Page 40 of Ravenous Prophecy
“You gotshot,” Griffin said, as though I’d done so on purpose. “You gotshot,Bradley.”
“How did I survive?” I asked.
“Williams underestimated the capabilities of the MEA,” a voice said from the door. It was Director Falcón, the woman who until very recently had been suggesting sending me to an MEA black ops site. If this comfortablebed and Griffin at my side were the reality of a black ops site, I could easily make that sacrifice. Falcón turned and called over her shoulder. “He’s awake.”
Elaine shoved her way past Falcón. “Bradley! You fool, you absolutefool.”
Griffin stood to give her room, gently stuffing a few pillows behind my back to help me sit up, and she hugged me tightly. My chest ached, but it felt more as though I’d been hit with a baseball. Not a bullet.
I wrapped my arms around her. When Elaine pulled back, her expression pinched, fixing her hair as though trying to forget the entire overwrought incident, she said, “You were very lucky that Griffin checked on you.”
“He was lucky that I had one magic wish left,” Falcón corrected. Then, without explaining, she crossed her arms. “Officially, you’re dead. This is a safe house. Now, I need to know what you and Williams talked about and how it ended up with two MEA agents dead.”
“I don’t know about the agents, but Williams talked to me—shot me—because he was annoyed at how we’d been bumbling into his plans and upsetting the apple cart.” I looked around the room, noticing Julian and Brigette lingering in the doorway, their expressions drawn. “Because he’s trying to end the world.”
CHAPTER 15
GRIFFIN
“One more bite,”Elaine said, holding the spoon up to Bradley’s lips.
He tried to squirm away, the bedsheets rustling underneath him. “I promise, Elaine, I’m absolutely fine.”
“So help me, I will stick this spoon in your ear if you don’t—there you go. Now, that wasn’t so hard, was it? You need to get your health up. Porridge, good.”
Bradley chuckled, then winced, pawing at the dressing on his torso. “At least it’s nothing like the gruel they serve at home. The kind they bring us when we’re sick. Just awful.”
Elaine nodded wisely. “I know one or two things about making palatable dishes too, you know. Can’t dabble in alchemy without learning a little about how to cook. Open wide.”
“You said that was the last mouthful!”
“I lied.”
My lips pressed in a tight line as I tried to suppress my own laughter. This was nice, witnessing a rare moment ofsweetness between the siblings. I hovered by the doorframe, hair still damp from washing my face—from washing all the blood off. Bradley’s blood. My hand curled into a fist. My brain couldn’t have one moment of peace without thoughts of breaking JA Williams’s face flooding right back.
“Get in there,” Julian mumbled, taking up way too much space in the doorway for my taste. “It should be you putting things in his mouth.”
“Will you shut the fuck up?” I hissed back. “Later. Maybe. We’re going to be here a while.”
The MEA safe house was surprisingly comfortable, not that I had anything to compare it to. Maybe I had my expectations set too low. Based on how she’d personally come to arrest us at Bradley’s apartment, I would have guessed that Nicoletta wasn’t in the mood for generosity. She wouldn’t have thought twice about stuffing us in a plywood shack and calling it a day.
But this safe house was an actual house, not that we’d seen the outside of it, herded in through the front door under a cover of magical darkness. Still, we had access to running water, decently comfortable beds, a working kitchen. This was decidedly better than many of my merc jobs overseas.
We even had a guy to send out for errands—within reason, Nicoletta said. Ingredients for Elaine’s porridge had been reasonable enough, fortunately.
But who could we even trust anymore? Nicoletta was probably on a warpath back at HQ. How had JA Williams just swanned into the MEA offices like that? The bastardwas rich and powerful enough to pull those strings, get someone on the inside to open the right doors.
Two agents dead and Bradley seriously injured. If I hadn’t followed my instincts and wondered why someone was firing guns right in MEA HQ—if I hadn’t wrestled free of the agent holding me and run in to check on Bradley—I couldn’t stand the thought of it. When I closed my eyes, all I could see was JA Williams sneering down at Bradley before he turned and fled. All I could imagine doing was punching him until he stopped sneering.
“That’s enough,” Bradley blurted out. A call for his sister to stop feeding him, incidentally also a warning to wrench me out of my darkest thoughts. “I’m beyond full. For now. Thanks, Elaine.”
Brigette hovered awkwardly by the headboard, a bottle of water in hand and at the ready. “For what it’s worth, Brooks? I’m glad you’re alive. I know we’ve had our differences, but I never would have wished for you to get shot in the chest.”
Bradley clutched at his bandages and made a face. “That’s sweet of you, actually. Might be the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
“Don’t get too used to it,” she replied, cracking the water open and pressing it into his hands. “Once this is over, we go back to being academic rivals who despise each other. Possibly. I haven’t decided yet.”
Julian laughed, but the sound of it rang hollow, something I hadn’t heard before.
