Enoch turns around and pulls up the back of his shirt. He has two lines of runes that run down his spine. Runes that I would know anywhere because they’re for my long sword and my staff. Nash pulls up the side of his shirt, revealing the runes for my short swords on each side of his ribs. I look at Becket expectantly, and that’s when reality slams into me like a fucking freight train.
Shit. Does he know what just went down with his dad?
I give him a small smile, and he offers me a tentative one back. I can’t help the tinge of suspicion that seeps into my thoughts as I watch him, waiting for him to show me which of my runes he somehow ended up with. I think back to the day the elders were testing my magic. Becket and his dad seemed close, closer than I thought Enoch and his dad appeared to be. Could Becket have been in on what his dad was up to?
I look over to find Torrez leaning against the wall. When my eyes meet his, he immediately pushes off and strides over.
“Yes, Witch?” he asks me, his voice deliciously growly and momentarily distracting.
I shake away any reaction I have to his tone, and I lean into him, dropping my voice. “Can you do that whole smell the truth thing that you do?” He nods, and I sneak a deep comforting pull of his scent before turning back to Becket.
For a quick second, I wonder if he already knows about his dad and what happened tonight. It’s been hours since everything went down, plenty of time for someone to fill him in, but looking at him now, I have a sinking feeling that I’m not that lucky. I just don’t see him handling the I killed your dad because he was a massive piece of shit news this well.
Becket pulls the neck of his shirt to the side to reveal runes on the top of his shoulder. It looks like he now has some of my shields and my bow and arrows. “I have a rune that showed up on my toe too,” Becket announces, and I nod absently, as I try to figure out how to say what I need to say to him.
“Becket,” I pause. “Um…I had a run in with your dad tonight,” I clear my throat unnecessarily. “Has, um, anyone told you anything about that?” I blurt awkwardly and then hold my breath and wait for his response.
I send out a silent plea to the universe, hoping that somehow he already knows what happened and really is just taking it all in stride. But that hope shrivels up into a nasty ass raisin as confusion stretches across Becket’s face. Yup, looks like I’m about to be the one to tell him that I killed his dad.
Fuck.
“Did you…know anything about what he was planning or what he’s been up to?” I ask vaguely, and Torrez steps into me, his body just barely skimming mine. I feel the rest of my Chosen step up behind me in support, and gratitude washes through me.
“What do you mean?” Becket asks, and he looks even more uncomfortable and confused by the wall of Chosen that just formed behind me.
“Did you know your dad was working with a lamia named Adriel?” I ask Becket, and I scour his reaction for any hint of deception or recognition.
Becket slowly starts to shake his head. “No, but what’s the issue with that?”
“Adriel was the lamia responsible for at least one group of paladin—that we know of, anyway—going missing. He was also the lamia responsible for our abduction,” I explain and gesture toward the rest of Becket’s coven.
Understanding dawns on Becket’s face, and then confusion takes over again.
“My dad wouldn’t have worked with him if he knew that’s what this Adriel guy was doing,” Becket states. His tone is filled with such certainty and conviction that it squeezes at my heart for what I’m about to tell him.
I don’t know what the runes on Becket or his coven mean, but I’m sure, in this moment, that however they connect Becket to me, he’s going to want to cut those runes from his skin when he hears the rest of what I have to tell him. There is no part of I killed your dad tonight that’s going to be okay for him, and I gear up for the shitstorm of a reaction I know