Page 231 of Burn Bright

I shake my head a little, then say, “Thank you both for being there tonight. I’m glad you were with me. I’m glad you were adamant about coming along.” I make sure he specifically knowsI’m talking about him too. “Thanks, Charlie. And I don’t hate you either.”

I’m about to exit the car again.

Charlie grabs my shoulder one more time. “The seven kittens—you do know they’re not a metaphorical representation of the seven of us?”

My brows scrunch. “What? Why would I think that?” Now he’s confusing me. One kitten didn’t survive, so what…now one of us is going to die? That sounds ridiculous to me. “I don’t believe in fate, Charlie.”

“Then what do you believe in?”

“Consequences.”

52

BEN COBALT

“They’re in dreadfully great hands, don’t worry,” Jane says with a reassuring smile in my direction. I’ve released the Kappa kittens, and they race toward plates of wet cat food Jane puts out. I refill water bowls strewn around the closed billiards bar.

The Independent is home to many strays that my older sister rescued, some of which eventually find forever families when people stop by for a beer and some pool, then wind up growing attached to the bar’s feline residents. It’s the perfect place to leave these six kittens.

“You are the vanquisher of worries,” I smile back at her. “A destroyer of doubts.”

“You flatter me.”

“With the truth,” I add, my lips rising as kittens nibble on a strand of yarn from a ball Jane tossed. She knows I took the cats to the vet weeks ago. They all have their shots. No fleas. They’ll be really happy here.

She hops up on the pool table and pats the green felt for me to join.

I take a seat beside her.

Thatcher is behind the bar counter, rocking their sleepy daughter in his muscular arms. As Jane peeks at him, he nods to her, then slips into a backroom. Giving me and my sister time alone together. There’s no one who respects the bonds of siblings more than Thatcher Moretti, who loves his twin brother to his absolute core, and I think it’s just another reason he’s so perfect for Jane.

But I recognize that Thatcher has lost one brother in his life. I was one of the first people in our family he ever told about Skylar Moretti, his older brother who jumped into a quarry and drowned when they were just kids. I hope…I really hope he will be there for Jane if she ever feels like she’s lost me.

I need him to be there for her. There really isn’t any doubt he wouldn’t be. Thatcher would walk through quicksand for the rest of his life if it meant Jane was okay.

“Tonight sounded terrible,” Jane says quietly, gently. “How are you doing?”

“I’m getting through it. I’m just glad it wasn’t any worse for Audrey. It could’ve been worse.”

She hugs me around my back. “Oh, Pippy. You have the biggest heart of us all, you realize?”

I stare at the floor, tears trying to well again. “Charlie knew it was always a weakness,” I tell her. “He knew eventually the more you feel, the more you hurt.”

Maybe he even knew one day I’d be swallowed whole by it. Maybe he never wanted to watch it happen.

“Your heart is your strength,” Jane says fiercely. “It also may be the very thing that brings you to your knees, but it can be the very thing that makes you stand. Don’t give up on yourself, Pippy.” She hugs me closer to her side with warmth I crave.

I rest my cheek on her shoulder like I’m twelve again. “We should add instiller of confidence in your Wiki bio.”

“It’d be redundant. It’s simply being your older sister.”

I suck a sharp breath through my nose, caging the waterworks. “Obligations of the firstborn.”

“No. For me, it isn’t work to love and care about my siblings. It never will be.” She tips her head into mine. “I know Moffy feels the same. If you ever need him, he’s one phone call away.”

The firstborns carry the largest burden in our families, and I admire how Jane and Maximoff still managed to be there for everyone, for themselves, and find soul mates of their own.

To me, they are the mightiest of gods. The ones we will forever look up to in the star-lit sky.