Page 46 of Grave Devil
The tears stream down now. She shakes her head. “I don’t think he is dead. It’s him. I just feel it. We have to tell Bones and Lettie. But I’m scared.”
Fuck.
I pick up my phone and dial him. “Hey. Come over now. It’s urgent. And bring your sister.”
Bones yawns into the line. “It’s four in the morning, Ries. Is Mia okay?”
“Mia is fine. Get over here now. Hurry.” Something like this can’t wait another second.
He curses under his breath. “Okay, but you better have coffee brewed or else Lettie will kill all of us. I’ll see you soon.”
I hang up and let the phone fall to the mattress. Whether this Skelker is telling the truth or just using his dead brother as a way to fuck with us, Bones is going to fucking lose it.
BONES
There are pivotal moments in life. Things that can’t be unsaid or unseen. The big ones don’t happen often. It can be a proposal, a death, a birth, or even a breakup. There are only a few of these if you’re lucky, but they are monumental. Moments you never forget.
Finding out your dead brother is actually alive after twenty years is one of those.
Lettie grips my hand so tightly, I can’t feel my fingers. They’re numb like the rest of me. Is this what going into shock feels like?
Mia hasn’t made eye contact with me or my sister since disclosing the Skelker’s confession. If we can call it that. I’m not sure I trust it.I don’t want to trust it. How do I ask her to lure him out after all the trauma he’s caused her? And yet I know she’ll do it. For me.
The Harkers and Cranes go way back. We’ve always known that. But there is a piece we’re missing. Something that can shed more light on why the devil tookmybaby brother and turned him into a monster.
“Sonny had a scar on his thigh. It was long, about four inches. And raised like a welt. I did a shit job stitching him, so it didn’theal right.” I was terrified to tell my father that I fucked up. That I turned my back when I was supposed to be watching him.
Sonny fell into the river. He kept flailing his little arms around, trying to keep his head above water. He could swim, but the current was violent that day. I dove in after him, but it took me so long to reach him. It felt like forever…
“He fell into the river when I was supposed to be watching him. The current smashed him hard against the rocks, and it cut his leg up really fucking bad. When I asked him what happened… how he fell in… He said the man with the horns pushed him. La bestia.The beast. I remember looking around frantically for this creature… No one was there but us. To this day, I still believe he saw something. Sonny was a sharp kid. He never made things up.”
“You think this beast was the devil? That he took Sonny?” Aries drapes his arm across Mia’s back. They sit close together on the couch across from us—her cautious, him protective. I can’t let myself be angry that she told him before me. I’m usually her voice of reason. But she needed to unpack this with someone else first. I get it even though it stings.
Lettie drops her head into her hands and sobs. “He was just a little boy.”
I pull her into my side. “Shhh. Lo se.I know. It’s okay.” It doesn’t matter that she was too young to remember him. She knows she had another brother. She grew up knowing all about him, and she loved him just the same.
Mia turns her head and bites her lip. “Fuck,” she mutters under her breath.
“If the Skelker is telling the truth, then yeah. I guess la bestia is the devil and he wasn’t going to stop until he got him. If he took Sonny from us, if he made him into this monster… I don’t know if I can believe it.” I grind my teeth, furious, as I cast a glare to the floor.
Mia chokes back a sob. “I can check his leg for the scar. I don’t know if that will help prove anything, but it’s worth a try. But Bones… he isn’t your brother anymore. Half of his face is an animal skull. He has antlers, a pronged tongue, and his veins are black.”
My stomach drops but not as far down as Lettie’s. She gags into her hand before bolting up from the couch and sprinting to the bathroom.
“Fuck. I’m sorry,” Mia cries. “I’ll go check on her.”
I lean back against the leather cushions, my gaze locked on Aries. We sit in silence, just staring at each other, speaking our truths the way we do without words. We’ve been able to read each other’s body language like this since we were kids.
“I have to tell Felix. But not my parents. And definitely not my abuela. They’ve suffered enough from losing him.” I lean back and close my eyes. I take a few breaths, in through my nose, then out through my mouth. Nice and slow like Mia showed me.
The click of Italian leather shoes echoes across the marble floors. The scent of gin and tobacco pervades my senses.Draven.
He rests a hand on my shoulder. “I just heard. What can I do for you, Bones? Tell me what to do, and I’ll do it.” The ache in his voice matches the one in my chest.
I look up at him and burst into tears. Something about the way he looks at me strikes a nerve. “I don’t know what to do,” I mumble through my sobs.
“Oh, Bones. Fuck. I’m so sorry, man.” He plops down next to me and pulls me into his arms. He lets me wail against his chest, my tears soaking through his expensive silk shirt.
