I stepped forward, breaching the wall of weeds she’d conjured around herself and crossing into the overgrown ring.
“Stop lying.”
“Excuse me?” Her voice cut like steel, but it didn’t cut me.
“You heard me. Stop lying. You’re not going to scare me away.”
I moved behind the dummy, bracing it steady for her. Her eyes flicked from me to the dummy, confusion for just a moment.
Then she struck again.
“Ha,” she scoffed. “If I wanted to scare you, sis, you’d be curled up in a ball like you were in that shed. Crying like the big fucking baby you already are.”
The words stung, but I let them bounce off like armor.
I nodded at the dummy. “Go on.”
She squared up and kicked.
“It takes a scared one to know one,” I said, letting the taunt slip out easily.
“Ex-fucking-cuse me?” Punch. “I’m not—” Kick. “Scared of—” Punch, punch. “Anything or anyone.” Kick, punch, kick.
“Then why’d you leave after you broke me free from those chains?”
Her next kick nearly knocked the dummy—and me—off balance, but I stayed steady.
“I didn’t,” she muttered, wiping sweat from her forehead. “I was in the trees. Watching you crawl out of that pitiful shed like the pathetic mess you are.”
I clicked my tongue. “So you broke orders, but not too much. Let me guess—you were scared of being seen. Afraid of what Arrow would do if you had been.”
Her hazel eyes narrowed into slits.
“Sounds to me like you were scared of the consequences.”
“You don’t know what the elements you’re talking about,” she hissed.
I released the dummy and stepped back with a shrug. “Then enlighten me.”
The weeds around her boots crawled higher, climbing like they fed off her anger. “You don’t know half the shit I’ve been through.”
Those words hit hard—because they were mine. Word for word. I took a step closer. “And whose fault is that?” I asked quietly. “You won’t let me in.”
She wavered like I’d struck her. “Why would you want me to?”
I let out a breath that came out more like a sob. “Because you’re my sister,” I said, my voice cracking on the last word. “You matter to me. You’re all I have. And I won’t leave you.”
Her eyes fluttered — the first time I’d seen her truly speechless. I’d driven my boot into a weak spot in her armor, and now I twisted.
“It’s okay to not be okay,” I said, forcing my voice to stay steady.
Fallon’s eyes squeezed shut, like she was holding back tears. A cracked, raw sound escaped her, and she whipped around. A vine lashed from her palm, snapping a wooden dummy clean off its hinges.
Damn.
Her back was to me now, shoulders heaving as if she were struggling to hold the pieces of herself together. I knew that feeling. I’d lived in it.
I swallowed hard, searching for the next step, the right crack to keep chipping at. “You know—deep in your frozen fucking heart—that we need to intercept the drop at the soiree,” I said quietly, carefully. “I know you know. So why do you let him undermine you, Fallon? Why do you let him cast you aside, run all over you?”
