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Now that I’m on their radar though—everything I’ve ever hoped for—all my dreams of saving up to go back home?—

I could’ve gone to jail.

They threatened everything.

I bit my lips not to cry out. I’d been getting nothingbutthreats for forty-eight hours. But I’d chosen that for myself. If Darius didn’t want to stand by my side, I couldn’t shame him into it. Tears started welling at the corners of my eyes and I couldn’t blink them away fast enough.

What are you saying?

I texted back, as my sister laughed in the background.

I don’t know yet.

I just need some time.

So much for being off pause.

Sure. I understand

I texted, even though I didn’t want to.

I’ll get a ride from Lacey tomorrow.

I waited the entire rest of the movie for him to text me back after that. He didn’t.

CHAPTER 46

When I woke up and turned my phone on and discovered the only texts I’d gotten overnight called me a bitch/cunt/whore, I pulled up Lacey’s number in my mind and asked for a ride. I got Allie out the door and then I waited well away from the bus-stop for Lacey, and when she got there, I got in.

“So where’s Prince Charming?” she asked—then caught the look on my face.

“Not so prince or charming, anymore.”

“What happened?”

“In addition to threatening me pretty much constantly, Mason had a member of the team set him up.”

“He’s in jail?”

“No, thanks to me. But he’s worried for himself right now and so he ‘needs some time’.”

“Ugh.”

“Yeah. I can’t blame him. But it does make me sad.”

She made a few turns in silence—and my phone got its first new texts of the day. I hadn’t turned the volume down yet, so Lacey heard it go off. “More?”

“Yeah.”

She slowed as we neared campus. “I didn’t want my target to transfer onto you, you know.”

“I know.” I chewed on my lip as the road went by outside. “But none of this is your fault. It’s mine.”

“I still feel bad.”

“Don’t.” I picked at a loose thread on my jeans. “I spent the whole walk home from the hospital—the non-lightning part of it—thinking that if only there was some way if I’d been there instead of you, I could’ve gotten out of it. Like what happened to you was something you could escape from, like being tied to railroad tracks or sinking into quicksand, you know? I have the escape plans for forty million different ways to die inside my mind. Plague? I’ve got a plan. Zombie apocalypse? I’ve got three. But there was nothing I could do—until the lightning hit. So I’m glad I can do something now, even if it sucks for me.”

Her voice was so low I almost couldn’t hear it. “I could’ve not been drinking.”