Page 63 of Burn Bright

I pause to swallow the rock that, honestly, won’t go down. So I uncap my water bottle, take a hefty swig, and I offer some to Harriet.

Before she takes a sip, she says, “I don’t see how you’re the bad guy in all of this.”

“I lost it,” I choke out. “That night, when Winona told me what he did, all I thought about was hurting him like he’d hurt her. So I went to his house with a bat. Smashed his Porsche. Smashed him. He wasn’t moving, Harriet. I almost…I almost killed him. I think I would’ve, but Donnelly?—”

“Donnelly?”

“Yeah, Xander’s bodyguard. He was the one on my security detail that night. He got me off him before I did any permanent damage.” I run my tongue over my molars. “I’d say he saved me, but funny thing is, I didn’t want to be saved.” I blink a few times, my eyes on fire. “I scared my family. It’s one thing to enact revengetogether. Another thing to do it alone. They think I’ve been sufferingalone.” I glance over at her now. “Maybe they’re right. But there were just too many variables if I involved them. Too many things could go wrong.”

She caps the water bottle slowly, then passes it back to me with a deepening frown. “You really think that?”

“Yeah,” I nod assuredly. “I do.” I stare at her laced combat boots. “After Winona told her parents what happened, she decided that she wanted to go to an all-girls school for her senior year.Boarding school.She’s not too far from here in Upstate New York. Vada went with her. It’s another reason my sister has been so upset this year. I left Philly. Two of her closest friends left Philly. She only has Kinney Hale now.”

“Why’d your sister stay behind?” Harriet asks.

“She won’t admit it, but Audrey is pretty attached to our mom and dad. She’s only sixteen. I don’t think she was ready to live without them yet.”

“I can’t blame her.” Harriet unwraps a Jolly Rancher, and it reminds me that she was sixteen and living in a Honda. Even without all the facts, it’s hard not to feel anger toward her mom and dad for deserting their teenage daughter. I try to let it go as she tells me, “If I had your parents, I’d probably never leave them behind, no offense.”

“None taken.” I smile down at her. “Leaving anyone you love behind is the hardest thing in the world, but if you ask my Uncle Ryke, he’d say the hardest things are usually the right things.”

She swishes the candy in her mouth. “Does Meadows wisdom even apply to a Cobalt?”

I hope it does.“Seems universal to me.” I hop off the desk, then clasp her hand and tug her onto her feet. She stays at my side as I approach the bulletin, and I tear off a neon-orange flyer from its pushpin and flash it to her. “What about this one?”

“Board Game Club?”

“No push-ups required.”

Her teeny-tiny smile returns, then she reads the fine print. “It looks like they’re gathering to play Catan next. That’s a strategy board game, right? I’ve never played before.”

“Yeah. It’s not too hard. Beckett loves it, so I’ve played a handful of times.”

“Better than chess?” she teases since I said Chess Club was off-limits.

I almost laugh. “I can handle Catan for you, Fisher. Don’t worry about me.”

“I’ll try not to, Friend.” Her budding smile is now drawing mine even higher. Yeah, we’re making each other smile. My chest feels lighter, and it takes me a second to realize something.

We’ve never let go of our hands.

14

BEN COBALT

No fucking way.

I reread the address on my phone ten times before it starts sinking in. Eliot didn’t give me directions to a party. Sure, I thought The Labyrinth Library was an odd name for a nightclub, but I figured he found some Edgar Allan Poe themed hangout spot.

It’d be on brand for my Poe-loving brother.

Cabs honk in the distance. The night sky is a cloudy haze, and rain has quit pouring. I’m staring at a typical brownstone with a tiny brass plaque for a sign that feels less like an underground club and more like I’m being duped.

My brothers have to be inside. Seeing as how all four of their bodyguards are congregated on the wet cement steps. They stop shooting the shit as soon as I appear with Harriet and Novak. My bodyguard gives them a friendly wave from the sidewalk and joins them outside the entrance. I’m guessing the venue is secure. Maybe even private if they’re not going in with us.

Harriet scrolls on her phone after I tell her I never looked up The Labyrinth Library on the internet. I just plugged it intoMaps with an abundance of trust. I didn’t think Eliot would go so far as to prank me. Not when he wants me to live in New York.

“Okay, I found it on Yelp.” Harriet squints as she reads. “Four point seven stars. Oh…”