Chapter 6 - The Long Road North
The drive to upstate New York was quiet. Eli slept in the back of the van, wrapped in three wool blankets Tristan had found in the marina office. Clara sat in the passenger seat, her eyes fixed on the highway ahead, watching the tail lights of the occasional semi-truck.
"Why did you stay with him?" Clara asked suddenly, her voice cutting through the hum of the tires.
"With who?"
"Your brother. If he was bad."
Tristan gripped the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white. "Because in my world, family is the only thing that keeps you anchored to the earth. If you don't trust your blood, you're just a monster floating in the dark. I thought he was anchored."
"My dad said you were different," Clara whispered. "He said you were the only Vail who remembered that people aren't numbers in a ledger."
Tristan didn't answer. He didn't know if he deserved that praise. He had killed men. He had ordered territories seized. But he had never targeted children, and he had never broken a promise to a dead friend.
By 4:00 AM, the city skyline had vanished, replaced by the dark, snow-dusted pine trees of the Hudson Valley. They pulled up a long, gravel driveway leading to a stone farmhouse surrounded by a high chain-link fence. Three men in heavy winter coats stood at the gate, shotguns held loosely across their chests.
Silas met them at the door. He looked like a piece of granite carved by a dull chisel, his white hair cropped short, his eyes sharp behind wire-rimmed glasses. He took one look at Eli’s pale face and waved a woman in a nurse’s uniform forward.
"We have a doctor on site," Silas told Tristan. "The boy will have his medicine within the hour. The girl will be fed."
Tristan stepped back toward the van. Clara caught his sleeve before he could open the door.
May you like
"You're going back," she said. It wasn't a question.
Tristan reached into his pocket, pulled out the red rubber band she had lost in the service stairwell, and placed it in her small palm. "Your father was a good man, Clara. I’m going to make sure the people who forgot that don't get to enjoy the morning."
