The Devouring Gray(89)

Honestly, wanting to be just friends with a girl who wasn’t related to him was new for Justin, too.

He had no idea how she’d gotten her memories back. Part of him was scared to ask, because that meant there was a solution. A cure. Another way in which he’d failed Harper.

Justin thought back to that night at the lake. How Harper had screamed as his mother advanced, flanked by her mastiffs.

He hadn’t been able to stop himself from touching her back in Maurice Carlisle’s workshop. It had taken everything he had not to slide his fingers from her neck up to her cheek.

He’d wanted to kiss her. But Justin knew he couldn’t. They were both founders, powers or not.

And she’d lied to him. He’d lied to her.

But they weren’t even.

Everything she thought of him now was a consequence of not knowing what had really happened to her. It was selfish to get close to her when she didn’t know the truth.

Justin either needed to let her go, or find some way to show her what had really happened the night she’d lost her arm.

He shook the memories away to find May standing in front of him.

Her ruffled white blouse was tied in a neat bow at her neck, her skirt billowing out in perfect pleats. But Justin had learned a long time ago to read May’s small signs of disarray. Her red-rimmed eyes. The chewed-off bits of her nail polish.

She was upset.

Good.

“Mom wants to see you.” Her fingers twisted together in front of her paisley skirt like pale, grasping roots. “But she says you don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

“Isn’t that generous of her?”

May fixed her clear blue eyes on the scratched linoleum floor. “I’m sorry. The things I said were unwarranted and cruel.”

In that moment, Justin saw that May’s powers had hurt her, not helped her. She’d gotten everything she’d ever wanted—which meant she had no reason to question why Augusta ran Four Paths the way she did.

He’d expected to feel angry the next time they spoke, but all he felt was pity. He had been May’s most ardent defender during the years when Augusta had anointed him as the favorite child. But May had shredded the bond between them now that she was the one in power. And for the first time in his life, he had no interest in mending something shattered.

“You didn’t care that you were being cruel,” Justin said. “You wanted to hurt me.”

An unreadable expression flashed across her face. “That’s not true.”

“Really?” said Justin. “Violet could’ve died. I hope you’re happy.”

He turned away, starting toward his mother’s office. Justin heard her footsteps behind him, but he didn’t look back.

A few officers were clustered around Augusta’s desk, but when Justin pushed open the door, she waved them out with a flick of her hand.

“Justin.” Augusta’s voice was soft and feathered around the edges, like she was sculpting each word with utmost care. “So you’ve decided to join me.”

“I decided to hear you out.” Justin shut the door before May could follow him in. This was between him and his mother. “I’m not like you. I don’t decide people are worthless before they get a chance to apologize.”

Augusta’s broad shoulders twitched. “I know I was harsh with you. I should’ve taken your concerns about the town potentially planning a power grab into account.”

“What about Violet?” asked Justin. “Are you going to apologize for what you did to her?”

He knew it was a lost cause to ask about Harper, or any of the other people whose lives Augusta had casually rearranged.

Yet he couldn’t bear to walk out the door.

The thing was, Justin had never been very good at giving up on lost causes. Especially when they needed him.

“I did what I thought was necessary with the evidence provided,” said Augusta. “Perhaps, if you had pleaded your case to me earlier, I would’ve been more understanding. But you didn’t trust me enough to tell me the truth.”

“Can you blame me?” said Justin.

The corners of his mother’s mouth drooped. “No. But I have something for you that might help us move forward. May suggested it.”

She withdrew a sheaf of papers from her desk, then offered it to Justin.

He took it.

She’d printed out the applications for the liberal arts schools within a thirty-minute drive of Four Paths, along with the information for the local community college. Justin swallowed hard. “You want me to stay.”

Augusta locked eyes with him. “I think you’ve proven by now that you are useful to Four Paths in ways I hadn’t anticipated. Perhaps my determination to make you leave town was unwarranted. So, yes, I want you to stay.”

It was everything Justin had ever wanted.

But her version of his decision to remain would mean ignoring the truth of his family legacy.

It would mean surrender.

He thought of the cards May had laid out before him. This was his chance to change things.

Failing his ritual had put him in a unique position. No powers, but a life spent with the founders. He might be the only person who truly understood both sides of the problems in Four Paths. It wasn’t the future he’d planned on. But it was a future spent where he belonged: at home.