Page 124 of Scarlet Wars
“Don’t put this all on me!” I yelled. “You lied to me! You let me hate you?—”
“Because you needed someone to blame!” he roared over me. “And now you’re standing here, acting like I’m the one who brokeyou,when you’ve been breakingmefor weeks.”
Then he let out another bitter, humorless laugh. “Hell,” he said. “I’ve been breaking formonths.”
My heart stuttered, breath catching hard in my throat.
His voice dropped, quieter now, as if the fury had thinned, but the truth underneath was heavier than anything he'd thrown at me.
“You want to know the real reason you’re angry?” he said, eyes burning through me. “It’s not because of what I did. It’s because ofyou.Because youfeelsomething for me. And it scares the living shit out of you. So instead of dealing with it, you fuckingrun.Every. Single. Time.”
My hands shook. “That’s not?—”
“Why did you leave Crown?”
I blinked. “What?”
“You left Crown,” he repeated, his stare boring into mine, “told me it was to find your way back to James. But you didn’t.”
He took a step closer. “Then you said you were attracted to me but told meagainyou had to find your way back to him. And youstill didn’t.”
Another step. “Then you come all over my fingers and disappear all over again until you get to be angry over this. So, it seems to me... This United Chiefs bullshit, your history and future with Walker, whatever happened at Coastal… It all gives you the perfect excuse. The perfect out. Because you don’t want to face the fact that what you feel for me isreal.”
I took a step back, the pressure in my chest folding in tight, like the air was too thick to breathe. “I shouldn’t have come here.”
“Then leave,” he said coldly.
I turned to grab the door handle, my heart pounding so hard it echoed in my skull.
But right as I opened it, Caden slammed it shut with one hand, fast, and final.
I stood frozen, staring at the wall, my back to him.
His voice was a low growl behind me. “Run all you want, Nightcrawler, you’ll only end up right where you started.”
I turned, slowly, ready to fire back, but his face had already gone flat. Cold.
Without another word, he opened the door, pushed me out?—
Andslammedit in my face with so much force, it made the floorboards shake.
TWENTY-NINE
EMMA
I found myself wandering the halls of Arbor Hall for what felt like hours, pacing aimlessly through corridors that all looked the same, letting my boots echo against the stone like they were the only proof I hadn’t disappeared completely.
In the span of only a few days, I’d managed to undo every scrap of progress I thought I’d made last year, unraveling myself until I was right back where I’d started: cut off, alienated, standing on the outside looking in.
James: pissed off.
Caden: furious.
Me: angry at Sean.
Which meant I was basically running out of allies at record speed.
When I nexed Saoirse though, she replied not even a second later, so fast it almost startled me.
