“Will, I—” Aran started, lifting his hands.
“Don’t mistake her saving your life for forgiveness,” Will snarled, cutting him off. “Because we won’t forgive you. Ever.”
I flinched at his rage. Will and Aran had always been like brothers. Always laughing. Always reckless. Always together. And Aran had ripped that bond apart. And suddenly I understood. Aran’s betrayal probably hurt Will worse than it hurt me.
Way worse.
He hadn’t just lost a friend. He’d lost abrother. Someone he probably thought he’d go to war with, fighting side by side, like they always had. Not ending up on opposite sides.
I hadn’t thought about it like that before. I hadn’t seen it from his side. But I saw it, clear as day. Aran’s betrayal had broken me, but it had gutted Will.
“Please. Just go,” I told Aran.
I couldn’t bear to look at his face. I couldn’t watch what it was doing to Will.
“Leave,” Will seethed.
Aran squared his shoulders. “Make me.”
The silence shattered, and Will lunged. His fist smashed into Aran’s jaw with a brutal crack. Aran staggered as blood sprayed from his mouth. He didn’t even get his hands up before he crashed into the ground, his skull bouncing off the roots.
And then Will was on him. No pause. No hesitation. He straddled Aran’s chest and drove his fists down like hammers, over and over. I’ve never seen him like that. Wild and unforgiving. I thought it was what I wanted—Aran bleeding, gasping for breath. But watching it happen… watching him crumple under Will’s fists, choking on blood and pain.
I just wanted it to stop.
All of it.
“Stop!” I screamed, but my voice was swallowed by their fury. Will’s punches grew wilder. Blood smeared across Aran’s face, his neck, Will’s knuckles. He wasn’t aiming anymore. He wasn’t even thinking. He was unraveling.
Aran twisted, trying to shield himself, curling one arm over his face, but he didn’t fight back. He didn’t even try.
Maybe he thought he deserved it.
Maybe he did.
“You fucking traitor!” Will roared, spit flying. “How could you?!”
“I’m sorry!” Aran gasped, blood bubbling at his lips. “I didn’t mean—”
But Will didn’t listen. He hit harder, his voice tearing through the clearing.
“We needed you!” he yelled. “And you betrayed us! Did you tell them our plan?!”
Another blow.
“DID YOU TELL THEM THE PLAN?” he repeated.
“No—fuck—Will—” Aran choked, curling under the hits. “They took Selma!”
That’s what he’d wanted me to know. That he didn’t do it for power. Or safety. He did it for her. For someone he couldn’t stand to lose. Not because he was cruel, because he loved her. And gods, wasn’t that worse somehow? Because if it had been about power, I could’ve hated him easier. But that? That made it harder. And it didn’t change a damn thing.
Will dropped his fists, but I didn’t have time to process it. Something inside me shattered. I screamed, and the fire answered. It came so fast I didn’t even feel it rise.
“STOP!”
Light exploded from my hands. The clearing blazed like lightning had struck, and heat warped the air, gold light cutting through the trees.
Aran groaned, rolling onto his side, blood gushing from his mouth.
