Greys III - Revelations

Chapter 40 - Chaotic Neutral or True

"I may feel fear when you're around sometimes. But I am not afraid of you."

I turned to retrieve weapons of my own, though I could tell by how Jordan's voice had changed halfway through her sentence, she had Shifted too.

"Splitting hairs a bit, aren't we, darling?"

"You pushing emotions on people isn't the same as them actually feeling them toward you. So, try whatever you like to push or move me, it isn't going to work. In fact, I've already decided to do for you what I did for James."

I turned back at this, glancing over my shoulder to see a confused look on Malachi's face that probably mirrored my own. Then he recovered and made a dramatic show of looking past Jordan at the closed doors.

"Whoa there, right now? Do those doors even lock? What if I don't want my brother's sloppy seconds? Us males have a code, you know."

I felt my stomach constrict at his insinuation, but Jordan didn't so much as bat an eye.

"Nice try. What I mean is I'm going to save you from yourself."

I turned back to the weapons closet after seeing Jordan smile sweetly at Malachi and brush past him.

His reply was casual enough, but it came a second too late, following a pause that was a beat too long, and I found myself smiling too as I picked through the various weapons.

"There's nothing here to save."

Jordan joined me a moment later and called back in a sing-song voice that matched her smile.

"Liar liar."

» ✦ «

I had no idea why. In fact, it made more sense the opposite way, but I was sure Malachi wasn't all bad. Not nearly as bad as James had been when he left his father's house. Zodi's wise words seemed to lean me that way too, though I knew they could just as easily mean the contrary. A light soul trying to be dark...I decided to focus on the beginning, that he was light. A light soul. A light Half. Another one of us. Though, actually, we were dark souls trying to be light. I focused on the second half of that explanation just as much as I focused on the first half of Malachi's.

It was hypocritical and illogical, but it was still what I chose to believe. Even if he allowed only glimpses, scraps of evidence, it was what I chose to believe in. There was something good in him, deep down, protected and hidden from the Collector, maybe even hidden from himself. But I knew it was there, I just knew it. And I would find it and bring it to the surface, let it breathe again. Maybe for the first time since James left. I decided as much days ago, but I hadn't been able to articulate it, to have the thought fully form in my mind until the aftermath of me pulling his anger again. After his rage had bled out of me, and after my guilt had subsided, I knew there was more there, more to him, beneath what he showed.

I smiled at James as I picked two pairs of metal rods out of the weapons closet, the length of my forearm and a finger and a half wide. He let out a breath and made a show of rolling his eyes before hanging his head. The men of his father's house all seemed to have a penchant for the dramatic.

"I'll go get Ailech," he said when I didn't relent.

Give me ten minutes before you come back. I have a plan.

I sent the thought to him and flashed a smile as I felt his mind agree, though he shook his head in exasperation. I walked out to Malachi, tossing him a set of my weapon of choice for the morning. He caught them deftly and weighed them in his palms before dropping them to the floor with a loud clatter. So dramatic.