The corner of Teddy’s lips jerks to the right, as if he finds this both sad and a touch amusing, sending a jolt up my spine. “You don’t actually believe that, Tai. You couldn’t possibly be ignorant enough to believe those incompetent fools can do something I can’t.”

Tai’s face drops, then hardens into the cold mask that imprinted itself in my memory earlier today: of hurt, of ultimate betrayal.

I never wanted her to feel that again. Especially not because of someone she loves.

“Don’t listen to him,” I whisper to her, smashing away the tears blurring my vision. “He’s just upset.”

Ignoring me, he lunges out of his seat, as if to hug Tai in his bearish way, and she flinches away from him.

“You’re never going to look at me the same way, are you?” He staggers back into his chair. “I did this all for the two of you.”

“You lied to protect yourself, not us.” I press loose hair behind my ears. “Tai and I have been lied to enough by the people we love. We shouldn’t have to lie for you all, too.”

“Manon, don’t misrepresent things to confuse your little sister,” he says, his meaty hands tightening. “I’m all you have, and you should be gratefu—”

“SHUT THE FLYING FUCK UP!” Tai shouts, coming to her feet, her blue eyes wild. She pulls her phone out of her pocket and brandishes it like a weapon. “I recorded your whole confession, Teddy! I will post this to all of my followers, I swear to God! And I have a lot!”

Teddy lurches toward her, a dagger of fear and something darker crossing his face. “Don’t be a brainless little bi—” The last word curdles in his mouth—a shadow of his regret immediately obvious.

“Is that what you said to my mother?” she says, retreating from him like she’s facing off with a bear. I stand paralyzed. “Big mistake. Huge. I’m not a problem to be solved, Teddy. And I may be a little bitch, but I have a giant goddamn brain.”

“Tai,” I whisper, and that’s when she darts out of the room in a barefoot sprint. Teddy takes one look at me, his eyes filmy and unrecognizable with a potent mix of fear and frustration and something grimmer still.

“Manon,” Saxim calls, removing from her back waistband a machíkíl she must have taken from the kitchen. It glints in her hand, and I nod.

We both rush at him, but with two sweeps of his arm, he knocks us to the ground, then lumbers after my little sister.

TAI

I run like she did.