Chapter Twenty-Nine
Kylo
Istorm out, needing distance before I say something I can’t take back.
Everything that led me here traces back to the night Joaquin Lockhart murdered my parents.
To the day Draven took Blair.
Moments that shaped every choice I’ve made since.
Lia’s father is responsible for all of this fucking ruin.
The forest trembles around me. Branches tear free and bark splits as the ground shudders beneath my feet.
After everything I did to earn her trust—and everything Leo asked of me—they let me stand beside them without the one truth I should have known.
Footsteps crunch behind me. Carter steps through the trees, heading straight for the fury I’m barely holding in place.
“Did you know that they’re Lockharts?” I demand.
“Yes.”
The word is a flat, unapologetic wall. I stare at my brother, searching for a trace of guilt, but find none. I wonder how he could look me in the eye every day knowing he invited the Lockharts into our home.
“When?”
“Shortly after they arrived. There’s a reason our visions led us to each other. I pieced it together from the fragments I saw. When I told Leo about my suspicions, he confessed.”
“And you chose to keep this to yourself?”
“What would you have done? If you knew the second they stepped foot onto our property, you would’ve killed them.”
I rake my hands through my hair, the roots stinging as I pull.
Questions line up in my mind like dominoes, one tipping into the next.
Was anything she said true?
I saw the memory of her mother’s death vividly. The smoke, the blood, the unmistakable black gear of an Aether Hunter raid. If Lia hid her real name, what else is she hiding?
“Does Leo know where Joaquin is?” I ask.
“No.”
“What’s the hold-up?” Zayne asks, coming up beside us. “I’ve been packing all your shit by myself.”
Carter exhales heavily. “Lia and Leo’s last name isn’t Collins.”
“Um, okay? What is it?” Zayne asks.
“Lockhart,” he supplies.
Zayne goes perfectly still. “What the fuck, Carter? We’ve been sheltering Lockharts? You know what they’ve done to us—to our families.”
“The twins have nothing to do with the Aether Hunters.”
“I don’t give a fuck,” Zayne growls. “I’m going to kill—”
“No one is touching the twins,” Carter cuts in. “Now shut up and listen.”
Zayne tips his head back, letting out a frustrated breath.
“They’re on the run,” Carter continues, his voice shifting into the tone he uses during tactical briefings.
“Joaquin and Draven tried to murder them and failed. They are not allied with the Aether Hunters, and they don’t know anything about their plans.
Leo found us for a reason. They’re here to help us win this war. ”
“Based on what proof?” Zayne challenges. “Your visions? Kylo should rip into their brains and take what we need. Interrogate them and be done with it.”
I’ve been inside Lia’s mind. She can’t hide her surface thoughts for shit, yet she managed to conceal her true identity.
I intend to find out exactly how she built that wall.
“We’re not interrogating them,” Carter says.
“You expect me to work with them?” Zayne’s voice hitches with disbelief. “You kicked Abel out over Lia. You chose a Lockhart over one of our own.”
“Abel assaulted Lia,” Carter snaps. “This is war. Table the grievances and pull it together. Go pack. We’re moving out in thirty.”
“Grievances?” Zayne scoffs. “You want me playing teammate with Joaquin’s offspring? Sharing a campfire with the blood of the man who took everything from me?”
“Let it go, Landon. You’re aiming that anger at the wrong target. Now move.”
Zayne might be family to him, but Carter doesn’t take shit from anyone.
Zayne turns without another word and stalks away, leaving me alone with my brother and unanswered questions.
“Why did you order us to leave Leo behind?”
“That was a tactical call we made together based on information we were given.”
“We’re not a team if we’re built on lies,” I argue. “Keeping your visions to yourself is one thing, but this?” I shake my head.
“It wasn’t my secret to tell.”
“Why keep it a secret if they had nothing to hide?”
“If you’d known, would you have trained her?”
At first, the idea of training her felt like a prison sentence. Half the time, I could barely tolerate her presence. If I’d known the truth back then, I would’ve chained them to the floor, torn the truth from their minds, and ended them without a second thought.
“You know the answer to that.”
“Exactly.”
If Carter’s correct, if they’re innocent, then why didn’t Lia tell me?
I can’t shake the fact that Leo told Carter, but Lia kept this from me when she and I have shared far more than meditation sessions.
“I told you they were hiding something, and I was right.” I exhale and tip my head back, looking at the sky.
Carter’s omissions cut deep.
“They had their reasons for keeping this a secret.”
“That’s what Lia said.”
“Maybe you should listen to her before you judge.”
“There’s no going back from this.”
“That’s it? You’ve made your decision before hearing her side?”
“I’ve heard enough. She’s a Lockhart. That’s all I need to know.”
Carter pinches the bridge of his nose. “Imagine growing up under Joaquin’s roof.
Imagine being that kid. When I first taught Leo how to meditate, the silence didn’t bring him peace.
It set him off. The moment the room went quiet, everything Joaquin did to him came rushing back.
Sitting still meant thinking, and thinking meant reliving it. ”
Carter looks me dead in the eye. “After about a minute, his breathing would spike. His eyes darted toward the doors, checking they were still locked. If I moved an inch, he’d lock up like he was waiting for a blow.
He spent every second watching his back.
It took days to convince his body he was safe in that room. ”
The pieces click into place.
I replay every hour in that training room with Lia, seeing it all through a different lens.
The way Lia and Leo stayed within arm’s reach of each other during sparring.
How she reacted when Zayne hit Leo. Her panic was immediate and visceral, like she couldn’t breathe at the sight of his blood.
The way her breath hitched at sudden movements. How her eyes constantly tracked my hands.
I’d taken her hypervigilance as mistrust. Skittishness. A leftover fracture from what Julian did to her.
I never considered the damage went deeper, that it existed long before Julian entered her life.
Every time I slipped into her mind, I pressed against something raw and unhealed—a wound I didn’t know was there.
She wasn’t plotting. She was surviving the man who raised her.
I treated her like an enemy for a defense mechanism she never should’ve needed.
“Shit. I didn’t think—”
“You don’t think,” Carter cuts me off. “You let your anger do the talking.”
He gestures to the wreckage around us, then looks back at me. “Getting Leo to share anything was like pulling teeth. Whatever happened in that house…” He shakes his head once. “It’s not something they talk about.”
My anger has nowhere left to go.
It turns on me instead.
I came at her hard, demanding the truth, mistaking silence for deceit.
All I did was prove she was right not to trust me.
My heart hammers, fueled by the need to undo the damage I caused. “I need to talk to her.”
Carter grabs my shoulder, stopping me. “After me.”
“What?”
“Give us space. Stay by the tents while we talk.”
“What do you need to discuss?”
“That’s not your concern.”
What the hell would Carter need to talk to her about alone?
“I told her we’d have a chat. Relax,” he says, giving me a measured look. “You have it bad.”
My mind is back at camp. With Zayne. With Lia.
“Keep an eye on Zayne. I don’t trust him around her.”
“Zayne won’t hurt her. Give him time to process. You know why he’s not handling this well.”
Zayne has his own skeletons. Every time he draws his weapon, he carries the weight of everyone he couldn’t save.
He gestures toward the camp, the movement snapping me out of my thoughts. “She needs you right now. We’re all she has left.”
That’s why this guilt will follow me long after the anger fades.
I fucked up.
I took it too far with Lia.
The worst part is knowing the damage was done the moment the words left my mouth.
Carter’s hand tightens on my shoulder. “You good?”
“I’m fine,” I say, though my throat feels tight. “I need to apologize.”
“You know what I think?” Carter says, eyes drifting toward the firelight of the camp. “I think you’re more alike than you know.”
That’s exactly why we might destroy each other before we get a chance to win this war.