Finn safe.”
Orin nods as he draws his hand in an arc over the breakfast table. “That would be lovely. I suppose I’ll head off to bed now. Have a good night, Marcus.” He gets up and walks toward the archway as I fill the cup.
“Orin?” I ask before he escapes.
He stops and looks at me.
“If I was given no choice but to turn him, would you allow it?” I ask.
“I would do just about anything to keep that kid safe. If it comes to that, I’ll do everything in my power to make sure it never gets out even if I have to move both of you overseas. My top priority is my children. And I will change him myself and deal with the consequences if it comes to that.”
“Finn’s lucky to have you.”
“Thank you. My own parents thought I was an abomination and I promised myself that I’d never be like that. I actually promised I’d never have kids, but somehow they became the best thing that ever happened to me.”
“I share a similar experience regarding my parents, but I had Claude by my side. And no matter how annoying he is, it was better than being alone.”
“I’m sure it was. Good night, Marcus.”
“Night,” I say as I head up the stairs to find Finn squished up against Artemus who’s already back to sleep, a paw over Finn’s side as he snores.
Finn turns to me. “I was afraid you got eaten by the bogeyman.”
“The only bogeyman allowed to nibble on me is you,” I say as I hand him the cup.
“Good. I don’t know if you’re aware, but I’m kind of the jealous type and want no one even glancing at you but me.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I assure him. I notice he has the blankets pulled back up high again and wonder if he’s cold or hiding himself.
He takes a drink before setting the cup to the side and dropping back down on the bed. “Sorry for waking you up.”
“If you say that again I get to toss you onto the dog bed or put you in Hela’s crate.”
“Hela’s crate is too small!”
“I’ll fit you in there. That’s how serious I am.”
He smiles at me. “Fine!”
I slip under the covers and pull him away from Artemus and into my arms.
“Night, my evil prince,” Finn says, voice teasing, which I’m happy to hear.
“Night, my annoying king.”
“Ooh. I like being king,” he says as he presses against me and closes his eyes.
I know he won’t fall asleep for a long time and sleep starts to come for me first, even though I wish I could push away all those thoughts in his mind.
“Oh my god,” Finn says as he smacks my chest, waking me from the half-sleep I’d fallen into.
“What the fuck?” I cry.
“I realized something.”
He hits the light on, blinding me as Artemus lifts his head, takes one look at the human and passes back out. Hela doesn’t even budge.
“What’s that?” I ask as I try to blink away the blinding light.
“So sometimes I have dreams, and I swear it plays like the memory and this time it was the day I was taken and my mom was picking me up. See, it was really weird for her to pick me up. I hadn’t seen her since she went to jail years prior and then to have her randomly pick me up out of nowhere? She hadn’t even contacted me once since she lost me. I take that back. She did one time but that was to just bitch at me and threaten me into telling them I lied about the abuse. Anyway, so she coerced me into going with her and then asked if I wanted ice cream. I didn’t really want it, but I felt stupidly guilty or something and agreed. So as she was getting off the highway, she got this look on her face and jumped back onto the highway before taking off and telling me to alert Orin that we were headed home. I don’t know why I forgot it, but I realize now that she looked panicked. I always thought that he just targeted our car but now… now I think my mother knew.” His eyes get wide and he grabs my shoulder and gives me a shake like it’ll help him get his point across. “My mother fucking knew.”
His mother knew the man who took him? “So you’re thinking that she was taking you to him before thinking better of it