Loren clasped her hands between her knees to keep them from shaking. “Well, I’m dating Darien now,” she said. “Like, for real. And I…well, I kind of like it here. At Hell’s Gate.”
Dallas’s lip curled over her teeth. “Are you seriously copping out on the plans we made together ineighth grade?”
“That was a long time ago, Dal,” Loren said. “A few things have changed now, don’t you think? I need to consider how Darien feels.” Her shoulders pulled up into a shrug. “I’m…I’m happy, Dal. With him. Here.” Hell’s Gate was her home now, the only place she’d ever felt like she truly belonged. The only place she’d ever felt safe. She couldn’t imagine leaving it behind.
Dallas’s eyes glowed like green fire. “So you’re just going to forget about your friends?” She was practically shouting, her words bouncing against the vaulted ceiling. “About your sister?”
“I’m not forgetting about you,” Loren stammered, though she bristled at Dallas’s words. How dare she make her feel bad for something like this! “I’ve followed your lead my entire life, Dallas. Maybe it’s time I branched out a little bit.”
“So now you have courage just because you’re dating a big, bad bounty hunter?”
Loren’s hands curled into fists atop her knees. “You’re dating Maximus,” she snapped. In an effort to soften the blow of this whole conversation, she added, “Maybe you can live here. With us. There’s plenty of room—”
When Dallas’s lip curled back over her teeth, Loren stopped talking. “I’m not dating Maximus, I’mfuckinghim,” Dallas snapped. “There’s a difference.”
Loren bristled. “Maybe you should tell him that.”
“Whatever.” Dallas pulled away from her side, leaving her arm instantly cold. “Don’t come crawling back to me when Mister Heartbreaker dumps your desperate ass again.”
Loren reared back like Dallas had slapped her. “He never dumped me,” she hissed. “We weren’t even together yet, and he was just trying to protect me.”
Dallas got up and made her way down the stairs. “Keep telling yourself that.”
“Dallas, where are you going?” Loren shot to her feet and hurried down the stairs after her, her mortal legs moving as fast as she could make them.
“I have training at Fleet Headquarters,” Dallas mumbled. “Just leave me alone, Lor.”
“Someone can drive you, Dal.” Loren nearly tripped down the stairs. She grabbed onto the handrail to steady herself. “It’s getting dark.”
But Dallas had already swept out the door, slamming it shut behind her so hard the chandelier tinkled up above.
Loren balled her hands into fists as she stared at the oak. Her vision was swimming, the blood in her veins hot as lava.
She couldn’t believe her. It was true: Loren had spent her entire life following Dallas. She’d never once questioned her, never tried to walk her own path. And now that she was, now that she finally had the courage to make her own footprint, Dallas was making her feel guilty for it.
Could she really call her a friend?
Or was her judgment clouded, andshewas the one to blame?
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Darien come around the corner from the kitchen.
She had the feeling Darien had heard every word of their argument—Arthur included.
“Everything alright?” Darien asked.
“Dallas…,” she swallowed. In case he’d been too busy with Arthur to listen in on their conversation, she scrambled for a likely explanation. “She overhead you guys talking. About Taega. I think she’s taking it pretty hard.”
“Loren.” Darien’s voice was soft, his tone suggesting he knew so much more than he was letting on. He stepped toward her. “Look at me.”
She flattened her hands against her thighs as she turned to face him. A migraine was pulsing at the backs of her eyes, which meant she only had minutes to make it to her dark bedroom before it would feel like her skull was splitting open. It had been a while since she’d had a headache, which usually meant it would be extra awful this time.
Darien’s gaze was filled with understanding. “She’ll come back,” he told her.
Loren gave one shaky nod and drifted toward the staircase.
She only hoped that he was right.
—
