Chapter 81 Hurt
804words
To her credit, I felt the same right now.
"I don't like it," Ember stated. "And I know for a fact Kayn won't agree, either."
"But it's better that—"
Ember pinned me with a sharp look. "I said no, I won't do it."
"Ember, it's safer—"
"Forget it," she snapped. I've never seen Ember this angry. "You can't become part of our lives and then just disappear!"
"To my credit, you lied to me during most of it."
Ember's shoulders dropped. "I know, and I'm not proud of it. We thought we were protecting us. Protecting you."
"If I knew I might have just stayed away."
Her lip quivered, and my stomach twisted at the idea of making my best friend cry. "It doesn't matter anymore, okay? What is done is done, we can't change anything. And we won't, either. We're not shutting you out from our lives. Besides, that bond thing with Kayn? Yeah, good luck running from that."
I knew suggesting we stay away from each other wouldn't go down well with her.
"Ember…" I sighed, dropping my face inside my hands.
"Don't Ember me," she retorted. "You have no idea what you're asking."
I raised my head. "You think this doesn't hurt me too? I don't want to do this, but we could all die. Don't you get it?"
"I do get it," she cried out. "You have no idea what went through my mind when you and Kayn got taken by Graves. I thought I wasn't going to see either of you ever again!"
Ember slapped away a stray tear rolling down her cheek. "I'm not doing it."
I breathed out a steady breath. I hated this. I hated everything about this, but I knew what would be the right thing to do.
It would be selfish of me if I kept hanging out with them. This was no longer only about me. I would never be able to live with myself if anything had to happen to them, or my parents.
I had to do the right thing, and Ember would hate me for it.
I swallowed down the lump inside my throat, fighting away tears. I turned away my face so she wouldn't see my expression. I was going to have to hurt her if I wanted this to work.
"You know what?" I tried to sound mean. "I don't care what happens to you. I care about what happens to my family and me. You lied and put us all at risk, and it's your fault we've been put in this position."
"Carly?" Ember choked out, and I had to take another deep breath to hold back the sobs.
"I've been nice about this up to this far, but I'm drawing the line here. I don't want you around. I don't want to see any of you ever again. You've all created more problems for me than I've ever had to deal with my entire life."
"I can't—how can you say that?" The tone of her voice sliced through my heart.
I'm so sorry Ember. I closed my eyes, taking another deep breath. "I hate you for it."
I got up, refusing to look at her.
"You're just saying it because you think it's the smart thing to do?" Ember's voice was shaking, and I could hear the hesitance in her voice. She was doubting whether I was telling the truth. "Right, Carly, this is what it is?"
I needed to hurt her more to make it work.
I couldn't believe what I was going to say next. The words tasted like acid. "No wonder humans killed your kind."
There was a long moment of silence. I began walking toward the caravan when Ember finally found her voice.
"Get away from me," she cried out, her voice shrill. "I never, ever want to see you again. I can't believe you just said that…" she sucked in a shaky breath. "After...everything. I hate you."
Tears streamed down my cheeks as I kept walking, fighting the sobs threatening to explode.
You're doing the right thing Carly. But damn it, it hurt so bad.
"Never, ever set your foot near us again!" Ember screamed after me. I had no doubt everyone, including my parents heard that.
It took everything inside me to not run toward the caravan. A massive wave of relief washed over me when I finally reached it. The moment I got inside I locked the door and fell onto my bed, buried my face into a pillow, and fell into a fit of loud sobs.
