doesn’t answer, just continues to stare blankly at the wall.
I scoot away from him until my bruised back is flush with my corner of the cell. I raise the canteen to him and toast. “Here’s to the stubborn-to-the-point-of-stupidity gene dying with you.” I bring the canteen to my lips and drain every last drop of blood. My body sings as it hits my system, and I immediately feel better. I take a deep breath testing my hurt ribs, and I’m relieved when the pain is duller than it was before. I pat at my bloody nose and lip, and my hand comes away blood free, my face not nearly as tender as it was. The fact that I’m not revolted, but actually enjoy the taste of what’s in the canteen, is probably proving to Lachlan that I’m some kind of baby demon. The kind of baby demon that’s solely responsible for the death of his brother, but I just don’t give a fuck anymore.
That thought triggers something in me, and my head snaps to Lachlan. “Have you seen Vaughn? Do you know for sure what happened to him?” I ask, and for some reason, my eyes bounce around the barely lit cell like maybe Vaughn is hidden in a different dark corner I just haven’t noticed yet. “Where’s Keegan?” I fire off as well, adding to the pile of unanswered questions when my frantic searching clues me in that he’s missing from this room too.
Lachlan inhales a pained gasp and clutches at his chest. The sound is so full of torment that I’m instantly alarmed. I move toward him and then stop myself. This is Lachlan, he’s not going to want to be comforted by me. I sit there awkwardly, not sure what to do or how I feel about second guessing my initial instinct to offer support. In the end, I sit back down and watch him cautiously. Lachlan shakes his head, and his green eyes grow haunted.
“Vaughn’s gone. He’s been gone for a…” Lachlan pauses and his breath stutters. “He’s been gone for a while. I…I should have known, but I just kept hoping.”
Lachlan’s voice breaks, and he covers his gaunt face in an effort to hide the emotion that’s pouring out of him.
My chest feels heavy, and surprisingly, my eyes start to sting. I press my thumb and my forefinger against my closed lids and breathe through the sadness that’s crashing into me. I told myself that Vaughn was probably gone. The likelihood that he would still be alive after all this time wasn’t high, and yet hearing Lachlan profess it, fucking hurts. I’m stunned by exactly how much it hurts.
From the minute I found out that Grier and Vaughn were my real parents, I’ve tried not to think about them too much. I didn’t see the point in breaking down over people I will never meet, or focusing too much on what my life could have been if I had been raised by them instead of Beth. It would be easy to romanticize how much they would have loved me and how beautiful everything would have been, but there’s no way of knowing what might have been different. Things are the way they are, and that’s that. Or so I thought.
A sob sits at the back of my throat, and in this moment, I realize just how much I was still hoping that my family situation could be different. Grier is gone, Laiken is gone, Talon is gone, and apparently a piece of me I was refusing to look at was desperately hoping that, against the odds, Vaughn was still alive. That somehow he was out there in the world, wanting and hoping for…me.
I watch Lachlan cry into his skeletal hands, and I realize just how badly I wanted a dad. Tears stream silently down my face, and I breathe through the loss I feel about the unknown. The possibility and hope are gone now, and I ache from the brutal finality of it all.
“They took Keegan over a week ago. I don’t know if he’s in another cell or if he’s…” Lachlan trails off, and he leans back into the darkness of the corner, hiding his grief from me.
“I was told Keegan was still alive,” I reassure Lachlan. Siah could have been completely full of shit, but I hope against hope that he was telling me the truth. I debate for a second about addressing my next thought but decide what have I got to