Tears burned her eyes, but she refused to let them fall as she followed Miles back out into the street.
“Where were you?” he said, beginning to pace. His nose had finally stopped bleeding, but he’d need to reset it soon if he didn’t want it to heal crooked. “I called you eight times and it went straight to voicemail!”
“My phone was –”
“Look at me!” he screeched. “Look at my face! That’s your fucking fault.”
“Careful what you say next,” Titus warned.
Miles snarled. “I’m sorry, who the fuck are you again?”
“Enough!” Rae shouted, stepping between them. She was both angry, and confused at Titus’s intervention. Why the fuck would he offer to help? What did he want in return? “I can fight my own battles.”
His eyes flashed, but he stayed silent.
She turned towards her brother. “Fuck you, Miles. Why did you borrow money from a guy like Angel in the first place? The Church of the Light? Really?” She wanted to knock some sense into him. They were an extremist group hiding in plain sight as a recognised religion. They openly preached that everyone non-human was inferior, and therefore lower than dirt.
“That’s none of your business.” He wiped his sleeve across his face.
“You’re not even fucking human! Why would you join –”
“I know I’m not fucking human!” Miles barked, stepping until he was barely an inch away. “Dad always fucking reminded me that I wasn’t witch enough for him, and wasn’t human enough for mum.”
“What’s wrong with you?” A single tear burned down Rae’s face. “I had to sell my soul to keep you alive, and now you’re trying to give me over to some shitty thugs like I’m a piece of meat?”
“You know it’s the least you could do.” Miles spat. “You know –”
“Please,” she whispered. “Don’t.”
“– for killing mum and all,” he continued.
Titus stepped forward, but Rae stopped him with a palm to his chest. His face was calm, but the muscles beneath her hand were rigid. “I need you to give me a minute.” Her voice wobbled, the agony of her brothers words hard to hide.
“Oh look,” Miles sniggered. “Perfect little Rae’s going to cry. You know what happened when you cried? She was beaten even harder.”
“Please,” she begged Titus, who remained solid beneath her palm. “Wait over there.”
He finally tore his attention away from her brother, his irises silver rather than the usual deep burgundy. Without a word he turned, leaving her alone with Miles.
Rae took a deep breath. “That was cruel,” she said, closing her eyes. “Mum’s death wasn’t my fault.”
“She took your beatings,” Miles snarled. “As soon as he raised a fist to you, she intervened. She suffered because of you.”
“I never asked her to do that!” Rae said, trying to swallow the pain until she felt nothing at all. “I tried to stop him, but I was just a kid.”
“So was I!”
“Exactly!” Rae screamed. She absently reached for her necklace, gripping it tightly. Miles had been the first to find their mother on the kitchen floor, blood a hot pool around her head. “Her death wasn’t my fault, and it wasn’t yours.”
“You keep telling yourself that.” His eyes dipped to her pendant. “Do you remember when she tried to set us on fire? The voices told her it would cure us.”
“She was sick.”
“She was fucking crazy,” he cried. “And she only got worse over the years, her episodes lasting longer until I barely recognised her.”
“She didn’t mean it, Miles. She needed help, she needed –”
His laugh was wet. “She never stopped him from beating me, you know?”
