“And mine isn’t? I don’t use my gift as an excuse to terrorize people.” I felt my face pale. “Is me being here really that bad? That I would drive someone to do those things? Am I that bad?” My voice broke, and I choked back a sob. “I can’t help what I am.”

“Ember.” Hayden reached for me, but stopped short. “None of this is your fault. And you’re not a bad person.”

I drew in a breath, but it got stuck in my throat. “But you don’t even want to be around me anymore and no one” I bit my lip to keep from crying. “No one wants me here.”

“That’s not true.”

Everything I felt started to boil over again. I pressed my lips together, but they still trembled.

“I’m sorry,” Hayden said. “I didn’t want to believe that it was someone in my family. I should’ve believed you.” He ran his hand through his hair, clasping the back of his neck. “When I saw you tonight and realized you were bleeding? God, it scared me. Em, I don’t like this.”

Which part didn’t he likethe arguing between us, the tension in his family, people possibly trying to skewer me in the woods… or both of us wanting something we couldn’t have? I didn’t know where that last part came from. Most of the anger drained out of me. “I don’t like this, either.”

“Then why are we doing it?” Hayden asked me, stepping forward. Less than a foot separated us and he reached out, not stopping this time. His hand circled my uninjured arm. I thought he was going to pull me to him like he had in my bedroom, and something in my chest fluttered. “Em, I don’t want to”

“Gabe said I was needed to help Ember,” Liz called from the entrance to the kitchen. “Or are you helping her?”

I hoped he’d say that he was. That way he’d spend a little more time with me and we’d pick up where we’d left off. I’d apologize for blaming his entire familyno one else had known what Phoebe had been doingand he’d apologize for not believing me and say everything would be okay.

Hayden dropped my arm. Those dark eyes lingered for a second and then he turned around. “No.”

My heart sank all the way to my stomach. He didn’t even look back, not oncewhich probably was a good thing because I was sure the disappointment I felt was written all over my face.

Chapter 23

Chapter 23

I spent the entire next day in my room, trying to sketch, but I couldn’t commit anything to paper. Everything I drew looked bleak and boring. By dinnertime, the floor of my bedroom was covered with crumpled balls of paper.