Page 102 of Heart of Mischief

In some distant corner of her mind, she noted that Elias was calling herCharlieagain, notCharlotte. It was bizarre to hear her chosen name spoken in his voice. Like finding a flower growing in the middle of cracked pavement.

“None of this is your fault,” he went on. “Do you understand me? You did what you had to do to save your best friend’s life. You weren’t the one who tried to hurt them. Okay? That was me. That was all me.”

His words washed over her.You did what you had to do to save your best friend’s life.You weren’t the one who tried to hurt them.

She couldn’t help it; her eyes darted away from Elias’s, needing to see everyone else’s expression. Lou was hovering close by, her worry obvious. Mason was still somewhat bleary-eyed, but his expression had cleared. When she met his eyes, he gave her a small, encouraging nod.

Charlie looked at Elias. “But the eyaerberries,” she whispered. “I gave them the eyaerberries. I exposed them to the dangers of Asgard. I—”

“Shhh.” Elias released her hands, reaching up to take her shoulders instead. “Everyone ate those berries of their own free will. You didn’t force them to do anything. Okay? And some part of you knows that.” His hands tightened on her shoulders. “But the thing is, Charlie—guilt is a bully. It yells. It taunts. It throws sticks and stones. It ties you to a chair and tries to beat you down, to torture you until you believe whatever it says. And right now, you’re letting it win.”

Charlie breathed in and out through her nose. Counting silently. She wanted to believe him, but it felt so selfish to do so. Like she was cutting herself a break she didn’t deserve.

“No one here blames you for what happened on homecoming.” For the first time in five minutes, he looked away, dropping his hands from her shoulders and turning to speak to her friends and her brother. “Right?”

“Of course we don’t,” said Lou, smiling sadly.

“Absolutely not,” agreed Abigail. “That’s ridiculous. Elias is the asshole here.”

Charlie’s eyes drifted nervously over to her brother. In the last two days, it had felt like Mason was beginning to warm back up to her. To, if notforgiveher for not telling him about Sophie, at least understand why she’d kept it a secret. But this… this was different. She knew Mason blamed her for dragging them into this world.Knew that he wanted no part of it, that she had forced his hand by telling him about Lou’s capture. She was certain that, when she met his eyes, she would find nothing but frost.

Instead, her brother looked oddly distraught. He was staring down at Charlie, lips parted, like he knew he had something to say but couldn’t remember what. Thoughts seemed to be flitting quickly through his head. She braced herself for a lecture, for a disdainful remark likeHow dare you let him be the one to calm you down, orHow dare you feel anything positive toward him at all.

After a long, tense pause, Mason took a step toward Charlie. Another. He moved slowly, twigs and dead pine needles crunching under his zombie-like steps. For a bizarre, fleeting moment, Charlie thought her brother might hit her.

Then he dropped to his knees and pulled her into a hug.

Until that moment, Charlie had thought that she could be fine without his forgiveness. That, though it might hurt at first, she could drift apart from her brother. It was only natural, right? That’s what happened when you grew up. Even if he hated her for the rest of their lives, she would be fine. And probably she would have been. Probably she would’ve been able to carry on, to live a decently full life.

But it wasn’t until that moment in the woods that she realized, no matter how happy her life would be, how much good she did in the world, how successful she became… there would always have been a hole somewhere within her. An emptiness she would never have been able to identify but would have felt nonetheless.

The space where her brother went.

“Charlie,” Mason said into her hair. “Our father is a god. I’m pretty sure we would have been dragged into this mess whether you gave me that berry or not.”

Charlie laughed. It was a messy, snot-laden sound, and it was only then that she realized she was crying. That she probably had been crying for some time now.

But these tears didn’t feel like sadness; they felt like relief.

Mason pulled back and turned to look at Elias. “How did you know to do that?” he asked. “What you did for Charlie. The breathing thing.”

Elias’s eyes fell to the forest floor. After a short pause of consideration, he looked decisively up and said, “My little sister, Olive. She used to have panic attacks. Her therapist taught our family some techniques.”

Mason nodded. Charlie had no idea if her brother understood the significance of what Elias had just shared. She was fairly certain that she was the only person he’d told about his sister in years. The fact that he just told the rest of the group, too…

“Thank you,” Mason said genuinely.

Elias inclined his head.

“But this doesn’t mean that I like you,” Mason clarified. “Or that we’re friends.”

Nodding sagely, Elias said, “I couldn’t think of anything worse.”

The corner of Mason’s lip twitched.

“How touching,” said a raspy voice from the shadows, causing everyone in the clearing to jump. “I do so love a family reunion.”

Dread, cold and slippery, slithered across Charlie’s skin. She knew that voice. It didn’t matter that she’d never heard it before. She’d known this moment would come, and that, when it did, she would recognize him instantly.