SAINT

SAINT

A week or so later…

I hated it when I had grand plans for someone I cared about, and I couldn't find the words to tell them.

"You want me to what?" Folk leaned on the front door frame of Decoy's house, bleary exhaustion lining his face.

I'd left my phone on the dashboard. I pointed at the SUV I'd left on the road and hoped he'd get the memo.

"You want me to come with you," Folk surmised.

I nodded and he sighed.

"Give me a sec."

He trudged back into the house, hips moving stiffly, feet dragging. It was so unlike him that I had to look away. I focused on the front garden instead, and the work Decoy had done on it this summer. The world had shifted on its axis more than once since the solstice—our world, at least—but tracking the passage of time in the plants he'd nurtured was better for my noisy brain than thinking too hard about the last few weeks.

"That's new," I gritted out when Folk reappeared.

He followed my gaze to the low hanging young tree. "Dwarf willow. Cam got it for Ivy. You weren't there?"

I shook my head and hopped off the porch steps, striding to the car.

Folk moved slower, and I didn't have to watch to feel how much pain he was in.

I opened the passenger door for him.

"Thanks." He gripped the top of it. "Do I get to know where we're going?"

Not straight away. I waited for him to get in the car, shut his door, then rounded the bonnet to slide behind the wheel.

I picked up my phone and typed out a message, holding it up for him to see.

Embry first. Then home

Another brother might've questioned me more, but Folk wasn't Rubi, or Mateo when he was in a mood. He accepted my answer and leaned back in his seat, closing his heavy eyes. "I need to fetch Ivy from school later."

"I'll take you."

"You don't have to do that."

Maybe not, but I recognised the fatigue weighing him down. I'd felt it in my own bones not so long ago, and I'd seen it in Alexei too, but he'd recovered far quicker than Folk seemed to be.

There's reasons for that . I'd heard whispers. But unless Folk told me his story himself, I didn't let myself think about that either.

Folk wasn't a brother I associated with music much. I left the radio off and drove in silence to the house Mateo and Embry shared but didn't seem to like all that much.

Embry was alone too. I hustled him out and he eased his healing body into the backseat. "Where are we going?"

"Home."

"Whose home?"

"Mine."

Embry knew what that meant and settled back.

Folk eyed me with more interest. He'd never been to my campsite by the sea. To the converted van I'd still live in if Cam and Alexei would happily live there with me.

It was twenty minutes out of town. I parked Cam's pimp-wagon close to the van and shut the engine off.

I got out in time to open Embry's door.

Folk was too quick for me, despite the slow steps he took towards the Sprinter. "This is your house?"

I nodded and unlocked it, gesturing for him to be as nosy as he liked.

Folk drifted ahead and poked his head inside. "My brother would love this. He has one on my parents' farm. It has solar panels, but no bed."

Embry voiced the question I couldn't. "Where does he sleep?"

"Wherever he gets the most peace. Poet likes his own company."

Poet . My curiosity peaked. "What's your sister's name?"

"Finch."

"Like the bird?"

"My parents are hippies."

"Like Rubi's."

Folk grinned. "So I hear."

"It's true." Embry had already found his way to the sofa I'd dragged out of the van that morning. "His middle name is Hummingbird. His brother was Lark Sapphire Matherson."

Folk's smile dimmed. Like everyone, he knew Rubi's brother had died young. No one talked about it much, and most of us had never known him, but Lark's picture was on the bar walls, wrapped up in a passage of time that had given us Rubi, Cam, Orla, and River. It was so obvious that he'd once been here, and now he wasn't.

I pointed at the sofa. Take a seat .

Folk took a last look around my space, then joined Embry on the couch. I built a fire while they talked bollocks I didn't care about. Then I went to the van and made tea.

When I came back, Embry was doing what he did best, distracting himself with other people's problems. But Folk was cleverer than him. Or maybe he was trained to deflect. I'd googled that special forces shit, and it had left me thankful that the Dog Crows had been too stupid to ever realise who Folk really was.

Who he is. He'd been out of the military for years, but if the past few months proved anything, it was that he'd always be a soldier.

"How's things going with Decoy?"

Folk eyed Embry through the steam of the turmeric and ginger tea I'd made him in place of the builder's brew I didn't have. "Things?"

Embry kept his gaze steady, only the barest hint of discomfort crossing his face as he reached for the mug I held out to him. "Things. Life. I know he's been worried about you, but I've never seen him this happy."

Because he's never been happy . I crouched by the fire, keeping it stoked with dry logs that didn't smoke much. It was still summer, but the sunshine was long gone. The sky was overcast, the air brisk, like autumn had come early, and it bugged me to think that my brothers might get cold.

"Things are good," Folk said eventually. "I've never been this happy either."

"It's been a long road, eh?"

Folk's only answer was a rueful grin, and it was ironic as hell that I wanted more from him. This was the man who'd taught my lover to scuba dive. Who'd taken him on a kamikaze combat mission. By rights, I should've hated him.

I didn't.

Folk had brought Alexei home, and away from all that horrible shit, I admired him, perhaps more than I'd ever admired anyone. He was strong and wise. Clever and warm. I felt it in my soul that we could all learn so much from him.

"What about you?"

It took a second for me to realise Embry had switched his attention to me. I forced my gaze from the fire and tilted my head.

What about me?

His curious gaze glittered. "You've never seen Alexei that vulnerable. I'm wondering how you're doing with that."

The question threw me. Because he was wrong. Alexei had been vulnerable since the day he'd met Cam. From the moment he'd allowed himself to love us. The physical stuff? In that sense, I'd worried more about Embry. About Folk. About Decoy and Mateo if they hadn't made it through.

I got up and returned to my van, searching through the sparse cupboards for something Embry had given me after I'd had my own stomach carved up. When pain and nausea had briefly ruled my life. I'd been lucky. I had scars, but that's all they were—to me, anyway. Hazy memories of something that had hurt the people I loved more than it had hurt me.

Maybe Embry would be lucky now too.

I found the little brown bottle and took it back to the fire. I held it out to Folk, standing close enough that he didn't need to sit up. I'd become so used to Embry looking like shit all the time, that how he was now , just a few weeks post-surgery, relaxed something inside me.

He's okay .

With Folk, it was the opposite. Watching him grit his teeth to even raise his arm was disturbing as fuck.

He took the bottle. "Peppermint oil?"

I nodded and went back to the fire, leaving Embry to explain. Tuning out as he did. It bothered me that listening had become sometimes as difficult as talking. That my attention span was as dysfunctional as the rest of me.

Stop .

Cam's voice echoed in my head. He was always growly, but sometimes he tapped into a deeper rumble to put my wayward brain in its place.

On the fire, a log hissed, the moisture and sap inside it boiling over, fracturing the bark. It cracked like a whip, embers exploding.

One landed on my arm.

I watched it burn.

Folk sat up and swiped it off.

I felt bad for making him move, but he smiled at me.

"Thank you for bringing me here. This is nice."

I nodded, and he leaned back again, lower this time, dropping his head on his bent arm.

"Put your feet up, man," Embry murmured.

Folk hummed, not, moving.

Embry laughed. "I know that sound. Saint, take his boots off."

I obliged, unlacing Folk's old hikers and easing them off his feet as he raised his head a fraction to watch me. He looked amused, which was good. Last time someone— Rubi —had done the same thing for me, I'd wanted to toe him in the face. The fact that I couldn't lift my leg had seemed beside the point.

Folk wasn't me, though. He was a cool motherfucker. He nodded his thanks, dumped his feet on the couch, and passed out.

I covered his legs with an old blanket, wondering how long it would take Embry to do the same.

Ten minutes, as it turned out, and I breathed an internal sigh of relief. I'd missed Embry, and nearly losing him again had hurt my weirdo heart. But I wasn't in the mood to have my emotional state of mind inspected, which made me ponder why I'd brought him here.

Then I remembered why. I was going to ask Folk to train with us when he felt better, and I'd figured it would be less awkward if Embry was here to fill in the gaps. And now they were both asleep and I hadn't asked anyone anything.

Life was strange, but at least if I did get round to asking him, the first time he came here wouldn't be when we were kicking seven shades of shit out of each other.

I crouched by the fire again, poking at it with one hand, my phone in the other.

Saint: folk fell asleep. i can pick Ivy up

Decoy's reply came fast.

Decoy: is he ok?

I studied Folk, then Embry too as the chances of Mateo asking the same questions were high.

Embry was fine. Folk, though? I wasn't sure, and I was a lot of things, but I wasn't a liar.

Saint: not yet