Deserted Highways

Not a Fable

A/N: THis is the last chapter of Book Two in the Disillusionment Series, Deserted Highways. As it did last year, I have reached the natural end of this story, and to try to force it to continue would be a disservice. I will post the ending tonight, and tomorrow will be an excerpt from the third and final book in this trilogy. Thank you for reading until the end!

 and-" she started.

"Oh, fan-fucking-tastic," Jace spat, smacking his hands against the steering wheel. He glanced in the backseat, Lilith and Michael sitting silent, eyes wide, nearly glazed over in what he knew was an attempt to keep their emotions carefully hidden. Lilith's eyes met his briefly, and then she looked away. "So, you knew Jordan planned to make it look like he'd kidnapped you? You knew he planned to kill every single person on that floor and leave them all for Kaelie to find? You knew what he planned to do to her? And you didn't do anything to stop it?"

His hands were trembling against the wheel in his rage, his shoulders tight and tense and his neck ached from the frustration he carried in the muscles there. He'd always believed that his mom was unequivocally good, selfless, sweet. He'd not wanted to see the cruel streak she had, and maybe on some level he could understand that everything she'd done had been in someone else's best interest, for her own survival, but he couldn't fathom her just sitting by and letting this happen to Kaelie. She'd known what Jordan would do when Kaelie came to save her. She knew that Kaelie would, for him, she'd have done anything he asked, and she knew Kaelie would be the sacrifice for the rest of them to live, and it still didn't stop her.

"I don't understand mom. How you could do that, how you could knowingly let this happen? You knew mom, you know how I feel about her, how fucking in love with her I am, you so what it did to us, what it did to me when we lost her the first time," Jace said, his voice cracking. "Dammit mom, we need her, I need her, I can't- I don't know if I can do any of this without her."

His mom tried to reach for his hand and he flinched out of the way. "Jace, I'm sorry. I did know. I knew it all, I knew what he planned to do to Kaelie, I was hoping to stop him, I was hoping- I don't know. Jace, you have to believe me, I didn't want this. I want Kaelie back just as much as you do. But I had to stay on Jordan's good side, he thought I was with him on all of this, so when he explained his feigned kidnapping to me, I just did it. I let him think I would be on his side, that I would be on Kaelie's side after he took her humanity away. I was afraid he'd kill me, kill you. He didn't think I would betray them and that was how I was able to get all the access codes, that's how I got you out."

Jace didn't say anything, he didn't know what else he could say without saying something he'd never be able to take back. He could understand, but he didn't want to. His mom knew, and she did nothing to help until after it was done. He felt sick to his stomach, felt like he'd lost three people now.

He pulled to à stop in front of the hotel he'd run from hours before. He shut off the car, and for à minute he didn't move.

Chapter 22

Not a Fable

Kaelie lounged in the chair in front of the cheap hotel room desk. She twirled a thin bladed knife between her fingers, waiting. Two Hunters lurked behind the closed bathroom door behind her, waiting for her signal. It wouldn't come, she'd brought them with her for show, mostly. She didn't need them at all.

She propped her feet up on the cheap wood, comfortable, relaxed. She really hadn't thought it would take this long, but then again, sometimes cars did tend to be slower than she did, and she was the one with the game leg. The ache in her knee only served to fuel her anger, her rage veiled thin, hidden under a smirk, a cool glance.