SofiaI should have known it would end badly. Should have known the second I saw Hilda shaking in the corner, fingers clawing at her scalp, that nothing I said would ever be enough.But that’s the thing about people like me. You see a bomb ticking in a room, and instead of running, you walk right up
LeviI leaned back, hands up in mock surrender. “What did you want me to do? Tackle Evelyn in the quad? I don’t have a death wish.”Hilda’s mouth twisted. “You never cared about Ava. All you care about is your stupid fucking Pack. You’re just like Robin.”That one landed. I felt the spike of anger,
LeviIt was dark by the time I started back toward the hostel, the kind of damp night that made the asphalt steam under your feet.The campus was dead at this hour, except for a couple of strays loitering under the library lights. I walked fast, head down, hands in the pockets of my coat. I didn’t w
EvelynI didn’t knock. I threw open the door to Thomas’s study so hard it banged the plaster behind, making him jump, making every painting in the hall rattle like teeth in a blender.“You absolute idiot,” I hissed. “What in God’s name possessed you to do that in front of Ava?”He didn’t get up from
EvelynAs I reached the landing, I heard him ordering the driver to park my car around back, and in the echo of his voice was the fact: This was his house, now, and I’d just become a visitor in my own life.I walked the hallway toward Ava’s room, and I found her door shut, but not locked.I knocked,
EvelynThe road home was a straight line out of the university town and into the bare hills. Two hours of highway, then a climb up the switchbacks until the world dropped away and only the scrub pines and stone fences remained.Ava didn’t look out the window, not once. Her eyes were on the back of t