“Before we go out there to the family bickering,” I whispered, kissing the top of her head. “Remember, we have this.” I tapped her heart, then mine. “We have us. Separate from this shit show.”
Violet nodded, and I looked up, twisting us and yanking open the bedroom door. Right away, noise flooded over us, harsher, making Vi wince and turn into me.
“She just left!” Amy shrieked, clearer now. “She locked me in the bathroom and ran, Connor. What did you want me to do?”
“Fucking anything!” Connor shouted back, his voice so strained, like he was failing to prevent it raising. He was raspy, manic.
Shit.
We followed their shouts to the stairs, finding Amy halfway down them and Connor at the top, Amy’s arm in his grip, trying to tug her back up. They were wrestling against each other, with so much anger between them.
I found my arm sticking out to stop Violet getting closer, reacting without even realizing to stop her jumping in the middle.
“We worked so fucking hard to save her and she ran? You could have fuckin—”
“Connor, stop.” Amy’s voice was firm, sudden, and Connor paused, not letting her go but relaxing his hold. He was half bent over himself to reach her. I saw Amy gesture to us with a nod of her chin, and Connor turned to see Violet and me witnessing their commotion. For once, it wasn’t us. He dropped Amy’s arm with a sheepish expression, but she didn’t do anything; she didn’t run up or down the stairs. She stayed, looking at us, frowning, glancing at where my arm wrapped around Violet.
“What happened?” I asked, the urge to keep Violet safe behind me overwhelming. I had a bad feeling settling into my gut. A dread making my shoulders heavy, my heart beat harder. The air was thick with… something. Margaret had done something stupid; that much was clear, but there was…more.
Amy’s eyes were flooded with unshed tears as she opened her mouth. “Margaret made a run for it. Maybe ten minutes ago. She… she locked me in the bathroom, blocked the door. I… I tried…” Then quietly, “She hurt me.” The way Amy curled in on herself, looking so young and vulnerable, wrecked me.
“Shit,” I muttered at the same time Violet turned and bolted, racing back into our room. “Violet, stop!”
“What’s she doing?” Amy asked as Connor reached for her again, and I ran after Vi, shouting her name.
It was chaos, three people yelling, arguing, everyone fighting against each other. But what were we supposed to do? Run out into the night after her? That wouldn’t be safe. She could have darted off in any direction in these woods, could be anywhere already. She’d written her own death by leaving this place, and my emotions about it battled. Margaret was about the least likely to survive a night in the woods out of all of us.
If she was that desperate to be away from us, to be so at risk, I’d say let her. We did our best; we did everything we could, for fuck’s sake. Ungrateful cow. But… my sister. Only sixteen. Shit. Conflict made my head ache.
“I can’t let her go to him,” Violet said, her manic eyes meeting mine as she shoved her feet into her shoes, still in just her underwear. “I won’t.”
“Vi, no, you’re not going out there.”
She scoffed. “You won’t stop me.” Her laces tied, she stood, and made for the door, for straight past me. I blocked her, my arm around her waist to shove her against the wall. She gasped as air pushed from her body.
“I will stop you.”
She tensed up, trying to glare at me. “You’ll hold me here against my will?” she asked. “You’ll be like him?”
“Never,” I balked, hit right in the gut by her words. How could she think of comparing us? After everything… After all the shit we’d been through together, everything I’d proved to her.
But I still didn’t let her go, even when she stuck her chin up, her eyes hard. My Violet was drifting; the monster was coming out. Though really, they were both my Violet. I loved every version of her, no matter how bitter, how wild, how cold.
But I wouldn’t have her running into the night after that idiot, getting herself lost or killed or worse. Fuck no.
“Remember when I told you I would kill you before I let you go back to him?” I asked her, my voice low, menacing, whispered right against her ear. She shivered when I licked at her lobe.
“I do.” The husk in her tone made my body heat as I brought my hand to her throat, squeezing just a little to hold her there. “Don’t say what you don’t mean, Theo.”
I kissed her, unable to stop myself stealing a taste, and squeezed her neck a tiny bit more, enough that she would take me seriously, my fingers digging into her flesh. The world fell away, the noise of Amy and Connor arguing no longer broke through our walls, and for a second, it was only us. Breathing each other in.
I did nothing.
“Don’t make me fight you off, please,” she begged, her voice so small. “Please just let me go so I don’t have to do that.”
We stayed locked in that position for longer than either of us wanted, my breath heavy, making the strands of her hair flicker around her neck. Her skin pimpled up, and her body shook, but neither of us shifted. To break this would shatter something, a kind of peace. Something bad was knocking at our door, and I didn’t want to let it in. Once we moved, the world was coming.
Finally, with a sigh, I stepped away, releasing her body, her neck, her will. Her shoulders slumped as she straightened up, and though no more than seconds had passed, it felt like a lifetime, like a shift. I was possessive of her, but I couldn’t keep her locked up tight. My body yearned to be glued to hers, but I couldn’t trap her against me. Right now, she wasn’t returning to him; she was looking for Margaret. If the time came…
