Page 160 of Of Blood and Banes
I spin and try to grab for his shoulder pack. “Hey?—”
He dodges me wordlessly and pulls his pack on tighter as he continues.
I glance back at the direction he came from, and Melaina stands holding her arms at the elbows, head down. As I stride toward her, her head whips up, eyes narrowed with pain, before she turns and begins to walk away.
“Stop,” I command.
Reluctantly, she does. But she still won’t face me.
“What’s wrong with Archie?”
She shakes her head again, frozen at the spot but not wanting to look back at me. “It’s none of your business.”
I grab her shoulder and spin her toward me, her brown eyes regarding me with hesitant bitterness.
“It is my business when he looks like that. He’s my best friend. What happened?”
She bites her lip as if it’ll seal her mouth from answering me. With a sigh, she replies, “I told him we don’t work.”
“What do you mean you don’t work?”
“I mean, we don’t belong together. It was just a silly crush, a simple distraction?—”
“How can you say that?” I drop my hand from her shoulder, shaking my head. “He loves you?—”
“It’s complicated.”
“It is if you make it that way,” I bite. “What is it really, Melaina? I know you care for him. I see it in the way you look at him?—”
“It doesn’t matter!” she snaps. “We can’t. I’ll break him. And it’s better that I do it now, than if I do it later.”
“Will you break him, or will he breakyou?” I challenge.
“We live in a world where we are ravaged by war. Either of us can die at any second.” Her voice trembles. “And I don’t want to be the one on the receiving end of losing him. It’s easier this way.”
My jaw relaxes in realization. “This…this isn’t you. This is Sethan, isn’t it?”
“Just leave it alone, Kat,” she warns, tearing her gaze away from me.
I grab her hand in mine, daring her to look at me. “Your life is not Sethan’s. It is your own. He may be your father, and he may be the commander of the Vitalans, but he does not rule your heart. And if you let Archie go, you’re breaking him anyway. You don’t get both—you have to choose. Your heart or his.”
“Then…I choose neither,” she whispers.
With a grunt, I turn away from her and break into a run, chasing after Archie. Scanning every building, every road and alley, my worry intensifying. I catch a glimpse of his blond locks heading south and follow him through the swarm of pedestrians. I lose him for a moment in a thick crowd bottlenecked near a side street. I push through until I’m off into the forest.
Archie’s distant figure disappears into the treeline.
“Archie!” I pick up my speed. “Wait! Please!”
Trees flash by me in blurs of green and brown, the cold air sharp in my lungs. Finally, I catch up to him, breathless.
He whirls, eyes round in shock as he grips the bag on his shoulder. “What are you doing here? Why are you following me?”
I lean forward, bracing my hands on my knees as I fight to catch my breath, panting out each word, “Don’t…Don’t go.”
“I’m going home, Kat.” His voice trembles. “I have nothing left?—”
“You have me!” I straighten and slap a hand to my chest. “I know it hurts. I know you’re in pain. But you can’t leave—you can’t go. I need you here. With me.”
