Chapter Nineteen
Secrets
Brianna was waiting for us. She stepped aside the open doorway as we brushed past, and brusquely latched the door behind us when we entered the small sitting area outside her bedroom.
Emily spun, the tension that vibrated through her visible on every feature, and Brianna gestured for us to sit. “The room is secure, we can say whatever needs saying.”
Neither of us sat.
When Emily finally let loose, it became very clear that she had suspected, and suspected correctly, that Brianna had known all along.
Brianna’s voice was steady. “I will explain, just please—”
She moved toward Emily, hand outstretched, and I found myself shifting from foot to foot, hand running over my jaw. How exactly did one handle a girl fight?
“No,” Emily shot out, “don’t touch me. You’re not going to take this from me. Not this time.”
My fidgeting ceased.
“I wasn’t,” Brianna said. “I wouldn’t. But please, just sit down and let me say what I need to say.”
Something in Brianna’s subdued tone wasn’t right. Something about Emily’s words.
Emily chewed her lip. “Say it. Say it, then. Make it all right that you both lied to me my whole life, Brianna.”
Brianna waited, and Emily finally dropped onto a chair, but she stayed forward, elbows posted taut above her knees.
“You know why I couldn’t tell you,” Brianna said. “She made me keep it from you. To make you safe.”
As Brianna laid out the explanations to her sister, the reality of our situation came crashing down. Emily was the chosen. Not Brianna. Emily, who’d followed me to Morgan’s warehouse, who’d hunted me down for stealing her sister. Emily, who was only here because of us.
I turned away from them, facing nothing in that windowless room, and wiped the dampness from my palms. I’d brought her here. She was safe, no one had even known she existed, and I’d brought her among us, thrust her into the middle of our war, and nearly gotten her killed in the process. I could see the car again, smashing into brick just shy of her legs as she ran down the alleyway. I could see her sneaker slipping from the iron railing ten stories up the side of a building. I could see her now, in the hands of the Division. The Division her mother had always warned her would be the death of Brianna…
I was suddenly moving, leaving the room without so much as a word to either of them.
The chaos of my thoughts had aligned, given me a purpose. I had made it to the library, was sifting through papers, when Brendan’s voice cut through my resolve.
“Looking for something particular?”
My hand stilled. I took a steadying breath before I glanced up, the picture of ease. “Just hoping we missed something.” I closed the folder in front of me. “What brings you out this evening?”
Brendan’s chin tilted down but his eyes never left me. “We need to talk, Aern.”
“Isn’t that what we’re doing?”
He crossed his arms loosely in front of his chest. “Word spread about what happened with Eric this morning.”
I stiffened despite myself.
“There’ve been whispers,” Brendan said casually, as if it weren’t a warning.
“I know how you hate whispers.”
Brendan’s mouth moved, but it wasn’t exactly a smile. “They’re saying I should keep the two of you apart,” he said. “They think maybe she’s the reason you’re refusing the union.”
He was wrong. So, so wrong.
Brendan’s eyes shifted in a “well?” gesture. “Don’t be absurd,” I said, glancing down to arrange the papers lying over the desk.