Chapter 18
BONES
There are pivotal moments in life. Things that can’t be unsaid or unseen. The big ones don’t happen often. It can be a proposal, a death, a birth, or even a breakup. There are only a few of these if you’re lucky, but they are monumental. Moments you never forget.
Finding out your dead brother is actually alive after twenty years is one of those.
Lettie grips my hand so tightly, I can’t feel my fingers. They’re numb like the rest of me. Is this what going into shock feels like?
Mia hasn’t made eye contact with me or my sister since disclosing the Skelker’s confession. If we can call it that. I’m not sure I trust it. I don’t want to trust it. How do I ask her to lure him out after all the trauma he’s caused her? And yet I know she’ll do it. For me.
The Harkers and Cranes go way back. We’ve always known that. But there is a piece we’re missing. Something that can shed more light on why the devil took my baby brother and turned him into a monster.
“Sonny had a scar on his thigh. It was long, about four inches. And raised like a welt. I did a shit job stitching him, so it didn’t heal right.” I was terrified to tell my father that I fucked up. That I turned my back when I was supposed to be watching him.
Sonny fell into the river. He kept flailing his little arms around, trying to keep his head above water. He could swim, but the current was violent that day. I dove in after him, but it took me so long to reach him. It felt like forever…
“He fell into the river when I was supposed to be watching him. The current smashed him hard against the rocks, and it cut his leg up really fucking bad. When I asked him what happened… how he fell in… He said the man with the horns pushed him. La bestia. The beast. I remember looking around frantically for this creature… No one was there but us. To this day, I still believe he saw something. Sonny was a sharp kid. He never made things up.”
“You think this beast was the devil? That he took Sonny?” Aries drapes his arm across Mia’s back.
They sit close together on the couch across from us—her cautious, him protective.
I can’t let myself be angry that she told him before me.
I’m usually her voice of reason. But she needed to unpack this with someone else first. I get it even though it stings.
Lettie drops her head into her hands and sobs. “He was just a little boy.”
I pull her into my side. “Shhh. Lo se. I know. It’s okay.” It doesn’t matter that she was too young to remember him. She knows she had another brother. She grew up knowing all about him, and she loved him just the same.
Mia turns her head and bites her lip. “Fuck,” she mutters under her breath.
“If the Skelker is telling the truth, then yeah. I guess la bestia is the devil and he wasn’t going to stop until he got him. If he took Sonny from us, if he made him into this monster… I don’t know if I can believe it.” I grind my teeth, furious, as I cast a glare to the floor.
Mia chokes back a sob. “I can check his leg for the scar. I don’t know if that will help prove anything, but it’s worth a try. But Bones… he isn’t your brother anymore. Half of his face is an animal skull. He has antlers, a pronged tongue, and his veins are black.”
My stomach drops but not as far down as Lettie’s. She gags into her hand before bolting up from the couch and sprinting to the bathroom.
“Fuck. I’m sorry,” Mia cries. “I’ll go check on her.”
I lean back against the leather cushions, my gaze locked on Aries. We sit in silence, just staring at each other, speaking our truths the way we do without words. We’ve been able to read each other’s body language like this since we were kids.
“I have to tell Felix. But not my parents. And definitely not my abuela. They’ve suffered enough from losing him.” I lean back and close my eyes. I take a few breaths, in through my nose, then out through my mouth. Nice and slow like Mia showed me.
The click of Italian leather shoes echoes across the marble floors. The scent of gin and tobacco pervades my senses. Draven.
He rests a hand on my shoulder. “I just heard. What can I do for you, Bones? Tell me what to do, and I’ll do it.” The ache in his voice matches the one in my chest.
I look up at him and burst into tears. Something about the way he looks at me strikes a nerve. “I don’t know what to do,” I mumble through my sobs.
“Oh, Bones. Fuck. I’m so sorry, man.” He plops down next to me and pulls me into his arms. He lets me wail against his chest, my tears soaking through his expensive silk shirt.
Aries moves to us, taking the spot behind me. He strokes my back. “Let it out. Get it all the fuck out.”
I haven’t felt this helpless, this vulnerable, since the day Sonny went missing.
I’ve relived it in my nightmares over and over again but when I’m awake, I strut around this town with skin so thick, you’d think it was synthetic.
It’s how I cope. Because if I ever stopped to truly think about it, I’d be doing exactly what I’m doing now.
Breaking. Falling apart. Sobbing like a baby between my two best friends.
Aries rubs my shoulders. “That’s it. Deep breaths. In and out. Good.”
His touch soothes me, and the way his voice commands…
it steadies me. He can change his tone to match my mood.
He’s always been good at that. Whether he’s fucking me or helping me train for a fight, he knows how to mirror my emotions.
It’s one of the things I love about him the most. It’s what made me fall for him to begin with.
Back when we were just rebellious teenagers with way more money and power than anyone our age should’ve had.
Draven hands me his monogrammed handkerchief while Aries pours me two fingers of whiskey. I down it in one gulp and shove the glass back at him. “Hit me again.”
Aries pours without hesitating, filling it to the top of the bucket glass this time. “I’ll keep them coming all night. And we’ll all take care of you. Get as fucked up as you want.”
I nod and take another big sip but don’t quite clear the entire glass this time. Draven offers me a cigarette, and I take that as well. I swirl the vanilla-tinged smoke in my mouth before taking it deep into my lungs. It’s laced with poison.
I release all my tension on the exhale. “Mmm. Belladonna?”
Draven lights one for himself as well. He nods. “I soak the tips in it. Just enough to give me a little head rush. You like it?”
I nod as an effervescence and a tingling heat start to stir in my chest and belly. “Yeah, I’m gonna need you to start supplying me with these.”
“Done. There will be a case at the garage waiting for you.” He squeezes my thigh. “I’ve got you.”
I lick my lips as the toxin teases my senses, seducing me into a gentler, more relaxed state. “Fuck, I love both of you so much. I couldn’t do this without you.”
Aries places a soft kiss on the top of my cheekbone. “And you’ll never have to.” He brushes his lips over my ear. “Whatever you need, Bones… it’s yours. I’m yours. You just let me know.”
Fuck. I want to bury my cock inside his mouth right now while Draven watches.
But first, I gotta deal with this. Felix needs to know.
I tilt my head and kiss him gently on the lips.
“Thank you. Let’s all meet up at Harker Mansion later.
You guys fill Nox in. Imma grab Lettie and go back to the garage so we can call Felix. ”
Draven hands me the rest of his pack of poison-laced cigarettes.
“You need these more than I do.” I give him a long hug, savoring the way his chiseled frame curves against mine.
He’s leaner than me but just as strong. I tell him often that he would crush it in the Circle.
But he always insists that he wouldn’t be able to stop.
Once he sees red, he sees it until he blacks out.
Aries tucks the half-empty bottle of whiskey under my arm. “Have Lettie drive.”
I snort. “She is not driving my bike.”
Aries laughs and tosses me his keys. “She can drive my car then.”
“The turbo? Fuck, you must really love us,” I tease.
He winks at me just as Lettie and Mia strut back into the parlor. Lettie groans when I hand her the keys. “This thing is a fucking eyesore. You just had to get it in banana yellow, didn’t you, Ries?”
“I had it custom-painted to match the suit I was wearing that day,” Aries quips.
Mia makes the most serious stank face I’ve ever seen. “Fuck, I forgot how you people live. Absolutely fucking wild.”
Aries bursts out laughing. What a hot fucking mess we all are.
And yet the ties that bind us are unbreakable.
And they will be the only thing that gets me through this.
I hope Felix can say the same about his lovers.
Because I’m about to drop a bombshell on him so big, it might push him over the edge he’s always teetering on.
“Are you alone? You shouldn’t be alone. And you need to sit down because I’m about to ruin your whole day. Maybe even the rest of your life. So go get Riot, Atlas, Valentin, and Maureen. I’ll wait. You’re gonna need them close by.”
“What is it, Bones?” Felix’s voice is dark, haunted. He’s been like this our entire lives. It’s as if he moves with something always clawing at his back.
“I’m here too, brother,” Lettie squeaks out.
“Lettie? What’s wrong? Are you okay?” Any semblance of energy or concern has always been reserved for our baby sister. And perhaps now his lover, Maureen.
“She’s fine,” I say for her. “We’re both fine. Well, as much as we can be. There’s a lot of fucked-up shit happening in Ever Graves right now.”
Felix sighs. “We’ve suspected. All right, everyone’s here. I’m not alone. Tell me everything.”