Page 11 of Last Rites

Kit smiled faintly, then turned to Levitt. “We are.”

Levitt nodded. “Very well. I’ll call the vote this evening, and we will commence with the trial in the morning. Thank you both for your time. I have some work to do.”

He remained in his chair, but the sense of dismissal was clear. Our tea was left, forgotten and untouched—maybe Kit was as suspicious as I was—as we stood and backed away from the long table.

We were turning to head to the door when Levitt spoke again.

“You know, Kit, I’ve been waiting for months for you to be honest with me about why you really came back here.”

I glanced over, and Kit’s countenance was even paler than usual. His jaw ticked, but he didn’t reply as Levitt rose and came around to face us once more.

“Based on what you said earlier of your intended, I would surmise he knows as well.” He nodded to indicate me.

Kit nodded back, then swallowed audibly.

A heavy breath escaped Levitt, and he looked past us to the open window and the box of flowers beneath it.

“When I told you we had the same vision for the Bone Men, I meant it,” he said. “I’ve spent the four years since your father was arrested doing everything I could to repair the damage he’d done, piece by piece. I outlawed the sacrifices. I did what little I could to make the Oaths safer, though Merrick and the Death Watch stymied much of those efforts. I tried to make this place more of a community and less of a prison.” His small smile was almost sad. “I had hoped you would trust me enough to tell me, but I understand why you didn’t.”

Another glance at me, and it felt damning. I knew I was the cause for much of Kit’s discretion. I’d been a liability in his eyes from the start, and his sparse words the night before had spoken volumes about what he would and would not do to ensure my wellbeing. Not all of his desperate measures were good, though. This may have been further proof of that.

Levitt reached out and clapped his hand on Kit’s arm. “Just know we’re both working toward the same end, and I think that together we really stand a chance.”

I almost thought to tell him about our budding resistance, but my faith in Ashpoint’s leader was yet in its infancy. Still, I could see the end he referred to, and it was bright. We had more support than we even knew, and we’d had it all along. In the shadows. Behind closed doors. Speaking in whispers so that soon we would be able to shout.

Merrick was banished from the Oliver farm. Soon, he would be banished from Ashpoint. He would take his scourge away from this place and these people, and the land would heal. Like we’d done in Eastcliff, we could repair things here. We could give our new friends a safe home and a better future. It wasn’t exactly farming, but weeds were weeds no matter where they took root, and I was ready to tend this soil. Turn it. Grow something beautiful.

I expected the same relief I felt when I looked over at Kit, but what I found instead was pain. His brows were pinched, and his hands curled into fists at his sides.

“You were waiting for me to say something?” he asked softly. “Why didn’t you?”

Levitt’s smile fell away, and he dropped his hand back to his side. “I wanted you to trust me enough to bring it to me yourself.”

Quiet met his words, and I curled my fingers around one of Kit’s fists, hoping to slide my hand into his. To offer some kind of reassurance or comfort. But it remained clenched tight.

“I risked everything coming back here,” Kit said several moments later, “only to find you sitting where my father once sat. Lording over this place and carrying on like not much had changed. I wanted to trust you, but time and again you made that impossible. If I told you what I planned, there was a chance I’d be dead before I could do anything at all, and that Penny would be, too, just for being my recruit.”

“Kit, I never would have⁠—”

“How was I to know that?” he asked sharply. “How many times did you roll over when Merrick caused trouble, or levied ridiculous accusations against me, or tried to kill both of us?” Kit gestured at me. “I was always going to protect what little I had here. Protect Penny. Protect myself. In telling you, the risk was all mine. You held all the power. But in you telling me? You risked nothing. You of all people should have known that the only reason I’d come back here was to tear it all down. So, what was stopping you?”

Levitt was quiet a moment, though he never looked away from Kit, even as he seemed to shrink under my intended’s wounded glare.

“You called me a coward once,” he said finally, so softly I almost missed it. “I think that was a fair assessment.”

Kit’s tense shoulders eased, and when his hands relaxed, I slid my fingers between his and squeezed. I couldn’t salve the pain of feeling let down yet again by someone who was supposed to be his friend, but I could at least remind him that he didn’t have to feel it alone.

Levitt turned his gaze away, his eyes settling on the fireplace, or maybe the journals still stacked on the shelf beside it.

“There was a time when you used to tell me everything, Kit. And I helped where I could, but it was never enough. I could never shield you from your father. So, when you got out, I was happy for you. You finally made yourself safe the way I never could. I contented myself imagining that you’d built a life out there, as far from the Bone Men as you could get. But I never expected you to walk back in here to pledge yourself to this madness again.”

He wouldn’t have, if not for me. I wanted to regret bringing him back to Ashpoint and all the pain it brought on both of us. But that meant regretting what we built together. The future I’d gotten a taste of in Eastcliff. The life we shared in our tiny cottage here.

And I couldn’t bring myself to regret that.

“I never thought I’d see you again, so when I did…” Levitt sighed, his hand rising to rub the stump of his right wrist. “I wanted things to be like they were. Only, you were different, and I was different, and I realized I would need to regain your trust if I wanted any hope of being your friend again.”

“So, you kept me in the dark?”