Chapter 18
“What the hell is wrong with you?”
Silas doesn’t look up at first. He’s still slouched in his chair, hand dangling that stupid stick he’s been stabbing the dirt with, like the fight hadn’t already started.
“I’m serious,” she goes on, stepping forward now. “You think that was funny? You think any of this is funny?”
Silas finally glances up, his face a blank stare. “She can handle it.”
“That’s not the point, and you know it!” Morella’s voice cracks around the edges, not weak, but furious in a way only people who actually care ever get. “You act like she’s some object for you to bully around just because you can’t figure out your own feelings. It’s pathetic.”
He lets out a low breath, almost a laugh. “Here we go.”
“No, you don’t get to brush this off, Silas,” she snaps. “That wasn’t just crossing a line, that was lighting the damn thing on fire and pretending you’re surprised it burned.”
He sits up straighter now, eyes narrowing, something shifting under his surface. “You’re one to talk about faking it. Always playing peacemaker, acting like everyone gets along if you smile big enough.”
Morella blinks, stunned for half a beat, but it doesn’t stop her. She folds her arms across her chest, chin lifting like she’s not going to let him have the last word, not this time.
“At least I try,” she says. “At least I’m not out here tearing into people because I’m too much of a coward to admit I’m not the center of their universe.”
Silas’s jaw twitches. He stands, and for a moment I think he might actually lunge.
I stand as well and move into his line of sight. He sits back down, but the fire between them doesn’t go anywhere. Morella’s hands clench at her sides. She isn’t shaking, but she’s close. Her face is flushed from pure, frustrated disbelief.
She looks at Silas like he is something rotting in the sun. Then she turns and her eyes landed on me. “You’re just going to stand there?” she yells, voice clipped but rising. “Really? You’re going to let him talk to her like that and do nothing?”
I stare at her, my jaw tight. “What do you want me to do?”
“I want you to stop acting like this is normal,” she says, stepping toward me now. “Like this is just Silas being Silas and we all have to accept it.”
“He’ll get it out of his system soon enough,” I say flatly.
The moment the words leave my mouth, I know they’re the wrong ones. But I don’t take them back. Morella’s mouth falls open. She takes a step back like I slapped her. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
She spins in place, throwing her hands in the air with a frustrated exhale. “God, you’re exhausting.” Then she was walking. No, storming off into the dark, her arms crossed over her chest, her hair catching the firelight as she goes.
“Where are you going?” I call after her.
She doesn’t even look back. “To find something strong enough to wash the taste of this entire night off my tongue!”
I stand there, Coke still in one hand, the fizz long gone.
The fire crackles. Silas picks up his stick again.
Archer hasn’t moved. No one says anything.
I don’t move. I just stand there, the echo of Morella’s voice still burning behind my ribs, her footsteps fading into the dark.
Somewhere beyond the firelight, someone laughs, far enough away that it feels like another world entirely. One where none of this was unraveling.
Around the fire, no one spoke. The guys kept their eyes trained on the flames or the ground or their own hands, like maybe if they didn’t look up, they wouldn’t be pulled into the fallout.
I sit back down slowly, running a hand over my jaw, the Coke can still loose in my fingers. Lukewarm now.