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CHAPTER

FORTY-THREE

ELI

Aiden bursts into the cabin like a hurricane. The wooden walls shake as the door slams closed, almost torn from its hinges.

“What happened?” I ask. “Does she know?”

“You!” Aiden ignores me and sets his sights on Lex. “How could you?”

Lex, still oblivious, leans over the sink. He sets strips of paper alight and watches the ashes flutter down the drain.

“What’s wrong?” Lex looks up. He arches an eyebrow and smirks. “Didn’t get your dick wet?”

Without warning, Aiden barrels forward and tackles Lex to the floor. “You bastard!”

“What—”

Lex doesn’t finish his sentence before Aiden punches him square in the jaw. What’s wrong with him? He usually saves that level of ferocity for others. We never turn on each other. We’re united. A team.

“Aiden!” I grab Aiden and try to haul him off. They’re a blur of thrashing limbs. “Stop!”

Aiden doesn’t listen. Instead, he keeps pummeling mercilessly like he’s trying to put Lex’s face through the floorboards. In the frenzy, Lex manages to wrap his leg around Aiden to get some respite.

“What’re you talking about?” Lex rasps, tilting his head to avoid another whack. “I don’t?—”

“You fucked Erin!” Aiden yells. “We had a deal!”

“What?” My eyes narrow. “Seriously?”

We had an agreement. We made it when we began tormenting Erin, and then reaffirmed it when we learned she was Sarah. We planned to wait until Sarah learned her identity. Of course, Lex couldn’t control himself. Selfish fucker.

“It just happened,” Lex wheezes. “Okay?”

While Aiden’s distracted, I grab his shoulders and heave him off, even though I wouldn’t mind seeing Lex with a broken nose.

“We can’t turn on each other,” I say, ignoring my simmering resentment. “Not now. We’re so close.”

Aiden’s nostrils flare, but I seem to have struck a chord and brought him to his senses enough to reconsider letting Lex go.

He stands and readjusts his crumpled shirt, then takes out his remaining frustration on the chair.

He boots the wooden leg, causing it to splinter away from the seat. I guess that’s progress.

“She knows her real identity,” Aiden pants. “And she’s angry.”

“Of course she is,” I say. “She’s just learned her father reprogramed her.”

“It’s not just that,” Aiden says. “She’s mad at us.”

I frown. “But we’ve helped her realize who she is…”

“She remembers everything that happened when she was Erin,” he mutters. “Everything.”

“You mean, she’s jealous,” Lex adds, wiping his mouth and spitting blood.

“We have to make it up to her,” I say.

“You didn’t see her.” Aiden’s shoulders slump. “She never wants to see us again.” His eyes meet mine. “And she knows how Erin died.”

Fuck . My heart skips a beat. It was inevitable she’d find out.

Still, it doesn’t hurt any less. I wanted to tell her what happened myself.

She has to know it haunts me every day. The gnawing guilt is chewing me up from the inside, as well as the burning shame of knowing I wasn’t strong enough to beat Acacia when it mattered.

“Killer,” I mutter. “I’m a killer. Killer. I’m a?—”

“I told her it wasn’t your fault,” Aiden interrupts. “I explained you had no choice. It was all Acacia, but?—”

I shake my head to stop myself from spiraling, then mutter, “You did what you had to.”

I’m not sure whether I’m talking to him or to myself. Probably both.

“It’s over,” Aiden says in bleak resignation. “She doesn’t want us.”

He’s willing to let her go?

Lex’s brow furrows, having the same thought. This is the first time Aiden’s given up. Even after hours of torture, Aiden kept his spirits up, clinging on to hope when there was none to be found. He’s an unbeatable force. An unbreakable man, or so I thought.

“It’s not over until we say it’s over,” Lex says firmly.

I take a deep breath and nod in agreement. For once, Lex is right. I’m not ready to give up on her, even if Aiden is. We’ll win her back. We have to.

“She’s angry, but we can’t lose her now. We won’t,” I say. “She belongs to us.”

“Don’t you get it? She’s not Erin anymore!” Aiden says. “Sarah doesn’t do what we say. She won’t listen.”

Erin was easy to manipulate. For months, we found fun in that.

Plaguing her and making her suffer gave us a sick sense of satisfaction, knowing we were messing with her and Acacia.

Yet, it’s different with Sarah. We didn’t love her because she obeyed.

We loved Sarah because she never shied away from us.

She walked into our hell and never wanted to leave.

She risked it all to help us escape. Now we have to risk it all to save her.

She’s alone and confused, not sure what’s coming next.

We need to give her a reason to live. Just like she did for us.

“Maybe her sending you away is a good thing,” I say. “It shows she’s really back.”

“She’s not the same person, Eli,” Aiden says with a pained expression. “She doesn’t know who she is. She thinks she’s broken. After everything Acacia did to her, maybe she is…”

Lex laughs. A crazy maniacal laugh.

“Listen to yourselves,” Lex mocks. “We’re all fucking crazy, or haven’t you realized that by now?

We’ll never be sane!” He rolls his eyes.

“We’re not like normal people. We won’t get to live happily ever after.

We’re cursed. We always will be. Acacia made sure of that, but we still have a chance at freedom.

That’s what we want, isn’t it? That’s what she wanted. ”

Aiden cracks a tiny smile. My shoulders sag in relief. He’s back again.

“We’re breaking her out,” Aiden says with a newfound determination. “She’s our fucking property, and we’re bringing her home.”

I grin. “Yes!”

“And then we finish what we started?” Lex asks.

Aiden nods. “Acacia’s going down, then we’re getting the hell out of Pasturesville and away from Sunnycrest for good. All four of us.”