A King's Weakness (Book 1)

Chapter 5

I HAVE NO IDEA HOW LONG IT TAKES ME TO FINALLY find the little brick farmhouse, but it feels like a lifetime.

Somehow, Kage has beaten me home. His shadow paces back and forth behind the flimsy drapes we hung up earlier in the day. When he hears me pull up on the bike, he throws open the front door, tension rolling off of him in waves.

"Where the fuck have you been? Damn it, Calla, you could have texted or something. I thought you were dead!" he yells. It typically takes a lot to ruffle my uncle's feathers, and right now he looks like a completely featherless hen.

I flinch as I approach him, expecting him to yell some more, but instead he pulls me into a massive hug, holding me tight. I can smell the girl from the bar on his clothes—bleach and cheap perfume—but her scent is faint and covered with the thick odor of his fear, sharp and nauseating. We stand there, him resting his chin on top of my head, me with my ear pressed to his chest, listening to the reassuring thud of his heart. He doesn't seem to care that I am soaking wet.

"Kage, something freaky happened," I finally whisper—the understatement of the century.

Every muscle in his body tenses, pulling taut like a wire. I struggle to find the words to describe the events of the evening: the creep who tried to grope me at the bar, the wolves, the way time had stopped.

He pulls me into the house and sits me down in the kitchen, wrapping a blanket around me as I speak. He never once makes me feel crazy, even though I know I must be. He's probably just biding his time until he can have me committed.

When the words finally finish spilling from my mouth, my eyes flicker up to his face to gauge his reaction. Kage's jaw is clenched so tightly, I think he is going to crack his teeth. He's going to send me to the insane asylum for sure.

After several long minutes of silence, he sits at the table next to me, lowering his eyes to stare at my clenched hands. "Calla," he tries to say, but his voice breaks. He swallows and starts again. "Cal, there are some things I haven't told you." A long pause. "About...about Lilith."

The sound of my breath catching in my throat is the only noise in the room; it's so quiet that I could hear a pin drop.

Lilith was the name of Kage's sister—my mom.

"What about her?" my voice comes out as a hiss.

He has the decency to look ashamed.

"You have to understand, kid, your mom made me swear. She only wanted the best for you." He won't meet my eyes.

"What do you mean? What the hell did you promise?" My voice is barely a whisper.

"When—when she died, she told me—"

"When she died?" I cut him off. "Kage, you weren't even there. She was driving alone when she crashed."

The air starts to feel heavy, and despite the blanket, a chill has settled deep in my bones. Kage pales and struggles to swallow, his Adam's apple bobbing.

"She didn't die in a car crash," he breathes, barely speaking. I have to read his lips to make out the words.

I stand, pushing my chair back with an earsplitting screech of metal on tile. When I speak, I don't even recognize my own voice. "What do you mean? If—" I have to swallow back bile, "—if she didn't die in the crash, how—how did she die?"

You already know the answer, part of me whispers. You've seen it.

My uncle finally meets my eyes, his face swimming as tears threaten to fall down my cheeks. For the first time I can ever remember, Kage looks helpless.