Page 12 of Burn Bright

I’ve hated him for as long as I can remember, but not before he started hating me.

“Welcome home, little brother,” Charlie says with the enthusiasm of a defective confetti popper. “Though, by the looks of it, you don’t want to make this one yours.”

“What do you mean?” I know what he means.

I just don’t love that Charlie acts like he’s in my head when he has no real clue what goes on inside of me. But to be fair, he’sunbearablyintelligent and can read a room as well as he can people.

“You only brought one bag.” He sounds irritated and gestures a stiff hand to the duffel. “Unless you’re planning to bring the rest later.”

I’m not. He knows I’m not.

I say nothing.

Charlie rolls his eyes. “This is going to be fun.” He stands off the doorway and comes closer. He favors his right leg, and when he catches me staring at his slight limp, I cut my gaze to the window.

Guilt festers in my chest. It’s a knot I can’t loosen because I caused his injury.

I thumb an elastic cloth bracelet that saysdon’t worry, be capywith an embroidered Capybara. Winona Meadows, my cousin, gave it to me years ago, and thinking about my obliterated friendship with her just tightens the knot.

I snap the elastic against my wrist.

“Get over it,” Charlie says harshly while slouching back onto one of the blue chairs.

I clench my jaw.

The truth about Charlie? He hasnoreal empathy for anyone outside of his twin. His unconditional love for Beckett is the bestthing about him.

It’s the only thing I relate to, but it’s never been enough.

Now he’s acting like it’s so fuckingeasy to dispose of emotions. As if he understands them at all. If it were up to him, he’d carve out every single one from my body and grind them into dust.

He wants me to feelnothing.I’m the most sensitive Cobalt, in his eyes. The one without armor. The one with the most vulnerabilities. The one with the most fatal flaws.

To him, I’m just weak.

The runt of the pack.

The one who should’ve died early on. I was not meant to last, and maybe I only have because of our parents. Because we have a lioness for a mother who would snatch any struggling cub by the neck and keep them with the pride.

No matter the cost.

“Ben.”

I shoot my lowered gaze up to Charlie’s. He’s bowed forward in his chair, staring me down with a look I don’t recognize.

“Just leave me alone,” I say in a tensed breath. I take off my baseball cap, rake my fingers through my wavy hair, then toss the hat on the top of my duffel.

Charlie is blatantly annoyed. “It was a car accident from three years ago.”

“Yeah and I wasthe one driving!” I shout as my eyes burn with heat. “I’m sorry I care about the impact it had on everyone in the car, includingyou.” I sneer out the last word.

Charlie groans and slings his head backward. “Get the fuck over it.”

I grit down on my teeth and stare unblinkingly at the window. What was I thinking? There’s no way we’ll last a few weeks together. At this rate, we might not even make it twenty-four hours. I fit my ballcap back on and snatch the strap to my duffel.

“Is that Ben I hear?!” a masculine voice calls out, mirth seeped in every syllable. Truthfully, mirth has been seeped in everyboneof his body since birth.

I want to smile but it’s lost beneath the heat of Charlie’s heartless stare.