Chapter 2

TWO

Even the plane ride home is quiet, all of us lost in our own thoughts—or exhaustion from the marathon we have been on over the last few weeks.

“Where to?” Louis asks, seeming as lost as all of us, and when I speak, my voice is hoarse from not using it.

“We go home to my sister. We regroup, lick our wounds, and seal his research away. Then, we kill him.”

Louis nods, but I sense his worry. I ignore it as I head to the shower. My head hangs as I wash the blood and death away, only it ends with me sobbing on my knees.

I thought it was over.

I thought we were safe.

I was wrong and all along, I was so sure.

It was just another test, another experiment.

I willingly walked into his lab, but this time, I’m not a child.

That’s how Jonas finds me. Water sprays down on me as I cry, my arms locked around my knees as my bruised body shakes with my sobs. I lift my head and meet his forlorn eyes.

He slowly steps into the room and shuts the door, holding his hands out like I’m a spooked animal. I have to bite back my cry as he crouches before me. “I’ve got you,” is all he says. Reaching up, he switches off the shower and lifts me out, holding me tight as he dries me off and dresses me. All the while, I cry silently, leaning into his strength.

With a soft kiss on my forehead, he carries me to the bed, where he lays me down and carefully covers me with the duvet before curling around me. “I’ve got you,” he repeats, and I know he does.

The door opens, but I don’t even lift my head, knowing they are all there. Jonas must silently communicate and I let him, choosing to close my swollen, raw eyes as they join us, sprawling around me. All of us touch each other, needing the comfort for what is to come, remembering what the man we now hunt is capable of.

What he did to us.

What he has continued to do.

“I fell for it,” I croak sometime later, the hum of the plane’s engine almost swallowing my words. “He did it to bring me out of hiding, and I fell for it.”

“We all did,” Dimitri murmurs.

I sniff. “I hate him.”

“I know. We will find him, Nova. I promise that. We will end this. He will not get you. Not ever,” Nico states firmly, his hand squeezing my ankle.

Why does some part of me feel like he already has and he’s already won?

* * *

Ana and Bert stand at the front door as we pull up, and I’m out of the car before it stops moving. She’s nervous but smiling. However, when she takes a look at my face, it falls away.

“Nova, are you okay? What happened?” she demands.

Stopping before them both, I search them for wounds. “He’s alive.”

“Who is?” she asks, sounding confused.

“Dad,” I mutter. “Dad is alive.”

“Nova, we buried him,” she scoffs.

“I spoke to him.” That falls into the silence like a lead weight as I hear the car doors slamming behind me. “He was behind this all along. It was to bring me back, to bring us back, and to experiment on us once more. We fell for it. He’s alive, Ana.”

She’s pale, and I spare Bert a sad look before I focus back on her.

“And I’m going to stop him. I’m going to kill him for good this time.” Unable to watch the twisting emotions crossing her face, I move around her and head inside.

I never thought this place would feel like home, but as I step into the foyer, I’m almost glad to be back.

Despite the horrors and the bad memories here, I have good ones too—of Annie, Bert, and my guys—and I need that. I will need all the strength I can muster for what is to come.

Heading straight to the kitchen, I grab a bottle and pour myself a healthy helping of whisky, grimacing at the taste as it goes down.

“I’ll make some tea,” Bert murmurs as he joins me.

I just nod jerkily until his hand lands on my shoulder, making my eyes close as the alcohol burns down my throat.

“I am sorry, Miss Nova, but you are not alone.”

“Thank you,” I murmur as I turn, watching him move around to make some food and tea. Annie comes in and sits heavily at the table, staring at it. Dragging the bottle over, I pour her a glass and push it to her. Without sparing me a look, she tosses it back.

She groans at the taste before meeting my eyes. “Part of me is angry, disgusted, and sad, but part of me is glad, Nova.” She searches my gaze as I flinch. “I’m so sorry.”

Reaching over, I take her hand. “You are allowed to be happy your father is alive, Ana.”

“But how can I be after what he has done?” she sobs.

“Because he is still your father, and you can’t shut off love just like that.”

“You did,” she whispers.

“No, he beat it out of me through years of pain. There is nothing but anger for him in my heart, anger and hatred, but you need to know, Ana, that I can’t—won’t save him. He has to die, even if that means you’ll hate me.”

“I know,” she says, taking my hand and holding my gaze. “You have to stop him, Nova. You have to.”

And so we sit, with a shared bottle of whisky between two sisters who don’t drink.

One who just wants to heal the world, and the other who only ever wanted it to leave her alone.