“This would kill him.” She rubbed her hand against her upper arm, trying to warm herself against this sudden cold. “He’d never recover from this.”
“I know.” Flat, blunt, taking full responsibility for the damage.
“Then why?”
He stood then, his posture not showing any further apology. “Same reason you’re keeping secrets now. To protect him. To protect all of you. All I ever wanted is my family to be safe. Dad buries his head in the sand. I don’t blame him, and I never want to force him to do otherwise, but I knew I had to do things differently.”
When put like that, she couldn’t argue. Everything he said was true, and wasn’t that why she had gone against what she knew her father would have wanted? Having your own thoughts spoken aloud by someone else made it really hard to remain mad at them.
“Your turn. What are you involved with?”
Tiredness hit her like a sledgehammer. These last twenty-four hours had been hell, and she wasn’t out of the woods yet. She wanted to sleep and process, but Michael wouldn’t let this go, not until he knew everything. “How did you know, and don’t tell me lingerie girl – you pieced that together after the fact.”
Michael’s eyes narrowed and became cop’s eyes, questioning and searching out the truth. “A woman named Fallon came to visit me. She said you would recognize her name.”
If she lived a thousand years, Larissa was pretty sure she’d never forget Fallon. “What did she have to say?”
“She didn’t give me any details. She said she had more information about the attacks for you and your guardian, and gave me directions of where to bring you tonight if you wanted to meet.” The pacing started again. “Who does she mean, guardian? The man in your apartment?”
“Yes, he’s been protecting me.”
“And what have you needed protection from?”
She didn’t want to say it. She didn’t want Michael to become part of this nightmare. But he had told his secrets, and that was the deal. “Necromancers.”
Michael’s knees buckled before he righted himself. “Fuck no, fuck no… Necromancers, Ris? You don’t know what they can do, the horrors I’ve seen…” He grabbed her hand, pulling her closer to his body. “You’re sure?”
His terror was bringing her own back, batting down walls she’d been using to keep it contained. She had to get away or she would be curled up on the floor. She pulled her hand from his, wiping it over her face as she gave him a nod, the only answer he was going to receive.
He stayed still for several moments, looking lost, his hands clenching at his sides. A word floated through the air. “Why?”
She would give anything to fully know the answer to that question. “They’re going to use me to somehow rip the Human Realm and the Magic Realm apart and return the Magic Realm back to how it was before.”
If Michael was unhappily stunned at the prior mention of necromancers, he was poleaxed at this latest revelation. “Impossible,” he whispered, the slice of sound low and haunted.
She said nothing and let him come to terms with this newest revelation in his own time. When he came out of his stupor his eyes were a laser focus on her. “This Fallon, she’s from the Guild, isn’t she? Fuck, I should have known.”
He didn’t sound happy about this new bit of knowledge. “You know of the Guild?”
“Not because I want to. I’ve been very happy that I haven’t had any run-ins with them this far in life, though I guess that’s changing now.”
“What did you think of her?”
He didn’t hesitate. “That she’s scary as hell and you’d be ten shades of stupid to mess with her.” He took a few moments then, and she saw protective older brother fade to be replaced by cool cop logic. “That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t meet up with her and see if you can learn something, as long as you have your back-up guardian – who, by the way, you haven’t fully explained yet.”
“I can’t explain him.”
Michael narrowed his eyes at her. “Larissa…”
She held up a finger in warning. “Don’t take that tone with me. I can tell you my secrets, but I won’t betray those who have been protecting me all this time. I would be dead several times over if it wasn’t for the male that you saw. He’s been by my side throughout all of this.”
Michael’s hands slipped into the pockets of his jeans. “I’m sorry you didn’t feel like you could have come to me, to the family.”
“It’s not that I couldn’t, it’s that I wouldn’t. Protection, right? If something had happened to any of you because of me… it was easier to risk myself alone.”