“I—” He tries to pull his hand away, but I hold on tight. “I lied to you, Grace-face. Since day one.”
I turn to face him and make sure he’s looking at me when I ask, “Were you lying when you told me that Sherwood Pierce was a moron if he didn’t see how great I was?”
Thane laughs and shakes his head. “No.”
“Were you lying when you crawled into my bed and told me you were scared of thunderstorms?”
Again, “No.”
“Were you lying when you told me you would protect me with your life?”
“Of course not,” he says, trying to look away.
I tug him back to face me. “Then nothing else matters. You’re my brother,” I say again, “and I love you. End of story.”
The emotions battling inside him show on his handsome face, the hope and the guilt fighting for prominence. But I know Thane—the core of him, not the pesky details—and I know that hope will win in the end.
I don’t say this out loud, but I’m relieved to finally have the secrets of his past out in the open. They have been eating at him for so long, he could never truly be his whole self with us, with his family. No matter how much he loved us and wanted to belong, he always kept himself at a bit of a distance.
Now, he’ll be able to shed all that armor.
The first step, I think, is whatever is growing between him and Greer. He’s never dated before, never seemed interested in forming relationships outside the family. Probably because he thought he wouldn’t live long enough for them to matter when his bosses found out he was defying them.
I’m glad he’s finally taking that step.
“You and Greer are a good match,” I say, turning to look back out over the water.
He doesn’t say anything; he doesn’t have to.
As we both stare out at the boats, we fall into a peaceful silence as we wait for everyone to return—for my sisters and the support they’re bringing with them.
I’m shocked when the first car that pulls up is our station wagon. Mom jumps out of the passenger side and runs over to me.
She wraps me in a big bear hug. “Oh good,” she cries. “We’re not too late.”
“Not too—?” I pull back and look at her. “Mom, what’s going on? What are you doing here?”
“When Thane called,” she says, her eyes damp, “I was afraid we wouldn’t get here in time.”
I give my brother a questioning look as Dad gets out of the car and walks over.
“I told them. Everything.” Thane shrugs. “I thought they should know.”
“We want to help,” Dad says, walking up to Thane and proudly wrapping an arm around his shoulder. For once, Thane doesn’t pull away.
“No,” I say, glaring at Thane. “It’s too dangerous.”
Thane looks at me. “I got some good advice recently,” he says. “When you love someone, you don’t abandon them in their time of need.” His mouth lifts into a half smile, telling me exactly who gave him this advice. “You’re in need. They love you and want to help.”
“You’re both in need,” Mom says. “And we love you both.”
Thane won’t admit it, but he needed to hear her say that more than almost anything.
“We’ll do whatever we can,” Dad adds. “Even if you tell us to stay out of the way. Whatever we can.”
I feel so loved. My heart feels like it might burst. Between Thane, Mom and Dad, and Milo, I can’t believe I’m so lucky—to have people willing to risk everything, to take a stand side by side with me and my sisters. I pull my family into a group hug.
“Thanks,” I say with an emotional sniff. “It means . . . a lot.”
“That’s what family is for,” Mom says.
And it only makes me cry harder.
Greer returns first, leading an alarmingly large crowd of monsters across the parking lot. Her eyes are wide, like she can’t quite believe she’s at the head of this parade.
“Hi,” she says, sounding kind of shocked. Waving over her back, she says, “These are, um, some of the monsters who have, um, been living in our fair city.”
Greer is not an um kind of girl. I can tell she’s uncomfortable with the swarm of beasties following her. There are a lot of them. It’s hard to imagine all these creatures living in San Francisco without anyone—Gretchen especially—noticing. Gretchen before things started changing. Then again, I suppose they kept pretty low under the radar.
Well, at least we’ll have some good backup.
I wave at the crowd.
Then Milo arrives—with half the soccer team. I hurry up to him. “What are they doing here?”
He gives me an uncertain shrug. “Davidoff saw me skipping out of class and decided to join me.”
A tall, lanky boy with straight hair that falls to his shoulders waves at me.
I turn back to Milo. “So?”
“So . . .” He looks over his shoulder. “Then the rest of the guys caught us leaving and followed us out.”
“You couldn’t have told them not to come?”
He gives me a helpless look. “I tried.” He leans forward and whispers. “They want to help. Once a team, always a team.”
I breathe in and out, trying to decide what to do. Well, I guess it can’t hurt to have their help. We can always hypno their memories away later.
“Okay,” I tell Milo, lifting up to press a kiss to his cheek. “It’ll be fine. Just keep them away from the most dangerous fighting.”