Legacy (Sociopath Series Book 2)(84)

I see everything I need to see.

“This is for Leo,” I seethe.

He knows what’s coming, and presses his lips together so hard that the edges turn white, but tough shit. I ram the blade through. The pain in his gums makes his teeth spring apart, and the blade sinks through tongue and sinew with a stomach-churning tear. “And this, you evil f*cker…” I haul the knife out, spattering my cheeks and vision with hot blood, “this is for my mother.”

Blood Honey chokes. Gags. Squeals like a rodent. Foul music, a lullaby for the fallen.

Ethan stands back to let me work. There are no words between us; he is tainted now. He understands.

The next minute goes against everything I ever taught myself about cutting. I slash through the rules I’d made—no arteries, not there, no, never there, you’ll kill her—and before I know it, my hand falls through and his warm guts clutch at my wrist with the weak, slippery grip of the dying. Retching, I rip myself away and toss the knife into the blood-tinged froth of the waves.

Slowly, he floats away from me, his eyes still open and mouth still gaping with the ruined flesh of his tongue. All the truths he’ll never tell me bleed out into the water.

There are things you should know, and when I’m done, you’ll have earned them.

No. This is what I’ve earned.

Gravity washes forward and I lunge on to my knees, a low, inhuman sound rumbling from somewhere deep in my chest. Red waves spill over my thighs and hips; red sunset spews down to baptize me, blood and blood, crimson everywhere, gulping me down into the violet depths of the ocean in a legacy of ruptured veins.

When I open my eyes again, Blood Honey is washed ten feet away and Ethan plants a hand on my shoulder.

“He’s the one who killed your mother,” he says, matter-of-factly. His stubble face is marbled with blood-spatter, already drying in the tropical heat.

I nod.

Yes. Yes, this works nicely.

“We should go to them,” he murmurs.

I glance back at the beach, where Leo still lies motionless and bound, and Ash has thrown himself prostrate over her as if to protect her body from the glaring eye of the sun.

A quiet buzz grows louder. I jerk back around, expecting flies, but then a boat emerges on the horizon, spewing foam as it coasts around the neighboring islands. Help. Finally.

The f*ckers.

“Wait for the cavalry,” I tell Ethan. “Somebody needs to explain what happened and I…” I gesture to myself. Though most of the blood has washed off, I’m lightheaded and my guts are all twisted, as if I’ve been shot all over again.

“Okay.” He gulps. God, he’s a state.

I’m a state. But we’re alive.

I turn back toward Ash and Leo, wading through thick ocean until I’m back on the wet sand. The closer I get, the harder my heart thwacks against my rib cage, pressure building until it surges up to press behind my eyes. I’m numb to heat, my legs full of rocks and rubble, trudging ever-closer to my reason for fighting through.

The pressure turns hot and wet, throbbing for a release I can’t fathom. But when I’m standing over Ash and Leo, it all seems so simple. So obvious.

The tears come crashing down my cheeks, and then the bitter little f*ckers just won’t quit.

Ash rolls off Leo and throws himself at my legs. I rub his head as I sink down to my Leo, who shudders, wide-eyed, the wound on her thigh caked with crimson sand. My hands tremble when I lean over to undo her gag; she begins to weep. My tears drip down in erratic bursts, mingling with hers in the welt of her collarbone. Strange alchemy there. I hope she feels it.

Her gag comes free. She spits and coughs. Brings a cuffed hand up to my face and runs her fingers through the tracks of my tears.

“He’s gone,” I grind out to both of them. “He’s gone now. It’s all over.”

We crumble in on each other, shuddering beneath the weight of the setting sun.

“I’m sorry,” I say over and over. “I’m so sorry.”

You have to understand, grasshoppers, that I’m no better a man than I was a week ago. But I’m sorry I failed them. It should never have come to this, and who has paid for it? Some scars will never knit entirely; some damage can be covered, but never truly healed. This is my family—not a bunch of broken toys, destined for the garbage heap or the hands of a careless new owner.

A moment later, Ethan drops to his knees beside us. Ash clambers into his arms, and then Ethan looks away, his expression tight and vague.

“I’m sorry I let him take you, buddy,” he says quietly.

“I knifed him good and proper, though,” Ash says between sobs. “I got him down for you. I did good, right?”

Ethan gapes at me, speechless.

“Yes.” I peel him up a little, catch his gaze with mine. “You saved us all, Ash. Do you understand that?”

He licks dry lips, and then his stomach groans loudly. Ethan manages a chuckle before drawing him back in for a hug.

I turn back to Leo and scoop her against me, so her head lands limply on my shoulder. She’s so cold.

“He’s dead,” I whisper. The sweetest words I’ll ever gift her, and they’re equally as macabre.

She lets out a shivering breath. “Promise?”

“Cross my heart and hope to…ah.” I press a hard kiss to her matted hair. “I should’ve listened to you.”