The Deck of Omens (The Devouring Gray #2) - Christine Lynn Herman Page 0,76

dealt with it, and she left.”

“Shit. I’m sorry.”

“It’s all right.” Gabriel’s tone clearly indicated otherwise. He finished his beer, placed the empty bottle carefully in his backpack, and pulled out another. “It made me realize that if I wanted to exist in the rest of this world, I had to come back. Mom needed help, but so did I. Your ritual never really leaves my head.”

His words sparked a deep, unbridled fury in Isaac.

“Oh, fuck off,” he said bitterly.

Gabriel blinked. “Excuse me? I’m just trying to explain my side of things to you. I thought that was what you wanted.”

“Oh, yeah, I’m loving this,” said Isaac. “It’s great to hear about how traumatized you are from that time you tried to murder me in cold blood.”

Gabriel froze. “Is that what you think happened?”

Isaac’s throat went tight, and he swiveled his head around to look at Gabriel. “That is what happened.”

“Let me tell you what I remember,” Gabriel said. “About that day. About what happened.”

Isaac realized his hands were beginning to shake, and he took a deep breath, knowing he was not ready to hear any of this, knowing already that there wasn’t a chance in hell he could walk away.

“All right,” he said, and Gabriel began.

“They didn’t tell us,” he said, “that someone would have to die. Not for a very long time. I did my ritual, and Caleb and Isaiah and Uncle Simon chained me up and bled me onto that altar, and it hurt. When it was over they told me that I had taken it well, and that I would carry on the Sullivan legacy. I assumed everyone’s ritual was like that?—I didn’t ask too many questions, and they liked it that way. They told me specifically not to tell you, so whenever you asked about it I just shook my head. Because I was proud of being included.

“I’d always wanted to be like Caleb and Isaiah?—it would’ve been cool to shatter things?—and I was disappointed at first when I realized I could heal. But soon, I felt very useful. Everyone wanted me on their patrol because I was handy if there was an injury, or if a Sullivan lost control. And it was fine for years… until they told Mom it would be you.

“I don’t know who made the decision. We’re—we were?—bigger than every other family, and the uncles were the ones who really called the shots, I don’t know if you remember.”

“I remember,” said Isaac. “They never liked me very much.”

They’d thought he was weak and strange, and they’d always encouraged him to hang out with his brothers and Justin, hoping they would be a good influence. Isaac had never wanted to be the type of man they were: men who drank too much and thought too little. His mother had called them out on their bullshit for a while, but it had started to wear on her, and eventually she’d given up on them entirely.

“They were assholes,” Gabriel said matter-of-factly. “Anyway. I don’t know if you remember Mom trying to run away with you before it happened.”

“I remember,” Isaac said quietly.

“I didn’t understand what was going on,” Gabriel said. “But I know what happened after they caught you two. She was put under constant surveillance, locked in her room like a prisoner. Caleb broke her out the night of the ritual because it was the only time they let down their guard, and they came to try to free you. But Caleb didn’t tell me and Isaiah what was coming?—I think he considered us in too deep?—and so we didn’t realize, neither of us did, that they were going to kill you until they’d already handed me the knife.”

Gabriel’s voice began to shake, and Isaac tried not to remember, tried to block it out, but it was there, it was all there. Right below the surface, churning through him, a loss too big to avoid, a pain too great to heal.

“They told?—” His voice broke. “They told me that I wasn’t just going to make you bleed, I was going to kill you. That it would make us stronger. I told them to go to hell. And then Uncle Si grabbed the knife out of my hands, and he was so quick?—he pressed it against your throat; and there was blood everywhere, and I thought you were dying, we all did, we were screaming?—and then your powers activated. Then Caleb and Mom showed up, and everything after that…” He trailed off. “It’s blurry. Maybe