I could feel the slight twitch in Bishop’s arm as soon as Katsia said ‘but that’s not speaking for all.’ I turned my attention to her. “What does that mean?”
Her smug smirk deepened. “Oh, he didn’t tell you…”
“Tell her what?” Nate interjected, leaning forward on his elbows.
Katsia burst out laughing, her head tilting back while she swirled the whiskey around in her glass. “Oh this is great.” Her eyes cut to Bishop. “You’re quite the secret keeper, King.”
“What the fuck is she talking about?” I whispered, my eyes fluttering closed.
Nate tilted his head, his eyes flying to Bishop briefly.
“I didn’t tell either of them because it’s a distraction.”
“And you gave her your word…” Katsia’s eyebrow quirked.
“My word doesn’t mean shit with anyone else but a King or Madison. I would break it in a heartbeat if I needed to, but I didn’t need to,” he challenged Katsia.
I shuffled uncomfortably. “Well, as much as I’ve gotten really easy with letting you keep your secrets, I feel like I need to know this one.”
“Word,” Nate mumbled, leaning back. Tate’s eyes were going between the three of us.
“Well,” Katsia giggled, leaning forward and setting her glass on the small table in front of her. “As much as I’m loving this little thing that’s going on, I’m on borrowed time, so...” She cranked her head at one of her guards, gave him a direct look and then nodded her head. The guard turned and walked out of the room. The silence that stretched out between all of us was deafening and only made me more uncomfortable. Katsia’s grin was firmly fixed on her face the entire time.
The heavy footsteps broke the silence and my head swung to the opening. The guard stepped away, and— “Tillie!” I shot off the couch, my breathing sinking in shallow heaves. I couldn’t believe it was really her! It was her, wasn’t it? I reached out to touch her.
Katsia giggled, standing from her chair. “She’s been here the whole time.”
Nate stood up behind me, and I chanced a quick stare at him. His eyes were fixed on Tillie, and hers on him. “Did you know this whole time?” was all he said.
“Me?” My hand came to my chest. “No!”
“Not you.” He cut his eyes down to Bishop. “You.”
Bishop’s jaw was ticking under the pressure; his lip was slightly curled at Katsia. “Yes.”
I exhaled, my fingers coming to my temples. “What the fuck is going on?” I started walking toward Tillie, but the guard stood in front of her again, blocking me. “Get the fuck out of my way.”
“Kitty,” Bishop growled.
“You can shut up,” I replied softly without looking at him. I was angry that her being here wasn’t new information to him and that he had known for a long time—probably all of the time. “Tillie?” I tilted my head to try and get a clearer view of her behind the big man of steel in front of me. He slowly stepped aside, and it was the first time I got a real look at what she looked like now. She was in a white gown that cut off at her knees. The straps were thick and rolled over her shoulder, displaying her arms. Her face was bare of any makeup and her eyes looked like ripples of lightening laced in a blue sky. She looked broken. Her hair had been brushed down, falling over her shoulders, with the pink now washed out to a faded pastel color and her re-growth evident.
“Tillie?” I stepped toward her again. Her face fell. “Are you ok?”
She raised her head and her eyes came to mine, a single tear sneaking out. “I—I’m, I mean, I was…”
“That’s enough!” Katsia snapped, and then quickly composed herself. “Take a seat with Nate, Tillie.” Katsia rolled her eyes. “Before he kills me.”
Tillie came toward us and as soon as she was within reach, Nate’s arm snaked out and pulled her into him. He sunk her down next to him and I dropped down on the other side of her. She smelled like bleach and antiseptic. Something was going on, something that I couldn’t understand—again, and until I found out exactly what it was that Bishop was hiding from me this time, I wasn’t sure how I felt with him. Again. Yes, I loved him, but love should never be used as a doormat. When will this shit end. Right now, Nate needed me more than anyone else, so when his hand went over the edge of the couch, I brought my right hand up to where his curled around my shoulder and laced my fingers with his. At the connection, I felt a jolt of power and anger. Anger amongst all that Nate was a King, yet something was held from him about Tillie—why?
“Why?” I snapped, suddenly having enough of the song and dance and ready to put her on a plane with Daemon and fly the fuck out of this place.
“Why, what?” Katsia quirked an eyebrow at me. She was an expert at making you feel inferior, but this time, my anger wasn’t going to allow me to cower to her like I had in the past.
“You know what, Katsia, cut the bullshit. Why was Tillie here?”
“Oh,” Katsia waved her hand casually. “Well, she was pregnant, of course.”
I sucked in a breath. My head pounded and colorful little dots danced in my bleak vision. I felt Nate’s hand still in my grip. He let me go and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “What?” The depth of his tone was enough to put the fear of the Lord into the devil.
Tate stood from the corner of my eye and walk to the window. Bishop’s leg pressed against mine roughly and I could hear the shuffling of a couple of the Kings who were standing behind me.
“Suddenly, shit makes sense,” Jase mumbled, rubbing the scruff on his jaw.
Tillie swiped away the tears that were streaming down her face. “Was being the correct word there.”
I stilled.
Bishop’s leg stopped flat, and Nate shot up off the couch. An armored guard stepped forward, grabbing Nate’s arm. “What do you mean was.”
Katsia’s eyes flashed to Tillie, and then to Nate. For once, I saw fear flash through them briefly. “You know the rules, Nathan.”
“Fuck you, tell me right now what the fuck is going on or I’ll snap all your guards’ necks and then feed them to you through a fucking straw!”
Katsia swallowed, shot the rest of her drink back and stood. “She couldn’t exist.”
I buried my face in my hands as realization snuck in. “What?” I whispered to myself, and then my hand came to Tillie’s. I was going to be strong for her. I didn’t know what she had been through and I don’t know why, but I didn’t care. She was my best friend and no matter what, I would stand by her. She sniffed, looked at me, and then squeezed her fingers with mine.
“I’m not walking out of this place without answers,” I whispered to her, squeezing her fingers.
“Did you kill my kid, Katsia?” Nate asked, stepping closer to her.
Katsia laughed. “Oh, wait, what made you think it was your kid?”
“And the plot thickens,” Hunter grumbled, standing from the couch to check on Tatum.
“Because I fucking know, Katsia, quit the fucking games. I’ll give you ten seconds.”
Katsia snickered. “You give her too much credit.”
“Nine.”
Bishop stood, walking beside Nate. Bishop tilted his head, pulled a smoke out of his pocket and lit it up. “Eight.” He blew out a cloud of smoke.
“Jesus Christ,” I whispered. “There’s going to be a war.” I could smell the heavy scent of spilled blood already.
Tillie’s hand squeezed mine. I looked at her. She shook her head.
“What? What’s wrong?”
“Nate! The girl had to be taken care of. You know the rules! We can’t have another” —Katsia paused just as I caught her glaring at me— “mistake out in the open.”
“Fuck you.” I flipped her off.
Bishop took another drag of his smoke, biting down on it. “Six.”
“What?” Katsia’s eyes flew between him and Nate. “I answered!”
“Yeah, but you see, we had a deal.” That was Bishop.
“The deal went out the window when she was born a swan,” Katsia retorted.
Bishop shook his head, taking the smoke out of his mouth. “The deal was that when the baby was born, I would say what happens—not you. You think you can run around and act boss bitch, Katsia? You forgot one thing.” Bishop threw the smoke onto the beautiful marble floor and squashed it with his dirty boot. “I’m the fucking boss around here.” Then Bishop’s elbow flew out to the guard beside him, knocking him onto the floor. Nate squeezed the other guard’s head and slammed it into his knees. Suddenly there was a swim of violent chaos lurking at my feet.
“We need to go!” Tillie pulled me up, but I yanked at her hand.
“No! I can’t leave them!”
“They’ll be fine, Mads, we need to go. Now.” Her eyes searched mine pleadingly like a silent conversation was being passed. Now, Madison.
Tatum came up behind Tillie. “Let’s go with her and let the boys finish the job here.”
My eyes went to Bishop just as his fingers dived into one of the guard’s eye sockets and he ripped out the balls of mush. Jesus. I watched in fascination as he then slid his blackout from his back pocket and slit it across his throat. Blood sprayed every, dancing in the thick breath of the Reaper.
I scrunched my eyes closed and nodded.
“Madison! Go with Tillie!” Bishop ordered. “Now!”
“Okay!” I snapped back at him, a jolt of shock rippling through me. My legs began following her out of the sitting room of carnage with Tate close behind me.
Tillie looked from left to right, checking the corridor, and then grabbed my arm. “Quick, we don’t have long.”
“Don’t have long for what, Tillie?”
I was answered with silence as she continued to jog down the hallway. We passed artwork knotted in serpentine strokes brushed onto blank canvases. We were all born as a blank canvas, perfectly untouched. Then life happens, and the more you age, the more paint you need. In the end, some of us would escape with our morals, leaving beautiful paint strokes from a tractable life behind on our canvas. But others, like me, will be ending with brushstrokes far too acrimonious to warrant us a ticket through the golden gates of whatever the fuck was waiting on the other side. No matter how unpleasant our canvas may be at the end, all that mattered was who was willing to gape appreciatively at us. My eyes caught a cabinet nailed to the wall. Quickly, I pulled it open and smiled when I saw it was lined with shotguns. Snagging the AR15, I checked the rounds and then quickly caught up to Tatum. Tillie pushed open a door at the end of the hallway and disappeared inside. I followed behind her and then Tatum, who I was hoping wouldn’t be too affected by not only Tillie being here but the fact that she had a kid with Nate. My head was spinning from the overload of information that it had collected over the past few minutes. I couldn’t dwell on it too much right now—couldn’t decipher my feelings in the middle of a war, but I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. About everything. All I knew was that I needed to follow Tillie. There was obviously something important that she needed to tell me or show me. She flicked the light on and I squinted from the influx of the brightness. Shading my eyes with my hand, I gazed around the room. It was small. No bed, a pile of boxes to the side. It smelled of dust mite corpses that had suffocated horrific deaths by the contained space and lack of oxygen. That’s when I saw hands clenched around the opening of a window.
“Daemon!” I whisper-screamed, just as he climbed up. He lifted the rest of himself through the window, and then gave me a small smile before turning back.
“What’s going on?” I asked, confused with the movements.
Tillie rushed towards him, her hand going around his waist as she peeked over the windowsill. I slowly started walking towards them, my eyes going around the room. They eventually landed on Tatum, who looked as confused as I felt.
“Dae—” a baby crying broke through. I paused, leaning outside.
Tillie took the baby that was wrapped in a soft pink blanket and cradled it to her. When I looked back out the window to see who it was that passed the baby through, all I could see was the back of a retreating Tinker.
“Figures,” I muttered, snickering at her retreat.
“She’s the good in this, Mads. I promise.”
I brushed her off, which I guess I didn’t have much evidence to do that. She did help Tate and I escape, and she’s been nothing but helpful, but there was always a nudge in my gut when it came to her. Confusion, or something else, I wasn’t quite sure yet.
“Okay,” I breathed out, leaning against the windowsill. “Okay,” I repeated.
“She’s not okay,” Tate mumbled under her breath.
My chest tightened and the grip I had around the wooden edge compressed. A cold sweat broke out over my brow, my breathing coming in shallow heaves, then a cool, yet familiar hand brushed against my arm. I slowly whistled out the pent-up breath, my eyes going to Daemon. “What do I make of this, D?”
His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. His eyebrows crossed. “I don’t…” then he paused, before continuing. “All good things, Madison.”
“We’re going to work on your English when we get back,” I mumbled my reply grumpily under my breath.
There was another cry. Turning around, my eyes fell on the little bundle that was wrapped up tightly in Tillie’s arms. I couldn’t see her face, and I wasn’t sure whether I was capable yet. Something told me I should wait—until Nate at least gets to see his daughter first. I felt as though I was trespassing on his turf by just looking at his baby before him.
“I’m sorry, Mads. The whole thing is so complicated, and I—”
“—don’t have to explain right now.” I offered her a small smile. “We have a two-hour flight you can fill me in on. For now, we need to go look for the boys.” Just as the words left my mouth, the door smashed open and Bishop stood on the threshold, shirtless with blood splattered all over his abs and his chest drawing in and out. His shoulders lifted and dropped as he sucked in each breath. I jolted to him, going on instinct to see if he was okay, but his eyes cut to mine and I flinched. His eyes were black orbs of hell and in that moment, he was barely recognizable. I stilled, my fists clenching together.
“Bishop…”
He shook his head at me, and then kicked the door open wider to let Nate, Jase, Hunter, and Saint walk in behind him. They looked like they had just stepped out of World War III.
“Fuck,” Nate coughed out, stepping backward to stabilize himself.
There was a long pause until Tillie finally broke the silence. “Do you want to hold her?”
Nate’s eyes closed, a hiss escaping between his teeth. He dropped to his knees, the silence was enough to haunt me.
I began slowly drifting to Nate, ignoring the pull I was feeling between Bishop and I. “Nate?” I whispered, although my voice came out shaky. “You can hold her…”
“Can’t.” He shook his head, choking on his words and standing back to his feet. “Not like this. We need to leave. Now.”
“He’s right,” Bishop agreed. “We only got rid of who was there, and amongst all the bullshit, Katsia slipped away.”
“Well, of course she did.” I rolled my eyes. I hated her.
“She doesn’t know Micaela is alive. We just have to make sure we can sneak out before then.”
“And what the fuck makes you think you should be alive?” Nate seethed, his eyes cutting to Tillie. The energy in the room immediately shifted. Unease oozed through me.
“Nate!” I snapped. “She’s the mother of your child and my fucking best friend!”
“She was nothing more than a walking sack of amniotic fluid. She doesn’t need to be alive anymore. Her job here is done, oh” —he cut his eyes to me— “and I don’t fucking trust her.”
“Trust her?” I yelled, a little too loudly because Bishop came closer to me. “You fucking loved her!”
Nate barked out a laugh. “Watch the way you use that word, sis. You and I both know that if I loved her, I wouldn’t have been sinking my dick into Tatum every day of the fucking week.” His eyes narrowed at me, and I shot daggers back at him. He wasn’t only being rude, but he was lashing out. I expected something to happen with him in the brief moments we were standing here waiting to decide to find the guys, but I didn’t expect him to lash out quite like this—I especially didn’t expect him to take his anger out on Tillie. I could see it now, though. The change in his demeanor. The monster that always lurked beneath the surface, cloaked under his cool swagger, was now prowling back and forth with fire seething between its lips. The rage that was pelting off him was igniting smoldering flickers of anger inside of me.
“That was a shit dig, Nate,” I mumbled in disapproval, shaking my head. Bishop threw a shirt on, and it was then that I realized why he didn’t wear one. So he didn’t get blood on it. He was way too good at this, obviously.
“We need to leave, now,” Tillie said, not giving Nate a reply. “There is underground access that can take us straight to the airstrip, but we have to leave out this window.”
“Done,” Bishop started to the window, grabbing my hand on his way.
“Nah uh.” Eli shook his head. “I’m with Nate. I don’t trust this bitch.”
“Trust me or not,” Tillie finally said, giving the baby to Daemon. “But I’m all you have right now.”
Eli looked to Nate, who then looked to Saint and Jase. I shot Jase a glare who then nodded. Hunter joined him.
“You ambush us, woman, and I’ll show exactly why you should be afraid of me—you hear?” Nate answered, slowly making his way to the window.
Tillie nodded, her eyes going to her feet before she’s leaping out the window. Daemon handed the baby out to her and then followed. Nate went to jump out, but my hand flew to his chest. “Hey! I get that you’re angry and confused but try to simmer the anger down. We don’t know what she has just endured, Nate. Try not to be an arse.”
He winked at me, gripping onto the edge. “I’m always an arse, sis.” Then he leaped out the window.
“That’s it. I’m calling it. He has schizophrenia.”
“Your turn.” Bishop pointed out the window.
“Bishop…” I whispered. “Look at me.”
He wouldn’t, his eyes remained on the window. “Get out of the fucking window, Madison.”
“What have I done now!”
“Jesus Christ, girl! For once, just once, can you do as you’re fucking told!” Hunter gripped my arm and shoved me toward the window. “Get out. Now!” I shrugged my arm out of his grip and jumped out. My feet hit the dusty ground with a thud and vibrations shot up my leg from the impact. Nate took my hand and pulled me into him.
“What’d I do now?” I asked, looking up at him. Daemon was on the other side. He took my other hand.
“He’s had real life hit him in the balls over the last thirty minutes.”
“What does that mean!” It wasn’t my intention for my question to come out as a whine, but it did.
“It means don’t fucking ask until we’re back on our soil.”
Then Nate pushed me into Daemon and scrubbed his eyes with the palm of his hand. Nate had never handled me in any threatening way, but again, the energy felt different tonight. There was an obvious change in the dynamic and I was dreading coming to terms with whatever was about to go down. Bishop was the last one to exit the window and as soon as the soles of his feet touched the ground, we all shot off, following Tillie and Daemon, who still had the baby in his arms. It was strange, but I sensed a story there. The Lost Boys had a job to do when it came down to it, and that was to end all of the Swans—or get rid of, as they would say—and I knew for a fact that Daemon had done it before, so why was he hesitant with this one? My legs continued to carry me forward in the silence with nothing but the heavy pity patting from our shoes hitting the road.
Tillie stopped, and that’s when my eyes flew around the place, taking in everything. We were outside, running through a meadow, which was odd, considering. But if I had to guess, I would say we were in the backyard, only the backyard looked to be the size of a damn football field. Tillie pointed toward a barn that was hidden discretely at the back of the house. “In there. There’s a manhole in the floor that leads underground. It’s where they transport stuff that they don’t want documented—ever.”
“Are you saying that some shit has been going on here behind the Kings’ back, or are you saying my dad knew about it and they’re hiding it from The Circle?” Bishop asked from behind me, where he had been the entire time. He had barely touched me since coming back from his slaughtering, and if it wasn’t for the dire situation we were all in, I’d overthink the fuck out of it.
“The latter and then some,” Tillie admitted. She started jogging toward the metal barn. We all followed and waited as Daemon opened the heavy tin door. There was a loud creaking sound that filled the deserted meadow, but once it was open, we all ran inside. Tillie kicked off the manhole cover. It was large enough for us all to jump down and walk through. She went first, and then Daemon handed her the baby before jumping in himself. The order went much like the window, and before I knew it, we were all walking down hidden tunnels. The walls were made of dirt and there were rail tracks that lined the clay ridden rode. Smaller than what you would find for a train, but definitely big enough to hold a small cart.
“These tunnels have areas that curve off to not only all four factions of Perdita but every section too.”
“Every section of this area of Perdita?” Bishop wanted to clarify.
Tillie shook her head, hiking the baby higher. “No. I mean, everywhere on the island.”
“That’s messed up. What the fuck is going on here.”
We continued our trek deeper into the tunnels. Twenty minutes later, the air was tight and sweat was falling off my flesh with every step.
“Tillie,” I called out, wiping away some fallen dirt that had dropped onto my face. It smudged into my sweat and turned it to soft clay. “Is the baby ok?”
Tillie gave me a small smile over her shoulder. “She will be fine once this is over.” Then her legs picked up. “There it is!” We all jogged to an opening archway to the left of the trail. I looked up above, seeing a small metal plate that had “Airport” engraved into it. I let out a sigh of relief just as Tillie pushed open a door and walked through. The space was small, so small that we couldn’t all fit inside at once. Tillie banged on the manhole above her head, and then banged another three times. A lock slid open and daylight slammed into the small enclosure.
“You’re all ok?” Tinker asked, worry evident on her face. “Come on, you’re running low on time.” She reached down and pulled Tillie out, and then Daemon, again, they both switched who was holding the baby—who hadn’t made a sound through the whole way. I was impressed, she obviously got that side from her mother. I grabbed Tillie’s hand and she pulled me up until I was out of the hold and sucking in crisp air again. My chest loosened and relaxed. I turned back to pull Tatum out and then we both grabbed Nate. While the guys were coming out, I took this moment to turn to Tinker.
“What’s your deal?”
“My deal?” Tinker smiled. “Not all of us get to choose our path, Madison, so” —her eyes went over my shoulder before coming back to me— “choose yours wisely.”
I turned my head over my shoulder to see who was there. Bishop.
“Thank you for the advice, but it seems, I can’t choose mine either.”
“You can’t.” Bishop shoulder barged past me. “But I can.”
I swallowed past the hurt that crept up from my chest and into my throat. Sadness gripped to my bones. He cannot be serious.