“Because we don’t just fight together,” Sable said evenly. “We trust each other with our lives. Our group has never fractured. Not once.”
She let that hang.
“And then you came along.”
Silence stretched between us.
“I’m not calling you a weakness,” she added carefully. “But today? They split up. They made emotional calls. They took risks they wouldn’t have taken before.”
My pulse started to pound.
“You think that’s my fault?”
“I think,” she said calmly, “you don’t understand your impact.”
That hit harder than blame.
I really looked at her then — and for a flicker of a second, I saw our father in her eyes. Measuring. Calculating.
“So what would you suggest?” I asked coolly. “That I disappear? I’m not in a relationship with any of them.”
“Are you sure they know that?” Sable asked.
I thought of Dev’s impassive face. The knives. The wall.
“Yeah,” I said, bitterness creeping in. “They know.”
“All of them?” she pressed. “Including Ash? Including Sy?”
“Sy has nothing to do with Equinox. He’s here for me. The others and I are just friends.”
“If that were entirely true,” Sable replied, steady as ever, “Ash wouldn’t be sleeping in your room. Kieran wouldn’t be watching you like you’re the only fixed point in his world.”
She paused.
“And Dev—”
“I don’t want to talk about Dev – “
“We have to!” Sable interrupted. “Seph, you have to see it, right?”
“See what, Sable?” I snapped back.
“For gods’ sake,” she said finally, almost exasperated, “Dev orbits you and you don’t even realise.”
I gave a sharp, humourless laugh. “Dev?” I said. “Dev just called me a ‘glitch’.”
The word tasted sour.
“Kieran’s made it clear where I stand — and it isn’t beside him.” I lifted my chin. “And Sy chose to protect me. That’s his role. There’s nothing romantic in that.”
“And Ash?” she asked.
I didn’t answer.
She stepped closer.
“You don’t get to pretend you don’t feel that one,” she said quietly.
