“But this will happen whether you like it or not. I know there’s still humanity inside you. I know you still have a chance. I just hope you find the strength to join me…instead of resisting me.”

I kept to myself for the next few days.

Worked in my office. Went on distribution checks. Slept beside her every night without really being present.

She knew my thoughts were heavy but didn’t ask about them.

I sat behind my desk and looked at my computer, but I didn’t read a single word because my mind was elsewhere. Magnus was at the forefront of my mind, a concern I’d never thought I would have. He’d never challenged me like that. Never disobeyed an order. Never deviated from the path.

Did he mean what he said?

Or had he said it in anger?

“Everything okay?”

My eyes shifted to Melanie on the couch.

“You make that face when you’re upset, and you’ve had that face for days now.”

I knew her better than she knew herself. And apparently, she knew me in the same way. I closed my laptop and sat across from her on the other couch. My hand moved through my short hair then down the back of my neck, massaging the tension in the muscles.

“What did Magnus say to you?” she whispered.

I dropped my hand and didn’t give an answer.

But she already knew. “Fender—”

“My relationship with my brother has never been strained like this. Even when we were sleeping beside a dumpster, it was never this bad. We robbed innocent people together and never questioned it. And now…I feel like I’ve lost him.”

Her eyes softened like wilted flowers.

“It’s the one thing I thought I would never lose.”

“You could never lose him,” she said gently. “But he wouldn’t be a good brother if he weren’t pushing you to be better than what you are now.”

I looked away.

“You may believe in different things, but your loyalty to each other will never die.”

She hadn’t heard the conversation. She hadn’t felt the shift under my feet. She hadn’t heard the change in his tone.

“Isn’t your relationship with your brother more important than this?” she whispered.

I looked at her again.

“Isn’t your existing family more important than the one you lost?”

Silence.

“Remember, it’s not just Magnus anymore. It’s me. And as much as you don’t want it to be…it’s Raven too. We’re a family now. Let the past go. Embrace the future—with us.” She pleaded with her eyes, begged me to do what I was incapable of doing.

My phone vibrated in my pocket, but I ignored it.

“It’s never too late to do the right thing.”