Page 35 of Dare To Fall

“Would things be different if you hadn’t bullied me from the start?”

Chapter 21

Eli

Her words are like a perfectly aimed gunshot to the heart, and the pain as they hit rocks through my entire body. She’s right, but at the same time she’s so very wrong. The irony of the truth is insane.

“Would things have been different if I hadn’t bullied you?” I repeat her question, then shake my head. “No.”

“Of course, it would! You brought their attention onto me.”

“I’m not denying that it’s my fault, Ari.” I keep my voice low.

“But you just said—”

“I know what I said.” I reach out to brush a lock of hair from her face. “I understand that you’re not ready to trust me. But I need you to remember that you trusted Sin.”

“Until I found out you’re both the same person.”

“Exactly.”

She scowls. “That makes no sense.”

“Sin and Eli. They’re just two sides of the same coin.”

“But—”

“It doesn’t matter. If trust is not possible right now, then I need you to listen and believe what I say next.”

“You’re talking in riddles!” She starts to roll away.

I catch her wrist and tug her back around to face me, then anchor my arm around her waist and pull her closer to my body. She relaxes against me for half a second, before tensing and shifting back, so there’s a little distance between us.

“There was no target on your back while I was bullying you.”

“Of course, there was. I was nobody when I got here. Then I became the monster’s target, and then his stepsister.”

I’m shaking my head before she finishes talking.

“Are you denying what you did?”

“Ari, let me talk.” I rein in my instinctive need to snap after hearing the word monster leave her lips. “When you were the monster’s target,” my lips twist, “you were safe.” I lower my gaze to her mouth. “It was when the monster kissed you that you became a pawn in the game.”

“What?”

“Think about it. No one bothered you while you were the focus of … less than friendly … attention. It wasn’t until after I kissed you at Halloween that things started happening. When I stopped targeting you, that’s what caught the attention of whoever is behind this.”

She stares at me in silence for a full minute. “Is that what happened with Zoey?”

“No. Zoey always liked girls. Everyone knew that.”

“That night … Halloween, in the cemetery. You said she was popular until she fell in with the wrong crowd.”

My laugh is soft, humorless. “That’s right.”

“Are they the ones behind this?”

“No, Ari.”

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