Page 54 of Ramshackle
No. This is all on Gordon.
My hand idly swipes over my injured knee.
“Dane,” Aiden prods when he still hasn’t moved.
The muscle in Dane’s jaw ticks. Finally, he closes his eyes and inhales deeply, then sits.
“He shot it.” The words fall from my lips before I even realize I’ve decided to give him something. I know I don’t owe any of them an explanation for what happened to me, but I can’t stand to see him so upset on my behalf.
He jerks his head up to look at me with surprise.
“That’s all I’m going to say about it, okay?” I pick up another strawberry to nibble on as a distraction.
Dane nods and leans an elbow on the table, his hand burying itself in his hair. “Sorry. I didn’t mean…I shouldn’t have…”
“It’s fine.” I reach over and touch my hand to his arm. He releases his hair to take my hand, pressing it to his forehead with his eyes closed and expels a breath.
“I’m so sorry, Rae. It’s my fault. I don’t fucking deserve you in my life,” he whispers so low that I’m not even sure I heard it right.
I pull my hand from his. “That’s not true.” My thoughts immediately bring up Vera, and I gasp when I remember something. “Oh! I almost forgot. Thorne’s back.” I twist around to gaze at Jack. “He’s looking more like one of the zombies in Kellan’s video game now, but his head is reattached.”
Jackson pushes his hood back. “We need to get the person bringing him back, then.”
“Just get me a flamethrower. I’ll turn him to ash,” Kellan jokes.
“Did you say his head wasreattached? When was it…not…attached?” Dane looks over my head to Jack and pales. “Never mind. Don’t answer that.”
“His name is Royce,” I continue, my attention still on Jack before I swing it around to Aiden. “And the guy sounds like he’s close to GE’s president. He could be our way in to the people in charge. His gift is controlling souls.”
“Of course, GE has someone who can raise a zombie army. Why the hell not?” Kellan mutters.
“Thorne wants Jack to help him capture Royce, so that his soul can get moved to a board member’s body. That gives him power, and his current body is…well, last I saw him it was falling apart. But Royce said something about using other souls to fix him up, so that may have changed things. He’s sent Thorne back here to find the Guild,” I add.
“Damn, he can do that?” Kellan asks in disbelief.
“Wait,” Dane cuts in. “Is that…is Vera like Thorne?”
I move slowly in my seat to look at him. “I don’t know for sure, but that’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“So, does he bring people back to life, or are they still dead? Does he control what they do or how they act? Is he the reason she’s working for GE?” he asks, and I can see his thoughts beginning to spiral from the look in his eyes.
“I don’t know. Thorne didn’t really go into that much detail.” The hope in his expression feels like a stab to the chest. We haveno idea what any of this means yet. Would killing Royce kill Vera? Or is his work done once he’s locked her soul back in her body? Does he have any control over her? Or is she acting on her own?
I know Dane is wishing for an excuse to explain why Vera’s been acting the way she has since she came back, but what if it has nothing to do with Royce?
“Jack! Go pretend to help Thorne again so we can get to that guy,” Dane exclaims.
“What? No!” I balk.
Jackson angles his head to the side while regarding Dane. “It won’t be that simple.”
“Why not? It didn’t seem that hard for you last time,” Dane snarks.
“Dane!” I scold, then look back at Jackson, who smirks coldly.
Aiden’s mug taps against the table as he sets it down, drawing all our attention to him. “We’re not trusting Thorne to get us to Royce. Or even pretending to trust him.” His gaze meets Jackson’s. “Do you think you could follow him without him knowing?”
Jack holds his stare for a few beats and then nods.
