Everlong by Hailey Edwards Page B

heart rate skyrocketed. The air seemed to thin until the lack of oxygen made my head swim. I couldn’t stop the accusation from rolling off my tongue.
    “You look just like him.”
    The unspoken name hung in the air. Clayton’s shuttered expression told me he knew exactly who I meant.
    “I should.” He pulled back, holding the door wedged open. His face remerged with the shadows. “Harper was my brother.”
    My jaw dropped as the door slammed shut on the dozens of questions scalding the tip of my tongue. I needed to ask, to seek reassurance he spoke the truth. He prowled around the front of my truck to speak with two males in full glamour I hadn’t noticed. Through the wall of bodies, I saw Jacob held limply between them. Clayton patted the nearest male on the shoulder, hooked his thumb towards me and then pointed down the road behind me.
    He glanced up and our eyes met through the windshield. His were such a curious mix of blue gray. I found myself wishing I could look beneath to discover if the black of his eyes was as conflicted as the illusion he cast over them. He continued talking to the others while keeping his gaze locked to mine. Waving them off, he started towards the door left open by Jacob’s hasty exit.
    The door closed and sealed us in an intimate bubble. I couldn’t let the chance pass. I had to ask. “Why didn’t anyone tell me?” For five years I had lived a stone’s throw away from someone of Harper’s bloodline. Someone I would have welcomed as family during those bleakest times of my life, someone who apparently didn’t feel the same way about me.
    Clayton ran a hand through his hair, pushing the damp tangle from his eyes. “Dana spoke with your sister after Harper failed to return home.” He carefully skirted the issue of death. “My brother resembled me, as you’ve noticed. They decided I should stay away and allow you to mourn without the visual reminder that your lover hadn’t returned.”
    “He wasn’t my lover.” The words rushed out until I clamped a hand over my lips. I don’t know why I said it. My heart ached the second I refuted the claim.
    Clayton’s voice lowered to a husky growl. “I don’t want details.”
    “Oh.” Blood rushed to my cheeks. “Of course you don’t. I didn’t mean— I just— Sorry.”
    His long fingers circled the gear shift. “Don’t worry about it.” He threw the truck into drive, and as he executed a three-point turn, the headlights washed over the demons dragging their quarry farther into the night.
    I knew Clayton wanted silence. I could sense it in the tight clench of his jaw and tense hold on the wheel, but I wanted to know. “Why didn’t Harper tell me he had a brother?” I paused, hearing nothing but the steady hum of the motor.
    For a moment, he sat silently, ignoring me. His fingers flexed a little as if only now realizing how tight his grip had been. “I didn’t know my brother,” he corrected, “didn’t know I had a brother until the day my father assigned me to border patrol.”
    “Border patrol?”
    “I am freeborn.” He grinned with pride and my heart raced in response. “I’ve never known Askaran hospitality .”
    His joke fell short because I knew what I was, what my mother had been and still was, and he did too. He glanced over and caught me picking my fingernails to avoid his assessment. “I apologize. You aren’t responsible for your mother’s actions. The Askaran society is cancerous. I’m glad you escaped.” He didn’t say before you were tainted , but I heard the words as clearly as if he had spoken them.
    “It’s all right. I was raised apart from my family. I didn’t realize how bad things were until shortly before…before we left.” And when I’d found out, I had been horrified. Slavery had only been the tip of the iceberg, with worse things hidden just below the surface. Abuse, neglect, rape, all things centered on the Askaran craving for the depraved.
    “I know. I saw you once, a very