“It's complicated,” Briar said softly.
“You always say that.” Allegra's bottom lip jutted out in a pout, a childhood habit she hadn't quite outgrown. “Everything's always complicated and I'm always too young to understand.”
Briar looked at her sister, healthy, alive, oblivious, and then at her mother, guilty, frightened, already calculating dangers. The kitchen suddenly felt too small, too full of everything she couldn't explain and they wouldn't understand.
“I’m moving out,” she said.
Both of them stared.
“What?” Allegra asked.
“I need my own space. Time to figure things out.”
"Figure what out? You just got back from wherever—" Allegra started to protest.
"I just—I can't be here." The words came out harder than intended.
"Briar," her mother started, reaching across the table.
Briar pulled back. The gesture was small but her mother's hand froze midair, then slowly withdrew.
"Is this because of where you went?" her mother asked carefully. "Did something happen that might bring... trouble?"
There it was again. The fear. Not for Briar butofher and what she might bring to their doorstep.
"No trouble," Briar said, standing. The chair scraped against linoleum, too loud. "I'm not a danger to you. I'm just... I'm done."
“Done?” Allegra stood too. "Done with what? With us?"
“With being the one who fixes everything." The words tumbled out before Briar could stop them. "With being the one who handles it, who takes care of it, who pays the price.”
"What price? Bri, you're scaring me."
She was scaring herself. The emotions were still too raw, too visible. She needed to leave before she said something that couldn't be taken back. Before she screamed that Allegra's miracle cure had cost everything, that their mother had traded her away like currency.
"I'll get my things later," she said, moving toward the door.
"You can't just leave!" Allegra followed her. The hurt and confusion in her sister’s voice gave Briar pause. "You just got home!"
She took a deep breath, hand resting on the door knob. "I’m sorry, Ally-cat. This isn't home anymore."
"So you're abandoning us," her mother said quietly. June hadn't moved from the table, her hands wrapped around her tea mug like it might protect her. "After everything."
After everything. After years of sacrifice. After working multiple jobs to help cover costs when June had been unable to work her own job. After giving up college, her youth, her dreams. After being traded to a fae lord and forgotten entirely.
What more did her mother want?
"I saved her," Briar said, hand tightening on the door handle. "The debt is paid. Whatever happens now, you'll have to handle yourselves."
She left before they could respond, closing the door on Allegra's confused protests and her mother's calculating silence. She walked toward her car, keys already in her hand, needing to leave before she broke completely.
"Bri, wait!"
Footsteps slapped on concrete behind her. Before Briar could turn, Allegra crashed into her, thin arms wrapping around her waist from behind.
"Don't go," Allegra said into her back, voice muffled by Briar's coat. "I don't understand what's happening but please don't go."
Briar's composure cracked. She turned in her sister's arms and hugged her properly, tightly, the way she had when Allegra was small and crawled into her bed at night because she was scared of thunderstorms. The memory made Briar's chest ache.
