“The Klovoda hasn’t questioned you about the other murders yet, so it might seem like everyone has forgotten about them, but they haven’t. You don’t want to add more fuel to the fire right now, Seraph. You’re special to the Klovoda, to Weston, to everyone it seems. But they will lock you up just like they did with Eva. They will, if you prove yourself to be too much of a danger.”
I pulled my hand away from him, but only because it was uncomfortable to have him holding on to me. “I understand.”
I pushed the pill into my pocket while the reverberation of my words still rang in the air, making it seem as though I hadn’t considered his words at all. But I had. It was never far from my mind, the reality of what I had done. Jayden wasn’t telling me anything new; he wasn’t cautioning me in any way that I hadn’t already cautioned myself many times over. I had to trust my power. It was a part of me, and I didn’t think that I was a bad person. I had done bad things, yes… many of them… but my intentions were pure. I wanted to protect myself and the people I loved; it was as simple as that.
I had to protect Silas from himself, and the rest of us from the messenger.
Silas and Danny had proven themselves to each be uniquely talented at one thing in particular; they were both uncomfortably aware of the majority of my actions and decisions. Silas was particularly skilled at knowing my whereabouts, and there was nothing that he hated more than people touching me. If Danny was in any kind of a state to monitor me as he usually did, even he would be furious at what I was about to do. I wasn’t confident in my new plan. I wasn’t even confident that I could go through with it… but I would try. Since we had discovered that Silas was shutting Jayden out with the rest of us, it had become clear that things had escalated further than we could have anticipated.
Jayden had called the rest of the Klovoda, but nobody seemed to be able to connect to Silas.
He had gone dark.
“The rumours are spreading about what happened with Gerald,” Jayden chose to inform me as we piled into the waiting car. “Weston probably started them himself, but the Klovoda aren’t happy with Silas right now. He’s going to be in a lot of trouble when this is all over.”
“Why?” Quillan slid into the driver’s seat while Jayden took the front passenger’s seat.
His dark eyes were intent on the road, but I could tell that his attention was wholly on Jayden, awaiting his reply. Noah and Cabe were on either side of me in the back, and I could feel them tense at the mention of Gerald. Cabe’s eyes were heavy on my face, but I directed my eyes steadily to the front windshield, mirroring Quillan’s posture.
“Silas killed Gerald,” Jayden said mildly. “Once again, Weston probably set it up. Initially, Weston planned to simply unite Gerald with his son and leave them both alone, but after finding out what Gerald had been doing to Seraph in all the years that he had been keeping her from the Klovoda… well, I suppose he changed his mind. I’m sure he would have told Silas everything and dropped Gerald into the same room to let them have a little alone time. It’s the sort of thing he would do.”
Noah and Cabe grew even more stiff, until it was so uncomfortable to sit between them that I was forced to wriggle forward in my seat a little so that their tense arms didn’t press so hard into my sides that I was ground into nothing. Quillan’s hands tightened on the steering wheel and Jayden glanced around at the sudden, heavy silence that had dropped through the cab of the car. I shook my head slightly when his eyes settled on me, and he seemed confused by the gesture. Quillan directed the car to the side of the road, turning off the engine and simply sitting there for a moment, silently. Eventually, he turned to face me, his gaze heavy with trepidation and anger.
“What…” His teeth seemed to be grinding together, and he paused for several long seconds to pull himself together. “What is he talking about, Seph? What was Gerald doing to you that Silas didn’t know about?”
I flicked my eyes back to the windshield, trying to keep my face as neutral as possible. I had never spoken in-depth about my past life—because that was what it was. Another life; another world; another reality. I no longer knew the girl who used to hide behind her hair and creep through her own house, afraid of everyone and everything, including herself. When I looked in the mirror, she wasn’t there. She was gone, and I had taken her place.
“I’m a virgin,” I said, matter-of-factly. “I never let him get that far.”
Cabe hissed in a sharp breath and Jayden cleared his throat awkwardly. “I’m ah… I’m going for a walk.” He slid out of the car, slamming the door and wandering off down the side of the road.
None of the others spoke.
“It’s okay.” I tried to fill the tense silence. “It doesn’t matter anymore. He’s dead now. Again. Will one of you please say something?”