Mythical Link ▸ Link Neal {Book One}

Twelve

     Link's eyes widened, and by the time it had been his turn to order, he was frozen to the spot. His heart seized in his chest and he was winded, unable to properly describe his shock. He couldn't even offer her words of understanding, because there was no way for him to understand. He was an only child. After he ordered his food, which resembled a string of "umms and uhhs," Terra went up next. 

     The three of them took their food and found a place to sit. Rhett began to dig into his food almost instantly. He clearly hadn't heard that Terra's brother had tried to kill her, as he had stood off to the side to allow other people in line to order. Link picked at his burger for a bit, a pit of fire that burned in his stomach from the curiosity that could spill over at any moment. Terra didn't feel like eating either, but she didn't want to be rude.

     She peered at Link through her eyelashes, and she caught his eye, the sunlight glinting off of the sadness in them. He didn't want to be insensitive as he couldn't imagine her own sibling threatening her life, unless it was over something stupid like passing over the video game controller. 

     "Why did he try to kill you?" Link asked.

     Rhett was midway to another bite of his burger when he dropped it onto his plate, and nearly choked on the bite in his mouth. He brought the back of his wrist up to his mouth, his eyes wide. "Who tried to kill her," he finally choked out after he'd completely swallowed his mouthful. It went down like a boulder through a straw, and he suffered through a fit of coughs that he tried desperately to quell with a few sips of soda. 

     Terra looked between the two of them, the fear evident in her eyes. She hadn't talked about that since she moved away from North Carolina, and she didn't know what compelled her to suddenly tell Link that he had tried to kill her. She thought when she moved away from him, it would make the fear stop, but the nightmares followed her all the way to the West Coast. 

     He haunted her in her dreams, and he followed her everywhere she went in her deepest reflections. "He was very angry as a child. He was the only one of the three of us that couldn't accept the fact that our mother just wasn't capable of taking care of us. She hadn't even graduated high school when she had us, so it was either she drop out to take care of three kids on her own, or she finishes school and does something with her life—"

     "So your brother was the one that tried to kill you?" Rhett interrupted her.

     Terra nodded her head and continued. "Me and Tessa would talk about it all the time, and we weren't even mad. But Teegan," Terra trailed off. She scoffed and rolled her eyes at the childishness of her brother's behavior. "Sometimes he made it sound like he wanted her dead. He lashed out all the time; physically, mentally and emotionally on me and my sister, plus our adoptive parents. Who did everything for us, by the way." 

     Link pushed his glasses up on his face. His mouth hung open for several seconds. "So your adoptive parents took in all three of you?" 

     Rhett had finished eating, not fully attentive to the conversation. Link looked down at his own plate, and Rhett gestured toward it. "Are you gonna eat that?" 

     Link's lips cracked into a full blown grin and he shook his head. He took a nibble of a french fry before he pushed the plate over to Rhett. Rhett clapped his hands together excitedly.

     "Yeah. Mary was adamant about keeping the three of us together, even though people thought it was crazy that a newlywed couple who'd just gotten on their feet were thrilled about the idea of taking on three kids." Terra also pushed her plate toward Rhett, and Rhett's eyes lit up. You'd think she handed him a golden brick.