“I don’t rememberanyvulnerable points during the day, but it makes more sense if there are two or more of them.” Clearly, he’s given this a lot of thought. Why would she do this to him? I thought he would be untouchable as a Rook, but perhaps that’s exactly why she’s done all of this to him.
Soren looks awful. Cheeks sunken, eyes crazed and empty. This is someone deteriorating right in front of me. I cross the room to him and fish the pills from his pocket. He tries to take them out of my hand, and I slap him right across the face, shocking us both. It’s not hard enough to hurt him, but I’m not fucking around anymore.
“Enough of this now,” I tell him, grabbing him by his collar and planning to make a point if I need to.
“Do you think I can exist without them?” He laughs and tries to take them from me.
“Yes, obviously,” I say, tugging them out of his hands and heading to the bathroom with him on my heels.
“What are you doing?” he says, a hint of panic pitching his tone. I’ve already got the bottle open, and I’m standing over the toilet ready to flush them.
“Sable… please,” he begs, and he asks so nicely that my heart breaks for him. He doesn’t try to take the bottle from me even though he’s much bigger, but I could dump it before he reaches me. He just stands there at the door, eyes shining and voice low.
“They almost killed you last night.”
“It wasn’t them,” he argues. “It was me. I knew you all would be better off without me.”
“I wouldn’t be better without you.” I shake my head because it hurts me that he could even say something like that. “Damn, what do you think would happen to Orion?”
“He hates my guts, Sable.” He rolls his eyes.
I chuckle. “He’s having a tantrum.”
“It’s a lot worse than that, and you know it.”
I sigh, as that’s a fair assessment. “Things will change for him once he finds out the truth. Can you imagine if he found out after you killed yourself? If you don’t want to stay for me, at least do it for your brother. For the rest of your friends. None of them deserves that guilt.”
“I’m not ready for them to know the truth, Sable.” His gaze is heavy and so incredibly serious.
“That’s fair, they don’t need to know right now, but they will eventually. And this?” I shake the pills. “This can’t keep going. You scared the hell out of me last night, and I’ve lost too many people to deserve this.”
My wrist flips, turning the bottle over and dumping the pills into the water. Visible pain twists his features as he watches me flush, but it’s too bad. I know the truth now, and this shit is done. No one is going to hurt him again, not even him.
“You just flushed two thousand dollars,” he says in a flat voice.
I whistle. “Damn, it’s expensive to kill yourself. I could have sworn there are cheaper ways.”
“The drugs were expensive. The fall was free.”
I would laugh if I wasn’t actually so terrified for him. “Tell me you won’t get anymore. Tell me I’m not going to have to mourn your death too.”
“You’re asking me to live in hell.”
“I mean, that depends on your definition, I guess.” I step closer to him, and he watches me with uncertainty.
“You might think this changes things, but at some point, you’re going to remember what you saw. It’s going to replay inside your head like it plays in mine, and you’ll remember how sick I make you.”
He trails off, shaking his head and moving away from me. His eyes go around the barren room for the first time. “Where the hell are we, anyway?”
“No changing subjects. Do you think I’m going to punish you for being raped?”
“Why does this look like a founding family apartment?” He turns to me as he connects the dots. “Is this the fifth door? How?”
“Magic, now back to the topic at hand.”
“Which is?” he demands.
“Us.”
