Page 78 of Scarlet Wars
So, I stayed quiet. Kept my focus on what they needed to know, what felt relevant, what wouldn’t shatter the fragile ground we were all standing on.
When I finally stopped speaking, the silence pressed in thick. My words seemed to hang in the air long after my mouth had closed, echoing softly against the walls until it felt like even the room itself was holding its breath.
Silence followed for longer than a minute. Heavy. Loaded. The kind of silence that could crack open into chaos at any second.
“If people find out about this…” Rachel finally said, focus locked on me, “If humans and their Collaborators realize how different you are…”
James’s expression locked down like steel. “They’ll come for her again. If only to keep her from procreating.”
“According to the Radicals,” Sean offered, “people think Caden is the one with untraceable translation.”
I looked at him, frowning. “Then why would Collabs and humans be coming after me? Why brand me a terrorist?”
The room stilled for a second.
“Emma.” Rachel’s tone dipped into something careful. “We haven’t talked about this yet. But what happened exactly at your parents’ house? What happened when those humans came to their door?”
My chest squeezed at the thought of my parents and all oxygen instantly left the room.
My parents.
The gunfire. The splatter of blood. The explosion of red haze tearing through the house, tearing through the soldiers…
My jaw clenched. I closed my eyes. And then, I breathed. Like pulling air through glass shards.
Because whether I wanted to or not… It was time to talk about it.
“A few days after the bubble was imposed, a group of human militias knocked on the door. They had a warrant for my arrest, and they called me an enemy of the state.”
I swallowed hard.
“My mom…. She…she didn’t let them in. Told them to leave. They got aggressive. My dad intervened and—” my voice caught for half a second before I forced it forward, “next thing I knew, they shot them both. In the head.”
My heart slammed against my ribs, the memory unspooling like it had happened seconds ago. I could feel my haze begin to swirl around my wrist.
Caden coughed once. When I glanced at him, his eyes locked onto mine, dark, intense. He gave me the slightest narrowing of his gaze, his version of “You’ve got this”.
I pushed past the lump in my throat, and pushed back my feelings. “My, uh…my emotions got the better of me. I ejected my haze with more force than I’d ever done before. I lost consciousness. When I woke up…” I exhaled slowly. “Everyone was dead, except for me.”
I didn’t exactly feel the need to specify how I’d blown them all to unrecognizable pieces.
“I don’t know how I survived the bubble. When I released my haze, I figured I wouldn’t. And to be honest, I didn’t really care.”
“Knowing how it would look, I decided against waiting for more humans to come arrest me and fled the scene. I knew Canada was friendly to magi fleeing the US, so I started walking toward the border. I had…” shit, how much was I going to say? “I had a little cash on me but had to bribe a military guy at the first state border crossing.”
Caden and James both clenched their jaws at the exact same time. Oh boy. They didn’t likethatpart.
Well, then there was no way in hell I was telling them about Amy and Dave. Especially not about how I’d gotten myself into that situation by drinking the asshole’s water when I did.
The memory burned at the edges of my chest, feeling stupid. I should have known better. I could almost hear my own voice scolding me:you’re not some naive kid; you should have been smarter than that.
If I’d only trusted my gut. If I’d just said no.
I didn’t want to admit it out loud, because what would they think? That I’d been reckless? That I’d asked for it? That I’d been weak enough to let it happen?
I couldn’t stand the thought of them looking at me differently, seeing me as something fragile, broken, or worse, at fault.
“And then you came here?” Sean’s tone was soft, soothing, and I desperately wanted a hug from him.
