Chapter 4 Cade
CADE
Calli.
Again.
I silence it. She can wait another thirty minutes until I’m home.
Outside, the mountains roll by like they’re trying to calm me down. It’s beautiful here, but none of it gets through. Not really.
The unease hasn’t left since last night. Since the party.
That wasn’t my first kill, and it won’t be my last. But something about it won’t leave me alone. There were no bugs, no tails, and no loose ends. I checked. But that dream…
That fucking dream.
Goose bumps crawl up my arms and neck, and I grip the wheel, letting myself sit in discomfort for a moment. The cheap leather of the Ford’s seat cracks. That same feeling of being seen, of being touched, of something slipping past every defense I’ve ever built.
I fucking hate it.
I speed up, my jaw clenched—the road winding through the trees like it always has. I know every curve, but today it feels different.
I pull into the driveway and kill the engine.
Home sweet home. A two-story scenic modern fortress, tucked away in the mountains of Washington.
The perfect place to keep Calli hidden. Personally, I would have moved to a place like this regardless.
I prefer my solitude. I hop out of the truck and see that Jack is waiting for me on the front step.
“She’s waiting for you,” he says, voice flat, but there’s something under it, a tightness in his tanned skin. His shoulders are set, eyes sharp, concerned. I don’t fucking like it.
“Where is she?” It comes out sharper than I mean, but he doesn’t flinch at my tone. We’ve been friends long enough to know that just because I’m an unfeeling asshole to the rest of the world, it doesn’t mean I don’t give a shit about him.
“Balcony. But listen…”
I stop and turn. She’s in for an earful. Calling constantly when I’m on a mission could have put her at risk, or me. What if I fucking lost my phone? The wrong person could have caught wind of her.
“She’s been off, man. Jumpy—and not her typical Calli-weird. It’s like she’s paranoid.”
The back of my neck tightens, and I knead the tension that seems to always be there, growing each day. I narrow my eyes at him, not because he deserves it, but because I’m an asshole. What can I say?
“She has every reason to be scared. She’s not safe until everyone in the Covenant is dead.”
Jack gives me a more serious look. “Nah, man, this isn’t about them.” What? He nods his head, defeated, tired. “Just go talk to her. I’ll be in the office when you’re done.”
I nod and walk past him.
The house feels hollow, my boots echoing on the stairs as I climb. I don’t knock. I never do. She’s out on the balcony, book in hand, feet up. The moment I open the door, though, she startles, dropping the book.
“Dammit… I lost my page.” She sighs, picking up the book and setting it down as she walks straight into a hug. Her arms around me feel smaller than I remember.
“What happened? How are you?” Brown eyes and heart-shaped face, already scanning me with worry. Just put a smile on, reassure her, Cade. That’s all she needs.
“I should be asking you. Jack says you’re being weirder than usual.”
“Fuck you. I’m serious, Cade.”
And my smile drops. It was wishful thinking that this reunion would be pleasant. “You don’t need to know shit. Stop asking questions. I’ll tell you what you need to know.”
She stiffens in my arms and then moves to sit again, hugging her book to her chest.
“Sorry,” she says quietly. “I just… I had a dream… a bad one.”
I sit across from her, my eyes on her face.
“Like I was being watched,” she continues. “Not like paranoia, or anxiety, but like something was in the room with me.”
I freeze.
“And it didn’t feel wrong, not at first. It felt familiar, but it was horrifying.”
The air in my lungs tightens but I keep my face still, not giving anything away.
“I swear I saw something, Cade. Something is here with us.”
There it is… More talk of ghosts and magic. I lean back.
“Nothing’s here, Calli. You’ve gotta stop feeding into that shit—it’s clearly getting to your head.”
Her face hardens, eyes narrowing at me.
“Don’t you fucking patronize me, Cade. I’m not stupid. We grew up with this shit. You think just because you’re bigger and stronger and quieter about it that it didn’t fuck us both up?”
Running my hand over my face, I deflect. “It almost killed you.”
“Because of them, not because of me. Not because of what I am. You don’t get to rewrite that.” I clench my jaw so hard I swear my molars will crack.
Goddamn. Why does she have to make this so difficult?
“That symbol they carved on the back of your neck wasn’t a game, Calli. They didn’t see you as a daughter. They were deranged, and their belief in this bullshit is what started it.”
“I know that! And I’ve lived with that longer than you have—because I didn’t get to hide behind training, and rage.”
I stare at her. Her voice is rising, breaking with emotions.
“I stayed here, in this fucking house. With the aftermath. With the silence. With the ghosts of our parents and with the grimoire.” She throws one of her hands up, nearing hysteria.
“It’s fucking alive, Cade. I didn’t ask for this.
Any. Of. This. But I see things. I feel things.
And just because you can’t beat it into a wall, doesn’t mean it’s not real.
I believe in what I do because of what I’ve seen. ”
She pauses, breath catching, then whispers shakily, “I see them when I sleep. I see you, covered in blood. Screaming for something you’ll never let yourself have.”
“Magic is not real, Calli—it’s all in your head.”
I want to reach out, to comfort her. To do what a brother would.
Should. But I’m broken. She clings to magic and fairy tales, but I live in the real world.
The one where a psychotic group of fucked-up people are hell-bent on murdering an innocent girl.
All because they believe her death will bring them a power that doesn’t exist.
“I see with more than my eyes, and I don’t care if you believe me or not. Just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it’s not real.”
“That’s the definition of things that aren’t real.” I brush off her words, standing to leave.
“Don’t walk away from me.”
She’s shaking now, still clutching her book.
“Let me in on this—I need to help. Because if I don’t…
If you keep shutting me out, I’m going to fall apart.
I’m hanging on by threads, Cade. This house, this silence, pretending I don’t know what’s coming.
It’s killing me. I don’t have your armor.
I don’t have your rage. All I have is this…
this belief that maybe, if I can help you, if I can do something…
I won’t disappear completely. I’ll matter. Just let me matter.”
We stand in silence, staring at each other. Two broken, fucked-up souls.
Her hands are trembling, pressed into the book, knuckles white.
I study her. She’s unraveling—not from fear, but from hope. Or a lack of it. She needs to believe this means something… that she means something.
I watch her. The weight of her words hangs between us, raw and sharp. She’s not delusional—she’s desperate. This isn’t a belief. It’s survival.
I blow out a breath. “You’re only twenty-one, kid—you’re still so young. I know it’s a lot. But I’m only doing this so you have a chance.”
“Don’t speak to me like I’m a child, Cade. Twenty-nine isn’t that big of a difference.”
The world an awful place, and she doesn’t understand. I’m only hard on her because I care. Granted I’m not the best at showing it. But she knows I won’t pretend with her. I wasn’t raised that way. I was raised to be a machine, a leader. Not a nurturer.
I stare at her for a moment. I’ve never understood magic, never really wanted to. But I understand this.
“You’re only seeing what you want to see,” I say, and her shoulders flinch like I struck her.
“How could you say that to me?”
Fuck, I’m fucking this all up. I just want to keep her safe. Why can’t she just stay out of my way and see that’s all I want?
“Look, I’m sorry, okay?”
“You’re supposed to be my brother, Cade. It’s just us. We are all we have in this world.”
I exhale, the weight of my own words twisting something in my gut. Why do I care so much that she believes? Why do I feel the need to protect that belief, even if I don’t buy into any of it myself?
Damn, these fucking dreams are getting to me.
The truth is, I don’t understand what she sees—but for the first time, I want to… And that scares the shit out of me.
I exhale, steadying the sharpness in my voice.
“That’s what I used to think and maybe I still do. But now… I get why.” Taking a breath, I try again. “After everything, I don’t blame you. I see you need this. You have to believe there’s something bigger, something that makes all of this have meaning.”
I pause, my voice lowering. For all that I am, I do genuinely care for Calli. Hell, I’m doing this all for her. So I continue, trying to see things the way she does. “I won’t pretend I believe it, but I won’t tear it down, either. Not if it’s what’s keeping you alive.”
She looks up and her eyes are glistening—but she’s not quite crying.
“I guess that’s the closest thing to support I’ll get from you.” She forces a smile, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. There’s a flash of something else—disappointment, or maybe resignation. Like she hoped for more, even though she knows better.
“Probably,” I say seriously.
I’ve seen her cracks; I know how deep they go. And for the first time in years, I don’t feel angry about it. I feel responsible.
“I just don’t want to feel alone,” she says, lowering her head.
“You have Jack.”
“That’s not what I mean, Cade… I want in,” she says stubbornly.
“You’re not coming with me.”
“Then share what you know. Don’t lock me out. I promise I won’t get in your way.”
I hesitate but she stares me down. A small sense of something akin to pride wells in my chest, even though I’d prefer her to stay out of my way. She’s not budging on this.
“You’ll take what I give you. Stay out of Jack’s way. And stop calling me every hour like I’m going to vanish.”
She smirks, victorious. “I can accept that—for now. So… how did it go?”
After feeding her only the bare bones, I leave her and head to Jack’s office.
He’s not there. I sink into his chair, the cushion exhaling under my weight. His monitors glow—multiple news feeds, satellite footage, and his usual mess of surveillance chaos. I glance over it, but I’m not really paying attention. My thoughts are still stuck in that moment with Calli.
The way she looked at me, like if I didn’t validate her belief in something, she’d vanish.
And maybe that’s what’s fucking with me the most, because that look?
It’s the same one I’ve seen in the mirror more times than I care to admit.
She’s not the only one clinging to something just to survive; I’ve just gotten better at pretending mine doesn’t exist.
And the worst part? I can’t stop thinking that maybe she’s right…
Jack walks in with a bag of spicy chips, crunching one before he even speaks.
“All right, so… don’t be mad,” he starts, voice casual, like he didn’t just leave me alone with ghosts in my head.
I raise a brow, unimpressed.
“I had eyes on Allen up until this morning, then he ghosted. No pings—he just went dark.”
What the fuck. “You let him slip.”
“Hey, I didn’t let shit slip! The guy probably flew to L.A., got into a private estate with Order ties, and left nothing behind,” he defends, like the fucker didn’t just let this monster slip through the cracks.
I lean forward, scanning the monitors now as footage rolls, blurry at the edges. Locations that don’t mean anything to me yet. Jack keeps talking, detailing guard rotations, escape patterns, the logistics I usually live for—but my mind is slipping.
My eyes catch on one of the monitors. The color is all wrong. Too blue. Too bright. The letters begin to bleed at the edges. I blink, but it doesn’t stop.
I turn my head slowly, letting my gaze fall to the galaxy prints framed on the wall. Deep space. My breath slows, chest growing tight—not from panic, but from something stranger. It feels like I’m unraveling from the inside out.
There’s a voice in the back of my skull, pulling on my mind. Like a thread under my skin, dragging me inward. I lean into the feeling without realizing it, letting it take me.
Those hands… They’re not real, but I feel a brush over my chest, creeping to my throat. Curious and familiar. My skin prickles with the feeling.
It’s that presence again, the one I can’t name. The one that touched me in that dream… The one I haven’t stopped feeling since.
“Cade?”
Jack’s voice cuts through the static.
I blink hard, snapping my head toward him as the room slams back into place.
He’s pointing at the screen.
I follow his finger. Focus.
TRAGEDY STRIKES: BILLIONAIRE ALLEN WHITE AND DAUGHTER OLIVIA FOUND DEAD IN CRASH.
You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.