Lena reached out, but then dropped her hands, thinking better of it. “Let me help.”

“You can’t.”

“I could if you’d let me.”

“You really couldn’t. I don’t want to play games anymore. We’re no good. You know we aren’t.”

“We’re all right,” Lena hedged.

But Imogen had made up her mind. She wasn’t dragging anyone else into this that didn’t have to be a part of it. And she and Lena had always been wrong for each other. They wanted each other, sure. But it wasn’t a beautiful kind of wanting. It was a raw and feral thing, and Imogen didn’t know much, but she knew that kind of wanting wasn’t love. It was something else altogether. And the two of them had twisted it until they both had become barbed, latching. It would destroy one or both of them in the end.

Oh what fools these mortals be, indeed.

“We’re not all right. We’re mostly everything that isn’t all right.”

Lena looked like she wanted to hiss or spit or maybe both. “So that’s it. You gonna ask if we can stay friends?”

“We were never friends.”

“Jesus, you can be cruel.”

“I’m not.” Imogen reached out for Lena’s wrist, but this time it was Lena’s turn to pull away.

“I think the problem is that you’re waiting for someone else to save you.”

Imogen shook her head. She wasn’t waiting for anyone to save her. She was trying to save the bookstore. She was trying to save this space for everyone in it. Imogen was probably the last person on earth who needed saving. “You know I’m right. This is it, for us. This is as good as we ever get, and it’s not even decent. Can’t we call it? We’re two people who aren’t good or bad. But—God, Lena—we’re bad for each other. You have to know that.”

Lena shook her head. “You can’t just sit around here, acting like you’ve got all the answers when you clearly don’t want to talk to anybody. When you’d rather shave all the hair off your head than talk about a fucking feeling. That was a nice speech to give. But you should see a counselor. Not unload your bullshit onto Jo.”

Lena was wrong. Imogen hadn’t been unloading on Jo. She’d been looking for the truth. And she’d known that something was going on with Eli and with Daniella and with that strange shipment. She’d only had one card to play, and it had been a request for the truth.

Not that Lena would understand that.

“Just go.” Imogen didn’t flinch as she said it.