Page 101

“Our fathers. Their fathers. The elders. Half the fucking town by the end.”

Ezra’s jaw tightens. “They were told the land required balance.”

“Balance?”

“Life for life.”

Sage’s face twists. “So they murdered a woman.”

“Yes.”

“That’s not balance.”

“No.”

“That’s fucking murder.”

“Yes.”

I don’t soften it. There’s nothing to soften.

Sage looks toward her friends then back at us. “The woman was a McBride?”

“Yes.”

“And you knew her.”

The room goes quiet.

Ezra looks at the floor. Malakai closes his eyes.

I answer. “Yes.”

“How?”

There are some memories that never fade. Her laughing beneath the apple tree. Her stealing Ezra’s coat. Her throwing mud at Malakai because he told her she couldn’t climb a fence. Her chasing me through a field with a kitchen knife after I put a frog in her bed. The night we realized what our families intended to do to her. The night, we failed.

“She was our friend.”

Sage studies me. “Just your friend?”

Nobody answers.

Smart woman.

Her eyes move among us. “Oh.”

Ezra says, “It wasn’t like this.”

Sage’s eyebrows rise. “Like what?”

His eyes flick toward Malakai.

She notices. A slow smile touches her mouth despite everything.

Interesting.

“You mean because I kissed him?”