Chapter 101

New rule: no more haunted houses.

I punched a guy.

Well, to be more specific, I punched a sixteen-year-old kid. In the face. And broke his nose.

To be fair, I only saw a monster running out of a dark shadow straight at me—fangs, red eyes, bad smell. Instinct won over rationale.

But thank fuck for Declan and his smooth-talking mouth. He got me out of a fuck ton of trouble. I didn’t know how, but he did. All I had to do was pay the kid’s fucking medical bill to straighten his nose.

It probably didn’t hurt that the kid thought the broken nose would get him fucking laid. When my wife and brother weren’t listening, I may have also given him tips on that. And how to defend against a punch. But they weren’t allowed to know I’d said that shit. Declan probably would’ve tried to beat my ass.

And honestly, who the fuck thought putting me in a dark house of monsters was a good fucking idea? Things that jumped out? Fuck that. Things that lurked in the shadows? Fuck no. Things that chased after you? Fuck that shit too.

“Are we on a double date together or are they on a date and we’re just following?” I asked as I watched our wives wander ahead of us, arms linked while they chatted amongst themselves.

“We’re definitely here to win shit, carry shit, and feed them.” Declan chuckled.

“Amen to that.” Best fucking job ever. And from the content look on his face, he thought so too. This was how shit was supposed to be. And hopefully one day there’d be a whole group of us Byrnes trying to do this shit. “What’s Cade up to tonight?”

“Probably throwing candy at children and trying to find a way to curse me,” Raven called over her shoulder.

“I know a guy who can help with that last part,” I told her.

“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” Declan muttered under his breath.

“You’d be surprised who I know.”

“Are mermaids real?” Genevieve asked. She stopped, taking Raven with her, and suddenly I had two curious as fuck women ready to interrogate my ass.

“Unicorns?” Raven chimed in ever so seriously. “Dragons? Could I own a dragon?”

“No,” Declan told her quickly.

“What about—”

“What about you make me a fucking list?” I cut them off with a laugh. “Take an afternoon, sit your pretty little selves down with some books from Nolan’s shop, and come up with a list. We can talk about it after. And not in the middle of a goddamn carnival.”

“Can I help make the list?” Declan asked with that stupid fucking grin on his face.

“I’m going to fucking regret this aren’t I?” I demanded.

“Probably.”

“Fuck it. Whatever.” I shrugged. I would regret this later. I could tell from that fucking smile on his face that he was going to get our brothers involved. I knew from the kind of shits we were when helping Nolan write that the list they’d give me would be fucking insane. Lane was about to get a fuck ton of texts from me just so I could answer their fucking questions. I reached for Genevieve’s hand, lacing our fingers together as I changed the conversation. “So, what the hell are we doing next?”

“Our spot for the nighttime corn maze is in an hour,” Genevieve replied. She stepped closer into my side, and I wrapped my arm around her. “They still have voting on the pumpkin decorating—”

“Raven won,” I interrupted. “No questions asked. Horny villain kicked everyone’s asses with her epic four-pumpkin elemental abstract piece.”

“Thank you.” Raven beamed, and we high-fived over it. Why? Who the fuck knew? Somehow that was becoming our thing. I weirdly liked it.

“I have a feeling they’re going to disqualify you for cheating,” Declan commented as he folded his arms around her shoulders. “Everyone else used one pumpkin, and you used all of ours.”

“I created four individual pieces that are part of a series, baby” she retorted. “Each pumpkin is a piece in and of itself, but they all look better together.”

“It’s not cheating,” Genevieve said. “It’s outsmarting the system and upping our chances of winning all the prizes. That’s why I put each of our names individually on each pumpkin.”

“That’s my girl.” I chuckled.

“Ferris wheel?” Raven suggested.

“No,” I answered quickly, shaking my head. “Not a chance in hell.”

“Oh, come on, Killian,” Declan teased. “Afraid you’re too short to ride the ride?”

“I will beat your ass,” I retorted. It was only a half-hearted threat. I was used to my brothers poking fun at my height. I still kicked their asses every time I needed to—at least until they ganged up on me, but that was a different fucking story. “Maybe we should take it over to the ax-throwing tent, Declan.”

“Oh!” Raven gasped. “That’d be fun!”

“I hate you,” he growled while I grinned.

And then Genevieve pinched my fucking rib cage hard enough to make me squirm. I glanced down at her, ready to reprimand, but the look on her face stopped me short. Sixteen years and that look she gave me still got to me. Fuck, I’d do anything for this goddamn woman including keep my fucking brother’s secret.

“If you guys want to go on the Ferris wheel,” I couldn’t believe I was about to say this, “we can go on the Ferris wheel.”

“Really?” Declan cocked a brow.

“Fucker. I hunt monsters for a fucking living,” I snapped. “I can handle a fucking Ferris wheel.”

Fun fact: monsters, yes.

Ferris wheels, no.

I kept my hands shoved in my pockets as we made our way to the front of the corn maze line. I didn’t need anyone to see how bad they were shaking as my heart ran rampant in my chest. Fuck, I hated heights. And the stupid swinging of the Ferris wheel seat? Who’s bright fucking idea was that shit? My goddamn heart practically stopped trying to get through the whole fucking thing.

My brother fucking owed me one. Would’ve been easier to out his ass as a lying lumberjack.

“I love you,” Genevieve whispered. She slipped her arm through my elbow and kissed my shoulder. I grunted some non-distinct sound, grinding my teeth too hard to give a real answer. “What you did… it was very sweet.”

“I want to throw an ax at his stupid face,” I grumbled, staring at my brother’s back.

“Tell on him in sixteen years when it’ll have a bigger impact,” she suggested with that pretty smile of hers.

“You’re a devious little thing, you know that, right?” I said, making her giggle. I kissed her as the line moved enough for Declan to hand our tickets in. The ticket guy was overly cheerful for a guy stuck in the fucking cold taking slips of paper from someone. Still, I threw the kid a bone. “Nice costume.”

“Thanks, man!” he exclaimed from behind his wolf mask as he waved us inside.

“Do we not get maps?” Raven asked as the darkness swallowed us the further we walked down the aisle between tall stalks of corn.

“You give us small-town folk too much fucking credit,” I told her. “You think they’ve got time for shit like making us some fucking maps?

“Remember the year they forgot to make an exit?” Declan laughed.

“Fuck, there were like… what? Fifty of us? Maybe more? We all got fucking stuck in it,” I replied with a grin.

“I sat that one out eating funnel cake,” Genevieve chimed in. I couldn’t see her in the dark and could barely track her with the lack of heightened senses. Discomfort prickled down my neck and did something uncomfortable to my chest. Sliding my hand through hers, I hung on tight—maybe too tight. Just the thought of letting her go got to me.

“Why didn’t we get that option first?” Raven demanded. She let out a squeal and then a sigh. “Thanks, baby.”

“We’re two minutes into the damn maze, honey,” Declan said. “Be careful.”

“I can’t see my feet!”

“You’re not supposed to see your feet. That’s kind of the point,” I chimed in. “Turn left.”

“I think we should go right,” Genevieve replied.

“Why the fuck not.” Because who knew what the fuck we were doing. I was prepared for at least a good hour or two in the fucking maze. We had a rule. “Hey, did we tell Raven the rule?”

“What rule?” Raven asked.

“No wolf senses tonight,” Declan told her. “It defeats the fun.”

“But what if they forgot the exit?”

“Then we’re stuck in here all fucking night.” I chuckled. “You ever done it in a corn maze, horny villain?”

The literal oh she let out made me stop, bending over as I laughed. This fucking woman. She was a fucking riot.

We wandered for at least a fucking hour—none of us bothered to take out our phones. It was a fucking mess of wrong turns, bad jokes, Raven tripping over her own two feet more times than any of us could count, more bad jokes, a fuck ton of more wrong turns, me losing my jacket to my wife, and a growing belief that we were going to get stuck in the fucking maze.

“This is an a-maize-ing maze,” Raven announced, giggling through her own joke as I groaned. So fucking bad. “Get it? Because corn is maize—”

Declan shushed her loudly.

“It’s still as bad as it was the first time, honey,” he told her. We stopped at another crossroads, staring down each dark path. Everything looked the fucking same no matter where we went.

“Maybe next year we should help them with the fucking maps,” I muttered.

“Where’s the fun in that?” Genevieve asked, her teeth clacking slightly as she shivered. I ran my hands vigorously up and down her shoulders. She was too fucking cold. Fuck, even I was cold.

“What’d you do the year they didn’t make an exit?” Raven asked quietly.

“We made an exit,” Declan and I answered simultaneously.

“Okay, hold on.” I planted a soft kiss on Genevieve’s forehead before stepping away. “I’m going to glance down this way. Dec, you check that way. Ladies, you don’t fucking move. We’ll get this shit figured out.”

There was no fucking way we’d get this shit figured out.

“Don’t wander away,” Declan ordered. I started to say something when I realized that if anyone was going to wander away, it’d be Raven and Genevieve. Hopefully, the two of them were cold enough not to do shit until we fucking figured something out.

Counting my steps, I started down one path. The sensation of fear that trickled down my spine was fucking intense. The hollow spot in my chest only seemed to echo that feeling. The absence of my wolf weighed heavy on me. What I wouldn’t have given to lean into my wolf hearing to get us out of this fucking shit.

I kept in a straight line and walked further down until I came to another turn. And another road straight into the fucking darkness. I didn’t like it.

“It’s just a fucking maze,” I muttered. My hunter instincts were running high—the never-ending dark getting to my head. “Just fucking corn.”

A scream in the night made me turn. Loud and piercing. I whirled on my heels and reached for my gun but came up empty.

“Fuck!” I snarled. Taking off at a run, I rushed right back to where I’d left Genevieve and Raven. They were gone. My heart took off at a gallop in my chest, fueled by unreasonable thoughts. I shouted, “Genevieve?”

Nothing.

“Raven?”

Again nothing.

“Declan?” I hollered louder. He’d hear me. He had to hear me. “Declan!”

The screaming grew louder and more intense. Dozens of other voices joined it. And I swore to fuck I heard Genevieve in there. It couldn’t be her.

It couldn’t.

I took off at a fucking run, my heart pounding as hard in my chest as my boots did on the ground. Every fucking turn led to another goddamn turn. It was endless.

And with every turn, the wails in the night grew louder until I felt them in my very bones. They threatened to shatter the very foundation in which I stood.

Another corner. Another turn. Another increase in screaming.

I rounded the next corner and stumbled over myself as I nearly ran into a wall of corn. Fuck.

I turned fast only to find my path gone, blocked by another wall.

Panic seized every cell in my fucking body.

Corn fucking everywhere.

Something heavy landed on my shoulder, and I rotated fast, grabbing the object hard.

“Hold the fuck up!” Declan exclaimed, a deep growl ripping through his chest. I halted short of wrenching my brother’s fucking arm off. Breathing hard, I stared at him in shock.

“What the fuck?” I demanded.

“I don’t know! You tell me!” he snapped. “You’ve just been standing here, staring at the corn. You good?”

“I… what?” I faltered, glancing out into the darkness. It was quiet, undisturbed. It was as if nothing had happened. “I haven’t moved?”

“No,” Declan said quietly. “You walked down this way and you’ve just been staring at the corn. Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” I replied without thinking.

But was I okay?Who the fuck knew? Nothing had happened. No one was hurt.

So why did it feel like nothing was okay? Why did it feel like some kind of warning?