual chairs on it and windows that look like they open and I have never wanted to sit down more in my entire life.
We’re almost there when Brent jogs up behind us.
“Sorry guys.” He’s slightly out of breath. “Change of plans. Minerva wants to see you. Now.”
Everyone stops.
“Now now?” Rane asks.
“Yep.”
Nova makes a sound that’s somewhere between a groan and a whimper and she tries to cover it up but she’s done. Completely done. She’s been walking on shredded feet for hours and she just ate her first meal in days. I can see her physically forcing herself to turn away from the house.
No.
I walk over to her, bend down, and pick her up.
She goes stiff. “Trey.”
“Yeah.”
“Put me down.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Trey, put me down.”
“Can’t. Sorry. Can’t do it.”
“Why not?”
“I just can’t. It’s just how it works.”
“That’s not — what does that even mean?”
“It means I’m carrying you. It’s happening. Accept it.”
Rane starts laughing. Not the polite kind — the kind where he bends over and grabs his knees.
“It’s not funny,” Nova says, her face going red.
“It’s a little funny,” Beckett says.
“It’s very funny,” Kyron corrects.
She looks at Locke for backup. Locke looks at me, looks at her bleeding feet, and shrugs. “He’s not wrong.”
“I hate all of you.”
“You love us,” Rane manages between breaths.
She opens her mouth to argue and then closes it. Which makes Rane laugh harder. And that makes Vaelor’s shoulders start shaking. I grin so wide my face hurts.
She weighs nothing. That’s the thing that kills me every time one of us picks her up. She weighs absolutely nothing and she’s been walking on feet that look like they went through a meat grinder and she hasn’t said a word about it for hours.
“I can walk,” she says. Quieter now. She’s not really fighting it anymore.
“I know you can.”
“Then why—”
“Because you don’t have to.”
She goes still in my arms. Just for a second. Then she sighs and drops her head against my shoulder like she’s giving up on the whole concept of dignity.
“Fine.”
“That’s the spirit.”
We walk through the Hollow with Nova in my arms and a trail of shifted animals behind us and by the time we reach wherever Minerva is, even Brent is laughing.
He’s trying to be quiet about it, but he’s failing miserably when his hand keeps coming up to hide his face.
I didn’t think the man could laugh. Turns out he just needed to watch a five-foot-nothing woman threaten to set someone on fire while being carried like a bride through a town full of shifters.
“You can put me down now,” Nova says as we reach the building.
“Nope.”
“We’re here.”
“And?”
“Trey.”
“Nova.”
“I am not meeting his grandmother for the first time while being carried.”
“It’ll make a great first impression.”
“Trey!”
“Fine, fine.” I set her down. She wobbles. I catch her elbow. She swats my hand away and straightens up and smooths her hair like she wasn’t just horizontal thirty seconds ago.
Locke opens the door and the laughter dies.
There’s a woman standing at the table.
Small. Smaller than Nova. Silver hair pulled back tight. She stands so straight I have to question if that’s healthy. She looks at all of us filing in and I get the distinct impression she’s not impressed by what she sees.
“It’s about time,” she says.
The warmth from the walk evaporates. Just like that. The room is cool and serious and Minerva is looking at us like she’s about to deliver news that changes everything.
Vaelor looks at her with something on his face I haven’t seen, “Hello Grandmother.”
“Sit,” she says like there was no greeting.
We sit. Nova takes the chair across from her. I take the floor and Vaelor sighs as he takes a seat next to Nova.
My legs are grateful that we’ve stopped moving. The rest of me is bracing for whatever comes next.
Minerva folds her hands. Looks at Nova.
“Now,” she says. “Let’s begin.”