Chapter 91

Logan

The sky was the color of ash, neither dark nor light, just heavy and indifferent. It felt like a good reflection of my mood.

The wind skimmed through the tall grass as I led Jesse down the old path, shackles clinking softly with every step he took. He didn’t speak. He hadn’t, not since I went to collect him.

It was just the two of us, as I had requested it to be. This felt like a matter between the two of us. Brother and brother.

We reached the graveyard on the edge of the pack lands, far from the palace and whispers. It was quiet here. The stillness of the air felt sacred.

He must have understood where I was taking him, because his footfalls began to slow as the realization dawned on him. Still, he did not protest or even speak.

I stopped in front of her headstone and said nothing for a while. I just stood there, staring at the simple carving: Beloved mother. May the moon guide her soul in the beyond.

Jesse shifted beside me, the chains between his wrists rattling faintly. I could hear his breathing. His breaths were coming harder than usual as his emotions mounted. I suppose that was to be expected when taking a man to his prematurely dead mother’s grave.

“I haven’t been here since the funeral,” he said, voice hoarse. “I was the only one who came. Father didn’t even send flowers.”

“I figured.” I glanced at him. “I thought you would want to be with her one final time.”

“You will not get any gratitude from me,” he said.

“I didn’t expect it.” Even still, I felt it in the longing way he looked at the small plot of land and its headstone.

His jaw clenched. “I suppose it all started here, huh? With her.”

We stood there in silence again. The breeze whispered through the trees, rustling the leaves softly as we both thought of the dead woman at our feet. She had been cast aside like trash by our father, but the rivalry her affair had made long outlived her.

“I was angry,” Jesse said eventually. “For so long. About everything. About her dying. About how you got everything. The title. The power. The love. It was all handed to you while I had to claw and scrape for everything I had.”

“You think I didn’t carry any of that weight?” I said, my voice low. “I offered to help you once when we were kids, and you refused. But if our places had been swapped, you would see the burden of it all. You think being the chosen son made it easier?”

Jesse shook his head slowly. “No. I know now it didn’t, not with a father like that. I just didn’t know how to stop hating you. I still don’t.”

He knelt down until he was eye-level with the grave. I watched his shoulders tighten, then tremble.

“I did a lot of things I regret,” he whispered. “Things I thought would make me feel better. Smarter. Stronger. More loved. But nothing ever filled the hole.”

He looked up at me then, and for the first time in years, I saw my brother. He was not just a rogue or an enemy across the battlefield. He was just Jesse, like that little boy I had first met in the market.

“Maybe,” he said, “if things had been different, we could’ve been… decent brothers.”

“Maybe,” I allowed. And it wasn’t just to comfort him. I meant it. But that was a fantasy life. A hypothetical. Our reality was one where, instead, we were kneeling over a dead mother’s grave and a vial of poison was weighing down my trouser pocket.

He gave me a sad little smile. “Take care of her, will you?”

“Evelyn?” I asked, even though I didn’t need to. There was only one woman I was sure Jesse had ever loved besides his dead mother. And it wasn’t Emma, with her scheming and betrayals.

Jesse nodded. “She’s fierce and kind. All the things we weren’t raised to be. I think she could be the future. I wanted her to love me so badly that I tried to force it, but trying to get her to do something she doesn’t want is like trying to fight gravity’s pull.”

“I know,” I said, feeling something deep and immovable twist in my chest. “She’s the love of my life.”

Jesse chuckled under his breath. “Of course she is. And I bet she’s off changing the damn world while we stand here moping over this old gravestone.”

I smirked despite myself. At least in this, Jesse could see Evelyn accurately for who she was.

“She’s working on it,” I said. “She wants to rebuild everything. Her priority will be equality as we rebuild. For everyone. Women and omegas… Even rogues.”

He sighed, looking back at the gravestone. “Sounds like something she’d do. I hope she makes it happen. Maybe she can do what we’re all incapable of.”

“Oh, I’m sure of it,” I said.

He didn’t fight when I pulled the vial from my coat pocket. He didn’t flinch when I uncorked it, either. He only watched my movements with slow intrigue. There was an air of resignation to him now.

“Wolfsbane,” I said softly. “It’ll be quiet and painless.”

He nodded. “It’s better than I deserve.”

I didn’t argue with him on that as I handed it to him. He held it in both hands, looking at the liquid like he had a choice, and he was weighing up his options. Then, with one final breath, he drank it in a single gulp.

I sat beside him as the poison took hold.

At first, he was still. Then, he lay back on the grass so that he was entirely on the bed of his mother’s grave, looking up at the sky.

“It’s been a hard life, brother,” he said. Already his words were thin.

“It’s time to rest,” I said.

“You know, I think I’ll do just that,” he said with that characteristic smirk. Then, Jesse leaned his head back against the gravestone, eyes fluttering shut. His breathing slowed, each exhale softer than the last until finally there was nothing left.

I didn’t move. Not right away. I just stared at the brother I’d lost years ago. The brother I had unintentionally shared so much of this life with, even as circumstances and our parents tried to keep us apart.

He’d made enough noise in life. He deserved quiet in death. I was glad that I could give him this kindness; perhaps it had been the first time someone had been gentle to him in his life.

Eventually, I stood. The wind picked up, tugging at my clothes as I looked down at Jesse. He looked so peaceful, he could’ve been sleeping.

“I’ll protect her,” I murmured. “I’ll protect what she’s building. And I’ll remember you. I’ll never forget both the worst and the best of you.”

I left Jesse there, on the grave of the only person who had ever loved him without condition.

And as I walked away, I prayed the wind would carry his soul somewhere peaceful. I looked up at the heavy clouds that now promised a storm and hoped that he was finally free of the fury that had caged him for so long.