The Secrets Of Dragons: Book One

Chapter 37

*Warning: This chapter contains some content and situations that readers might find triggering/traumatic. Please read with discretion.*

The fire roared in front of us, sitting in a semi-circle. I had found it rather curious to pick up the closest stick to my feet and poke at the sand mixed with dirt between my boots. Elsie's admonition was clearly still at the forefront of my mind as the group chittered about Elsie's choice in costumes for us all. Well, all besides Abraham. Elsie had feverishly apologized to him as we had made our way over here, even though it didn't seem to bother him in the least.

I watched as my brother catered to her every word with sincerity and my stomach turned. Didn't he understand that our life would consume her? Take everything that he cared about her and chew it up until it was almost nothing and then spit it back out again? Is that what he really wanted for her? To change entirely for him. To mold into the Elsie that this life would ultimately turn her into.

Not on my fucking watch.

She was innocent. People get hurt around us. People have died.

I would not let that fall back on her, even if it killed me in the process.

I snarled to myself and stabbed my stick harder into the ground.

"Hey, now. Your emotions are showing." Abraham chuckled as he sat down beside me.

"Fuck off." I mumbled.

He sighed as he put his hands into his pockets. "What's going on now?"

"Too fucking much." I rolled my eyes.

"Like what?" I looked up and he had a lopsided grin painting his face.

I glanced between him and the fire and then chose to stick with the flames. "It feels like everything is falling apart all at once and I don't know what to do."

"That is normal, Jay. Nobody can get it right all the time." He offered.

"It's not about getting it right." I sighed. "It's about trying to do the right thing even though every bone in your body tells you it's the wrong thing. And then suddenly, everything you thought you knew is brought into question. I feel like I'm going through a mid-life crisis."

"Jay, we didn't ask to be born into the life we were we just find ways to cope and deal with it."

"Well, that wouldn't apply to me. I wasn't born into this life." I tossed my stick into the fire. "I walked into it."

"Maybe you're right. But all of us started somewhere." He admitted. "What's on your mind, specifically?"

"I'm not sure I feel like talking about it."

"Talking about it will release some of the pressure, at least."

"Nik is my brother." The words fell out like vomit, and I couldn't stop them once they had started. "I haven't told anyone. So don't say anything."

"Nick Black?" He raised a brow. "You fucking with me? I didn't even know you had a brother."

"It was a long time ago."

"So, you're Dominik's daughter?"

"No."

I realized how ridiculous I sounded.

"My father's name was Jason Sloan, and Rosemary was my mother." I felt a rush of relief at their names being said aloud. "Niklaus was my twin."

"That's strange." Abraham's brow furrowed.

"What?"

"Their names sound familiar."

"What do you mean?"