"You shot Winston. Just like that," I snap back, my grip steady.
Her eyes harden, but her voice stays calm. "I did. In retaliation. Not cold murder."
"Dress it up however you want, it doesn't change the fact you killed an innocent."
"Rich, coming from you. You're about to trade the engagement ring Darius gave you for a weapon meant to kill him. Sweet little Sage, young made-nymph. Oh, how wrong we were about you."
My throat tightens, guilt twisting deep. She's not wrong. I told Darius I pawned the ring, but I didn't. And now I was ready to hand it over for a murder weapon. When she says it like that, it sounds damning. Itisdamning.
Still, I force myself to answer. "I was going to take it for leverage," I say, defensive even to my own ears. "If Darius had listened, if he'd let me go, left this town alone, none of this would be happening."
Her grin cuts sharp. "Excuses."
"So you lured me here. What now? You were planning to kill me, too?"
Darlene steps closer, hands raised, not aggressive but careful. "I was hoping to catch one of yours. But when I saw that ring photo…" Her eyes narrow. "I had to see if it really was you."
Slowly, deliberately, she slips a hand into her pocket.
My pulse spikes. I tighten my grip on the gun.
"No weapons," she says evenly, pulling out a crumpled joint and a lighter.
She sparks it up, takes a long drag, and exhales a slow curl of smoke.
I lower the gun, but not by much.
"I don't want to kill him, Darlene. I really don't. But what choice do I have? We're desperate. I don't know how else to protect them all. Why does he have to be so adamant? Why can't he just… let me go?"
Darlene's smile is sad, almost pitying. "Because he's foolishly, hopelessly in love with you."
The words hit like a punch to my chest. I shake my head and slump back onto the bench, breath caught.
She doesn't stop. "It makes him weak. Reckless. It's derailed more than you know. I've tried to convince him otherwise. To leave this cursed little town, to take you by force if necessary. But he won't. He's obsessed with your safety. And your choice."
I glance at her sideways. My voice is brittle. "A choice he refuses to actually let me make."
She shrugs, exhaling smoke. "You already said yes to him. You ran because of lies. His lies, sure, but mostly Sybil's. He sees your marriage as a desperate sham. Your defiance as pride shouting louder than your reason. He believes you still love him. And that is why he won't stop."
My breath leaves me slowly. Darius isn't wrong. My feelings for him are a tangled knot I can't cut clean, no matter how I try. Denying it doesn't make it less true.
Darlene steps closer, her boots echoing on the damp concrete, and sits beside me. My hand tightens around the gun grip, but I don't raise it.
"If I'd known how this would play out," she says quietly, "I'd have let those vampires eat you long ago."
"I know," I murmur.
She gives a low, humorless chuckle, then offers me the joint. I narrow my eyes, but take it, keeping my other hand on the weapon.
The first inhale burns, but the edge of my anxiety softens.
"I still can't believe you married vampires. Two of them," Darlene says, shaking her head.
"Neither can I. But here we are." A pause. Then, steady: "I love them."
She cuts me a glance as I pass the joint back. "That sounds like madness. But… you were always different from the rest of us."
"Is that supposed to be good or bad?"
