For a moment, I forgot about Zane and Seren entirely, lost in the looping thoughts inside my head. I was pulled back abruptly by Seren’s voice, sharper now, more alert than before.
“We have to help Austin!” she shouted. I spun around just in time to see her struggling against Zane’s grip, trying to move toward Austin’s house. Zane looked tense, scanning the street as if searching for a solution that didn’t exist. “Blair,” Seren said, finally giving up on breaking free. She turned toward me, her eyes wild and desperate. “Come on. We have to do something.”
She didn’t sound hopeful. She sounded panicked, grasping for action because standing still felt unbearable. I took another breath, reminding myself that this was just a reaction. One I could control.
“Seren,” I said carefully, “I don’t know if there’s anything we can do right now. The only thing I can think of is contacting a lawyer—”
“But knowing Austin,” Zane cut in gently, “he already has that covered.” He looked down at Seren, his voice softening. “You just fainted. I know you’re worried about him, but you need tobe gentle with yourself, okay?” For a moment, Seren looked at Zane like she wanted to argue. Like she was gathering the words to fight him. But her mouth never moved. Instead, she held his gaze, searching his face, and then nodded once.
“Should we…” I started, trailing off as my eyes drifted back to Austin’s house. There was a reason none of us were moving. A reason our feet felt cemented to the sidewalk. No one knew what the next step was.
“I’m going back inside,” Seren said suddenly. Zane released her, and she didn’t hesitate. She didn’t look at me. She didn’t look at him. She just walked away, her steps purposeful, like she had chosen movement simply because standing still hurt too much.
I heard Zane sigh beside me. Something tugged at my feet, an instinctual pull to follow her. But when I moved, Zane’s hand closed gently around my arm. The touch startled me, and I turned back toward him.
“Blair,” he said quietly. My name sounded fragile in his mouth, like he was afraid it might shatter. “Listen. Seren told me what’s been going on with you. And first—I’m sorry. For everything you’ve been dealing with. If this is too much,” he continued, hesitating, choosing his words carefully, “Seren and I can handle this. She’s… she’s going to be rough for a while.” He paused, then added more honestly, “With Austin. And with what you told her. Especially that.”
He took another breath, and I didn’t rush him. I understood then how devastating this information was for them. It had been devastating for me, and I hadn’t even known Jax. I hadn’t known Austin when it happened. I hadn’t trusted him the way Seren had. That mattered.
“Are you sure?” Zane asked finally, his voice quieter now. “Are you sure that’s what happened between Austin and Jax?”
“That’s what he told me,” I said simply. There was nothing else I could offer.
Zane nodded slowly, like he was absorbing the truth one piece at a time. Like he’d been clinging to a final sliver of hope, and my words had just snuffed it out.
“I don’t know everything that happened,” I said quietly, “with Jax.” No one could miss the way Zane’s eyes darkened at the sound of his name. “But… is she going to be okay?” I asked.
Zane’s lips pressed together before he answered. “She’s a fighter,” he said finally. “She’s the strongest woman I’ve ever met.” I nodded, knowing he was telling the truth. I knew it by the way he spoke about her, by the way Austin spoke about her, but more than that, I knew it because I’d seen her fire myself.
Without another word, we both followed Seren inside. As we moved, my mind raced ahead of my body, filling with fragments from every law enforcement show I’d ever seen. Handcuffs. Interrogation rooms. Steel tables and one-way glass. I tried to stop the images, but they came anyway. Austin’s house felt cold the moment we stepped inside, like the air itself had been refrigerated. It wasn’t quiet, though, not the hollow silence I’d expected. Something was moving upstairs. Drawers, maybe. Cabinets. The sounds were sharper and louder than I thought possible. Then Seren’s voice cut through the house, her curses echoing down the stairwell.
Zane took the stairs two at a time, fear written into the urgency of his movement. I stayed behind for a beat, my own life flickering into my mind for just a second. I pulled my phone from my pocket and typed a short message to my brother.I’ll behome later. Tell Mom not to worry. I’m fine.I frowned as I sent it, knowing it wouldn’t be enough to keep them calm for long. But for now, it would have to do.
Guilt pressed against my chest as I slipped my phone away. My parents were waiting. They deserved answers. Still, this felt more important. Because even if my actions hadn’t caused what happened to Austin, they had shattered something fragile in Seren, something she’d been trying to rebuild. And however she took this, I knew one thing for certain. I had played a part.
I stilled, letting myself listen to the noise unfolding above me. I could hear Seren and Zane talking, arguing, if I was being honest. I couldn’t make out every word, but fragments slipped through the ceiling anyway.
“What are you looking for?” Zane asked.
“Anything. Any part of the truth I can find,” Seren answered.
My body sank into the sofa, the cushions giving way beneath my weight as I leaned my head back against the fabric. I closed my eyes, trying to push their voices out, to give them privacy. I was trying to control the panic. Trying to press it down before it took hold. It seeped back in anyway. What if Austin went to jail? What if he went to jail for a long time? Was this it? Was this the entirety of our story? Would we become strangers—people who once knew each other, nothing more? Butterflies that had flown in separate directions, no longer colliding, no longer igniting anything at all?
Eventually, Seren and Zane came back downstairs. Zane sat beside me, rubbing his chin every few minutes as his eyes followed Seren. Seren couldn’t sit still. She paced back and forth through the house, checking her phone, scanning the room. She looked at Zane. Then at me. Then back to her phone again.Hours passed like that—quiet, suspended. There was nothing to say. Nothing to do. We were in purgatory, waiting to see what would come for us. Waiting to see which monster would step forward first.
When the sun finally slipped from the sky and dusk settled in, gray and heavy, my hope of learning anything evaporated. For the night, at least, there was nothing else to be done. I stood, reaching for my phone to call my brother, when the sound of the front door opening cut through the house. All three of us snapped toward it at the same time.
I didn’t know what I’d expected. The police, maybe, returning with paperwork in hand. A search warrant. Or Austin’s parents, pulled back into this house from whatever lives they lived beyond it.
But not Austin. He stood in the doorway, looking more exhausted than I’d ever seen him. It was etched into his face, his eyes, the way his shoulders sagged beneath the weight of everything he was carrying.
He looked at Seren first. Then Zane.
Then his eyes landed on me.
I didn’t know what to do. Or what to say. This wasn’t the homecoming I’d imagined, and I was clearly not what he’d expected to find waiting for him. Austin’s eyes widened. His mouth opened, like he was about to speak.
Seren didn’t let him.
