“Because—” He swallows hard, his jaw muscles clenching like he has to force himself to speak the words. He reaches down and pulls up the leg of his jeans, revealing an ankle holster. Glinting in the sun is a dagger just like the one Cassandra pulled out of Greer’s chest. “It is standard issue.”
Cassandra pronounces Greer stable enough to be moved, and Gretchen carries our sister back to the safe house, back to a magically protected, comfortable place to recover without worrying that monsters are going to break down the door at any moment. There was no way she was letting Thane touch her.
Then, once Greer is settled into the unexpectedly soft bed, we gather around Thane in the living room—me, Gretchen, Cassandra, and little Sillus. I listen intently as he tells his story. We all do.
“As a little boy, I was given into the service of Artemis,” he begins. “My parents were poor, and the goddess gave them great wealth in return for me.”
I can’t remember him ever stringing this many words together at once, especially about his past. He never talks about his past. Mom and Dad would be in shock.
“As part of my service to the goddess of the hunt,” he continues, “I trained as a warrior. As an assassin.”
“Assassin?” I echo, my voice barely a whisper.
He gives me a curt nod. “Even as a child. I was her star soldier. Could handle any blade with deadly precision.”
He casually flips the dagger he pulled from his ankle holster into the air, letting the golden hilt spin several times in the gleaming sun before landing squarely back in his palm. He turns and, faster than my eye can follow, sends the blade speeding through the air. It is quivering, blade-first, in the narrow strip of wood between the window panes. A fraction of an inch to either side and it would have shattered the glass.
“Could best anyone in her army,” he says, not sounding proud of his achievement, “even the teenagers.”
“But you were only eight when we found you,” I say.
An eight-year-old being trained as an assassin? Fighting other soldiers, even the ones way older than him? I can’t imagine what it must have been like, little boy Thane being taught to fight and kill. He’d seemed like such a fragile thing when he came into our family, small and hungry after living on the street. Had that been a sham? Was it all a setup?
“One day, the goddess came to me with a mission.” His eyes cloud over. “It was a very special mission, one that would bring me glory and my parents even more wealth. If I failed, it would bring us death.”
I gasp.
Gretchen just glares at him.
“For three weeks prior, she starved me. I was given two slices of bread and a glass of water each day.” The haunted look in his eyes says he remembers that time as if it were yesterday. “When I was ready, she sent me to the city. She arranged events so that I was found, so that our parents”—he looks at me—“would be the ones who adopted me.”
“What was your mission?” Gretchen demands.
Thane turns to her. “My mission was, and remains,” he says, his voice chilled, “to kill the sister of the Key Generation who possesses the far-roaming power of the gorgon Euryale.” He doesn’t look at me as he says, “To kill Grace.”
Sillus gasps.
I can only stare and blink.
Gretchen launches herself at him before anyone can react. She has him on the floor, her palms tightening around his throat. His arms spread out, palm up. He’s not resisting her. If what he says about his training is true, he could probably pin Gretchen in a flash. He’s letting her choke him.
“Do it,” he whispers. “I deserve it.”
That stuns her. She doesn’t release his neck entirely, but she sits back on his chest.
“Why didn’t you?” she asks. “Why did you abort your mission?”
He shakes his head from side to side. “I—” He glances at me, and in that look I see everything I need to know. He loves me, unconditionally. He’s my brother, however that came to be, and he loves me. “I couldn’t.”
“Couldn’t?” Gretchen echoes.
He returns his attention to her. “I wouldn’t.”
She releases his neck.
“They know?” she asks. “Your keepers know you’re not their boy anymore?”
Thane nods. “I told them.” He looks away. “Stupid. That’s why they sent another.”
“Is that where you went?” I ask. “When you disappeared, you went to tell them you wouldn’t kill me?”
He doesn’t nod. He doesn’t have to.
“That’s who beat you up,” I say.
“I shouldn’t have gone,” he says. “I thought if I told them about you, about how you are a good person and you only want the best for everyone, maybe they would change their minds about the whole operation. Instead, they planted a bomb.”
“Bomb?” Gretchen growls. “The one that destroyed my loft?”
The pieces fall into place.
“You made the call,” I blurt. He doesn’t answer, but I know it’s what happened. “You saved our lives.”
“Too bad you’re the one who put us in danger in the first place,” Gretchen says. “You should have told us sooner.”
He winces in pain. “I know.”
She climbs to her feet, knocking him in the ribs with her boot as she steps over him. Sillus runs over and kicks him in the thigh.
I don’t know what to say. I don’t even know what to feel. The big brother I have looked up to for most of my life, who taught me how to knee a guy who got too handsy and who always made sure I got the biggest brownie on the plate, is suddenly a stranger. One of the people I trust the most, and he was the one I should have been afraid of.
He’s still my brother, but he has also been my enemy. I feel like I don’t know him at all.
Thane lies there for a moment before finally getting up. He looks defeated. I don’t know what to say. I want to tell him everything is okay, but is it? How can I tell?
Greer coughs, sputtering breath into the air.
I rush into the bedroom and sit at her side.
“Hush, Greer,” I soothe. “We’re here. You’re okay.”
Our mother sits at her other side, checking Greer’s pulse and smoothing fingertips over her forehead. She’s been watching over her ever since we got back to the safe house.
Greer is still unconscious, though I’m sure that’s not surprising. I wonder how long she’ll be out. I wonder what death, even a brief one, will have cost her.
I glance up as Thane steps into the doorway. He looks at Greer, and then, reassured that she’s okay, he turns and leaves.
In that moment, I know everything is going to be okay. Whatever happened in the past, whatever secrets Thane kept from me my whole life, he is still my brother in every way that matters. He risked his own life to defy his mission. How can I hold him accountable for something he had no choice over in the first place? The important thing is that he’s made his choice now.
He chose me.
Leaving Greer’s side, I return to the other room to reassure my brother that everything is fine. “Hey, Thane, I—”
He’s gone.
CHAPTER 21
GREER
The smell is terrible, revolting, like decaying flesh and skunk and vomit all combined into one. It’s worse than the abyss, even worse than the trash bins behind Fisherman’s Wharf—and that’s saying a lot.
At first my eyes won’t open, like they’re glued shut. Maybe I should be grateful for that. If the smell is this bad, I can only imagine what it looks like—and I’d rather not.
Instead, I try to move. My chest explodes with a white hot pain.
I collapse back down, struggling to keep my breathing even and to maintain consciousness. The last thing I want is to hyperventilate and pass out here, wherever here is.