Exaltation (Insight #11)(56)

Rydell cursed, knowing Dagen was right. “She doesn’t remember it. I bring it up, she doesn’t. Now you tell me why her father would take the steps to suppress the memory? What one of ours did to his daughter—his sixteen-year-old daughter—that would cause that action?”

“Can I point out once again the goal was to end her because she had already killed fifty of our men at the age of twelve?”

“Because we engaged her.”

“You’re going to let her destroy us…,” Dagen said, as his stare rapidly moved over Rydell.

Rydell rushed his hand through his dark hair and let out a growl laced with a curse. “I didn’t say that. I said we engaged. How do we not know we’re premature? How fair is it for us to strike first?”

“So we’re waiting for the beast to grow up?”

“She’s not a beast!” Rydell bellowed.

At once, all of nature around them silenced, as if it knew a ferocious beast was amidst them…and they were right. Rydell was at his most primal point. Protect the girl. Each and every moral dormant thought said.

“That’s not what I meant. Everyone and everything looks cute and innocent when they’re in infancy. But this is life. The circle of it. It’s kill or be killed. And you know you’re the main course on her menu. Yet five minutes ago you were in that rink making out with her.”

“I kissed her dammit. That was it. One kiss. I didn’t even f*cking touch her.” Creator I wanted to!

Dagen’s eyes went wide.

“Yeah. That much power in one kiss,” Rydell said as he cursed again.

“All right then,” Dagen said, letting out a deep breath. “This is f*cked up. I get it. If Benjamin crossed a line he’ll answer for it. I’ll do it myself. Swear. I get that this is not fair for you or her. That she has no idea what she is or will become in her future. That all makes sense. But what I don’t get is what we’re doing now. Because the longer we’re here the more dangerous it is. Even if you decide to get her to fall for you, or whatever, Revelin is not going to agree with you. You’re pointing an arrow right at her. Not to mention we’ve already set a curse in place with one of the twins. And I don’t even want to think about what that ass Berries has up his sleeve.”

“You really think River means that much to Kade?” Rydell asked, looking over Dagen. He was pretty sure that girl’s eye was on Dagen, but he wasn’t going to say as much. Not only that, Kade was all about the car recently, not the girl.

Rydell and the others never knew how the curse would manifest with their victims. More times than not it hurt the person the victim was trying to reach, or cared about the most. There was no way to really know who that was.

“He’s getting smart. As much as I break on that car, he fixes. He’s going to win the race and when he does the curse is going to start. And for all you know Raven will be right next to River when that goes down. We’ve been here too long. We were supposed to get close and then get out.”

“How was I supposed to know that I would have a fever!”

Dagen aggressively stepped up to Rydell. “Tell me this, King. If she never kissed you would we be having this conversation?”

Rydell turned his head.

“Fevers feel each other before they ever touch. It is said they are made of one soul. That’s why I’m calling bullshit on this. You were a breath away from her for weeks—nothing. You kiss her and our battle plan goes up in f*cking smoke. It’s not a f*cking fever, it’s something else.”

“Like what?”

“Fucking mercy,” Dagen spat.

“Maybe so. You don’t get it though. This girl was born to destroy Revelin. He needs to go down.”

“And to take him down she has to take you down. I’m not letting you f*cking die, King. None of us deserve to pay for that asshat’s sins!”

Rydell jerked his stare away. He needed time to figure this out. At the very least, if he decided to walk away he was going to have to make sure he didn’t leave Raven in danger. He had to undo this deal with Kade, and he had to make sure Berries was not up to anything twisted when it came to Jamison.

“Take Kade’s car apart, piece by piece.”

“You cannot be serious,” Dagen said with a glare. He wanted out of this city, this dimension, everything—yesterday. He felt dread lurking. He’d never felt that before, not even when he followed King away from Revelin. Which told him bad shit was on the horizon. And all of it had to do with Raven.

“Yeah, I am. Then you’re going to give him dating advice. You’re going to tell him how to talk to the girl without waving some macho flag, she doesn’t care about, in her face.”

“You don’t know that will stop the curse. Fuck, we don’t even know if River will be who the curse strikes—it could be his dad, someone else for all we know.”

“Dagen, I need you to find a way around this.”

“King, I’ll try. I’ll f*ck his car up, get him hung up on another girl, whatever. I just want this behind us. You’re not right, man. I can see it in your eyes.”

“Maybe I just don’t want to hurt people anymore.”

“They do it to themselves,” Dagen argued.

Rydell didn’t respond. His eyes went wide, his body tensed, and a roar came from his chest as he went to his knees.