CHAPTER 80

CHAPTER 80
“So whose blood is that on your hands?” Victoria asked again, her voice sharp in the heavy silence.

Luca stared down at his palms as they belonged to someone else. The blood had dried in dark streaks across his skin, under his nails, and smeared along the sleeves of his shirt. He opened his mouth, closed it, then swallowed hard.

“Tyson’s,” he whispered. The word dropped like a stone into still water.

A cold wave washed over me. I felt Dan tense at my side, his hand still gripping my waist. Lila stopped rocking Sigurd. Even Victoria, usually so composed, froze mid-motion.

Luca’s shoulders started to shake as he tried to explain. “We were driving back from the grave. After…After I tried to fix what we had done. Tyson was yelling at me for what we did. That we were all going to burn for it.” His voice cracked.

“He was driving too fast. We were arguing. Then everything went black. I woke up in the woods later and noticed your house in the distance. No memory of the crash, it’s only coming back to me now.”

He looked up at us, eyes hollow. “When I looked around, the car had smashed into a tree. Nothing told me to look for Tyson, I just turned and walked away.”

No one said a word; I, for one, did not even know what to say.

Sigurd let out a small, fussy cry in Lila’s arms, as if he could feel the shift in the room. I wanted to go to him, but my legs felt rooted to the floor.

Dan was the first to move. He crossed the room and pulled Luca into a rough hug, blood and all. Luca clung to him like a drowning man.

“I don’t know what happened,” Luca kept repeating into Dan’s shoulder. “One second we were fighting, the next I was waking up in the dirt. I don’t even know if he is okay.”

I finally found my voice. “The police… they’re going to connect this to the grave, aren’t they?”

“Most likely,” Victoria said quietly. She looked older suddenly, the lines around her eyes deeper. “Two incidents on the same property in one night. They won’t see it as a coincidence.”

Dan pulled back from Luca but kept a hand on his shoulder. His body still radiated heat from the shift, muscles twitching with leftover tension. “We need to get our story straight. Luca was with us all evening. We’ll say Tyson dropped him off and left.”

Luca laughed bitterly, the sound broken. “You think that’ll work? My blood—his blood is all over me. I have no wounds. How the hell do I explain that?”

“Wait, you’re just going to let Tyson take the fall? What were you even doing in the woods with him?” I asked while standing on my feet. How could Dan betray his brother for Luca? 

“You don’t,” Dan said firmly. “Not to them.”

I watched my husband, still amazed at how steady he sounded after what he’d just been through. Minutes ago he had been a towering beast, protecting us with nothing. Now he is already planning to sell Tyson out.

Lila stepped forward, still cradling Sigurd. 

“This isn’t random. Elias is moving faster than I thought. He can cloud minds. Create blackouts, make people do things they don’t remember. If he’s already influencing events around you—”

“I don’t want to hear it,” I cut her off, even as doubt gnawed at me. “Not right now.”

But the seed had been planted. Luca’s missing hour. The convenient discovery of the grave. Their car accident on the same night everything else was unraveling.

Sigurd whimpered again. This time the flame on his finger stayed longer, flickering with his distress.

I took him from Lila’s arms, holding him close. His small body trembled against me. For the first time, real fear settled deep in my chest. 

Not just for myself, but for this tiny person who carried pieces of all of us. I need to find a way to stop this power from overpowering my baby.

Dan came over and wrapped his arms around both of us. His skin was still fever-hot. “We’re not giving him up,” he said against my hair. 

Victoria cleared her throat. “We need to look for Tyson.”

Dan’s jaw clenched. I could see the conflict in his eyes. I looked at him wide-eyed waiting for him to make the decision.

Luca sank into the armchair, staring at nothing. “Tyson’s dead because of me. Because I dragged him into this mess.”

“You didn’t kill him,” Dan said, though his voice lacked conviction. None of us truly knew what had happened. “Let’s not jump to conclusions, he might still be alive,” I said as I threw a glare at Luca

The distant sound of more sirens floated through the windows. The police presence in the woods was growing.

The calm, beautiful life we had tried to build after our vow renewal had lasted less than a week.

Dan kissed my temple, then Sigurd’s forehead. His voice was low, meant only for me. “I meant what I said earlier. I need to tell you something important. But it can wait until we get through tonight.”

I nodded, leaning into him. Whatever he needed to say, I wasn’t sure I was ready to hear it.

Because right now, all I could think about was the blood on Luca’s hands and finding Tyson.

“You need to go look for Tyson,” I said staring at Dan who turned to look at me observantly. “He is your brother.”

“He was never my brother.” He said with a deep voice that made me want to cower and hide in the corner. But I straightened up and looked at him. “If you don’t go out there and find him, I will.”