Thirty minutes later, everyone was sitting in Asher’s room, which was the closest to mine. We had left a Templar to watch over Isaac in my bedroom. I had just finished telling them everything about the spot on my brain, the problems I had been having, and what the ward would do. The room was silent as a cemetery. Zeke was oddly still, while the others started asking questions.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Ethan asked, his fingers twirling his silver rings.
“I tried,” I admitted. “At first I didn’t even believe it, but… I tried several times and I just couldn’t manage to…” I stopped and wiped my face again. “And then Isaac was possessed, and I couldn’t tell anyone with that going on. I didn’t want to add to it.”
Asher let out a hard scoff. “Fuck, Ally. You were… you were dying and you didn’t tell us.” He shook his head, clearly angry with me.
“I’m sorry.” I didn’t know what else to say.
Ethan turned to Miles and Zeke. “How the hell are you two so calm?”
“She told me the morning of Isaac’s fight,” Miles admitted.
“And you fucking kept it to yourself?” Ethan shouted, his face turning red. He got to his feet, his eyes storming.
“She told me in confidence,” Miles said calmly, his voice growing colder. “Should I have gone straight to everyone and given you the news? Would you want that the next time you confide in me?”
Ethan cursed under his breath and walked away from us.
Asher turned to Zeke. “Why are we more upset about this than you? You knew too?”
Zeke’s burning gaze moved to Asher. “Fuck you,” he bit out as Asher walked toward him. “You have no idea what’s going on in my head.”
“You should be yelling your head off,” Asher countered, his voice hard. “You fucking knew.”
Zeke squared off with Asher. “I figured something was wrong after she kept dropping from crossing the dead,” he growled, getting in Asher’s face. “Last night she hinted that it was bad. I just didn't want to know it was that bad.” My stomach knotted. This wasn’t good.
“Knock it off,” I snapped. The guys stopped glaring at each other and turned to me. “I’m the one who didn’t say anything. If you want to be pissed with someone, be pissed at me.”
“Believe me, I am,” Asher shot back.
My heart ached but I accepted it.
“Why the hell didn’t you tell the rest of us?” Ethan demanded.
I turned to him. “Because of Isaac.” The room grew silent. “With the way things were going, I had time. Isaac didn’t. It was more important to take care of him.”
Asher moved away from Zeke and leaned against the wall.
“You still should have told us sooner,” Zeke announced.
I shot him a look. “Oh, you mean when I hadn’t even processed the news?” I shook my head. “I couldn’t tell you because I couldn’t believe it myself.”
“Everyone has a right to be upset about this,” Miles announced, his voice patient. “However, Lexie needed time before she could tell us. There’s nothing wrong with that.” He looked around the room at the guys. “Be angry if you’re angry. But you can’t blame her for taking some time to wrap her head around the situation.”
“Whatever.” Ethan dropped down on the bed. He looked tired already.
“However, there’s something else you’re not telling us,” Miles announced.
My eyes snapped to his.
“We heard from a woman named Astrid. She gave us some information. She’s part of the team with Evelyn. I also had a talk with Craig,” Miles began. My heart slammed in my chest.
“Oh, yeah? What did they say?” I asked, half afraid of the answer.
“Did you mean to trade yourself to the demon for Isaac?” Miles asked calmly. The silence was deafening.
I looked him in the eye and told the truth. “Yeah.”
Everyone but Miles cursed.
“What the fuck?” Zeke snapped.
My eyes shot to him. “Isaac was going to die in front of me,” I snapped. “I was going to die anyway—”
“That’s not a good enough reason,” Zeke growled.
“Yes, it is!” I shouted back, anger filling my chest. “What would you have done? ’Cause I’m damn sure you would have done the same fucking thing if you could!”
Zeke clenched his fists together. “It’s not the same.”
“Yeah, it fucking is!” I yelled. “Would you rather have lost two friends or just one?”
“Damn it, Lexie,” he snarled.
“It was my fucking choice,” I stated simply. “Isaac had nothing left. It’s done. I bought enough time for help to get here. It’s over.”
Miles straightened from the wall. “Zeke, you misunderstood the reason I brought it up.”
Zeke’s head snapped around.
“It wasn’t to yell at her.” He met Zeke’s gaze. “It was to thank her.” Stunned silence filled the room. “She’s right. I don’t like admitting it, but she was right. We were going to lose Isaac. And her. I would have done the exact same thing and so would you. So would Asher. So would Ethan. You can’t blame her for making the same choice we would.”
Zeke roughly ran his hand through his hair as he began pacing again. “Fine.”
Miles turned back to me. “Is there anything else?”
“No.” I raised an eyebrow. “How about you?”
Miles sighed. “The demon spoke to Zeke.” Asher’s head whipped around. “With the nature of what the demon was saying, both Father Francis and I agreed that Zeke shouldn’t sit with the demon.”
“That’s fine. I just don’t know why you kept it a secret,” Ethan stated, crossing his arms.
“Look, we’re all run down and exhausted. We’ve all made mistakes lately,” Asher declared. My heart took a hit. Did he mean kissing me? But Asher wasn’t done. “Let’s just… let it go. Let’s start fresh and work on our communication.”
“Seconded,” Miles announced.
“Third,” Zeke grumbled.
“Motion passed,” I stated.
Chapter 19
Tuesday
I was lying on my stomach as a needle pierced the skin over my spine. Because of the location it was painful as hell. I focused on taking deep breaths and letting them out slowly. Trying to distract myself, I thought over the last three days since Isaac had almost died.
Since the big conversation in Asher’s room, everyone had finally started to relax. It helped when Isaac woke up and asked for food.
Since then, Isaac had mostly been sleeping and eating. The poor guy had had little energy for anything else until this morning. When we filled him in on the ward tattoo and what it could do, he demanded we go to the tattoo shop immediately.
The needle hit a more sensitive spot. I grunted but held still. The curtain opened and Zeke came in, frowning. He really didn’t like that I had a string bikini top on, or that the back was undone. Of course, it might also have been combined with the fact the artist was a man. He sat on a stool near my head.
“How’re you doing?” he asked.
I smiled. “Fine, it just hurts.”
“You need anything?” he asked, his voice gruff.
“Nope.” I hissed as the needle hit another sensitive spot.
“I can’t fucking watch this,” he growled as he got to his feet and left. I was snickering when Asher came in and took Zeke’s place.
“Zeke freaked?” Asher asked.
I grinned. “Zeke freaked.”
He chuckled. “The plane is being prepped now, so as soon as you’re done we’ll head home.”
“Good, I want my house and my bed,” I stated. Asher chuckled.
“It’s been a long few days,” he admitted.
“A long, hellish few days,” I added.
“Yeah.” He gestured to my back. “How much does that hurt?”
“The spine is one of the most painful places to get a tattoo,” Mike, the tattoo artist, answered.
“So, it hurts,” I told him.
Asher shook his head.
Miles came to the doorway. “Asher.”
Asher got to his feet and left the room. Miles took his place.
“How are you?” he asked gently.
“I’m going to start charging every time someone asks,” I teased.