Page 83 of The Truths We Burn

This is her trying to spin her web around Silas, around all of us, but I know better now, and no matter what Silas says to her, I’m not letting her close to the boys, to me, ever again.

“We don’t need your help, and you don’t need to be involved,” he answers, staring at her hard.

“But I—”

“I said no, Sage.”

“Why?” she yells, her stance steady, even though her eyes are wet, she is refusing to cry.

There is a pause before Silas stands up, glancing at the sky and back down.

“Because it’s not what Rose would have wanted.”

No one says anything else, and she is quickly realizing that she won’t change his mind. She shifts her attention to the other guys, pleading without saying the words, but all of them stand firm, not giving in to her wants.

Then, she looks at me for the first time.

Up to this point, she’d been completely avoiding me, for good reason. I’m the one that needs to be talking to her. I’d come off too harsh and way too abrupt, and the guys would have noticed something was up.

I kept what Sage did to me close to my chest.No one knew about it because I didn’t want them to know I’d been played. That I’d been fucking betrayed.

“Rook?” she says gently, and my stomach turns.

Her mouth is slightly parted, and the wind catches her hair, and I swear for a second, I can smell her. She looks just like she did in the lake house.

Just a girl with dreams.

A girl with wings that this town had cut.

But I know what lies beneath.

How toxic and rotten she really is.

“Why are you still here? You’re just embarrassing yourself.” I try to keep my voice level, monotone, trying not to show any emotion.

Unlike her reaction to Silas, to Alistair, her armor cracks. I watch how my words break on her face and pain pours from the cracks. My words had done exactly what I had wanted them to—they hurt her.

I want a rush of excitement to hit me, adrenaline to pump through my veins. I want to feel good about retaliating, about giving her just a little bit of what she’d done to me.

I don’t feel any of that.

I feel the same as I did watching that lake house burn.

Empty and so much fucking pain.

But fuck that.

Fuck her. I know she’s got a hidden agenda—she always does—and I won’t let her damage what we’ve worked for.

“Get the fuck out of here. Go back to wherever the hell you came from. You’re not wanted here.”

Sage

I’d always enjoyed the snow.

It’s cold but gentle, and people don’t associate those things.

Things that are cold are never considered gentle. They’re always seen as brutal and bitter, unlike the sun, which is always described as cheerful and radiant.

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