Fury and Flame | 3

2 | 6

K A N E

We'd been driving in a stolen car for nearly half an hour. The ONNT soldiers hadn't been fast enough to catch us after we broke through their gates and ran into the city. But they'd be hot on our trail until we found somewhere to lie low.

"Am I right to assume we aren't going back to that place you live?" Riley asked and my heart sank when she said 'you' and not 'we'. Sometimes I forgot she wasn't herself and each reminder was as devastating as the last.

Jaxon scoffed. "Not unless we have a death wish. No, we're all wanted now; we need to go somewhere they won't think to look."

"There's nowhere to go. Nowhere they won't find us," Finn said. He was right.

I heard Arlo tell Finn smugly, "Look at you, sunken to our depths."

      "There's somewhere," Jaxon's voice was soft. "My parent's home a bit upstate."

      "You have parents?" Arlo asked, sounding genuinely shocked. I supposed he had a point in his own strange way; Jaxon and my brother and I were the only ones here who still had parents.

      "I do." It was flat, leading me to believe his relationship with them wasn't amicable. "And their house will be large enough for all of us to lie low in." He then gave me directions to get there. No one asked any more questions, knowing we had no other options.

     "Now you," Arlo said suddenly as I knew he was pointing at my brother. "How do we know we didn't make a mistake bringing your traitorous ass with us?"

     "I'll save myself from all your irritating questions and simply say I'm myself again. I hate Orion. I hate Imperium. I want to see them burn as badly as you all do," Benny stated flatly as if he was delivering the evening news.

     "You could be lying," Finn pointed out.

     But Arlo said, "His heart and breathing are normal. Either he's a damn good liar or it's the truth."

     "I could have killed you a hundred times already," my brother said, to which Jaxon and Arlo both loudly disagreed. "And yet I've let you live." That normally wouldn't be comforting, but he'd always been too cocky. If there was any response his normal self would give, it was that one.

"Because your thought-reading is mildly helpful, we'll keep you around," Jaxon said with ice in his tone. "But the second we suspect you of anything—"

"You'll eviscerate me, I get it. Evans is practically screaming it in his thoughts."

"Read my thoughts again and I'll throw you out of this moving car," Jake hissed, glaring at Benny.

"Is this their street?" Riley asked Jaxon as I turned off the main road, remembering the address. My heart skipped a beat at the sound of her voice.

"Yes." The ice hadn't dropped from Jaxon's voice. "And that's the house." He nodded to a cul-de-sac that was entirely taken up by one massive home.

      I pulled the car onto the side of the street and parked it. We all got out and stared at the beautiful mansion before us. It was still strange to think Jaxon's family lived here. He'd only mentioned them a few times and frankly, I'd forgotten he used to have a normal life.

      Very reluctantly, Jaxon led the way up the front walk. It made me wonder how bad his parents were if this was how he was acting after not seeing them for so long.

As we traveled behind him, Riley walked near me—silent, for once. There were many times in the past I'd wished she'd stop talking, mostly when she was flirting incessantly with me. But now, I wished more than anything that she'd say something. Anything. Even if it was something horribly flirtatious.