Page 98 of The Truths We Burn

I turn to Sage, who is slumped against the car, looking at the ground.

I shove my hands into my wet jeans, hoping the sticky material will prevent my fingers from doing something I don’t want them to do.

Something idiotic like reach for her.

The way she clung to me in the water, how she was desperately seeking me, stealing my energy. Like she would die if I let her go.

It fucked me in the head.

The months of celibacy I had endured were nothing compared to the pain of that moment.

I just have to keep reminding myself and my birdbrained heart that it’s all a mirage. She had been engaged to another guy the entire time I was fucking her, learning her, inhaling her. I’d been an experiment.

You were a game, Rook.

That was it.

“Looks like you had all the fun without us.” Thatcher slams the door of Silas’s passenger door, walking towards us.

“What happened?” Silas questions, glancing at Briar, then pauses to stare at Sage. Staring for a lot longer than I would say is necessary.

Her coming back was hard on me, but I also know it was hard on him for an entirely different reason.

Sage and Rosemary were twins, so the likeness is there. It had always been there, but when one of them is dead and had been for almost a year now, the similarities are more obvious.

“They played the Gauntlet. Sage fell in the wave pool, and Briar got hit,” I inform them both, grinding my teeth. How naive were they? They had to have known better. Every single year, people leave the Gauntlet injured. It’s not something you play with no experience.

We would know.We’re usually the ones doing the injuring.

“And you?” Thatcher directs towards a sitting Lyra.Tucked away on the asphalt with her head sitting on her knees, she flinches when he speaks to her. His voice yanks her from her own little world she’d been inside of, and his eyes penetrate hers. “What happened to you?”

“Nothing. Uh,” she stutters. “I’m-I’m fine.”

He continues to stare before giving a curt nod and sucking his teeth. “Did we at least win?”

“Thatcher, shut the fuck up.”

“Yes,”Briar and Alistair answer at the same time, proving yet again why they make such a good match.

“Good.” Thatcher walks towards Briar, hovering above her frame. One icy hand moves forward, grabbing her chin and tilting her head to the left and back to the right. “Ice that and you should live…unfortunately,” he adds for good measure.

Their conversation fades into the background because it’s at this moment that Silas walks up to Sage. He looks down at her, staring for a moment too long, and starts to remove his hoodie. Once it’s off his arms, he pauses.

“Lift your arms,” he grunts.

Uneasiness settles into my stomach as she finally lifts her gaze to him.

Why the fuck is he looking at her like that? I know he’s probably doing it out of respect for Rosie, but it’s making me anxious.

It’s making me angry.

At myself. At her. At him.

“I don’t want it,” she responds, staring blankly.

“You’re going to freeze to death. Put it on.” He shoves the hoodie into her chest, insisting. Yet, she refuses to react.

I’m only able to watch this. I can’t say a single word as my best friend speaks more to her than he has to anyone in a year.