The house is unsurprisingly quiet when I make my way downstairs. The guys and I were out until early this morning, and they’re probably still sleeping. I would be too if I wasn’t starving. It’s mid-afternoon, but past the usual lunch time so I’m startled to find the paladin in the kitchen eating when I walk in.

I haven’t seen any of them since the reading, and I’m tempted to back up and leave, but my stomach rumbles, begging me not to. Adelaide quickly fixes me up a plate and hands it over with a small smile to counteract the somber atmosphere of the kitchen. I take it into the dining room, away from where the paladin are all eating at the kitchen island.

I get halfway through my sandwich when the chair next to me is pulled out, and Aydin sits down. Several other chairs groan their protest as they’re pulled away from the table and suddenly occupied. I keep my eyes on my plate and focus on eating.

The longer the paladin stay quiet as their heavy presence surrounds me, the more I start to seethe. I push my plate away and sit back in my chair crossing my arms over my chest. I give each of them a cold, hard stare and wait. Eventually Keegan finds his balls and speaks up.

“We fucked up, Vinna. There’s no way around it, and none of us want to make excuses for what happened.”

I say nothing for a while. I just continue to stare at them. At this point, I don’t know what I’m hoping they will say. Honestly, I can’t imagine any words that could repair the damage that’s already been done.

“I fell for it all, the promises of protection and acceptance, the vows to treat me like family, like I was wanted here. But it’s all bullshit. You’ve been watching me this whole time, and for what? Waiting to see if I’d turn on you, take you out? Or were you just hoping I was malleable and could be twisted in any way that you saw fit?”

I turn my gaze to Aydin, searing him with my betrayal and anger.

“Did you fight with me because you enjoyed it, and it bonded us? Or were you sizing me up, letting me teach you my tricks, so you’d be better prepared to deal with me when the time came?”

“It wasn’t like that Little Badass-”

I scoff and shake my head, interrupting him. I’m not going to believe anything he has to say now. They’ve all broken my trust.

“I don’t know how to reconcile what I thought I knew about each of you with what you showed me before the reading. I guess not you Uncle…” I speak the word with cold sarcasm.

“You’ve been clear all along about how unwanted I was, so I shouldn’t be shocked. But the rest of you,” I laugh humorlessly shaking my head. “I thought Beth was bad, but at least she was always honest about how much of a piece of shit she thought I was. There were no shopping trips or promises that things would get better. There was no pretending like I mattered or deserved to be cared for. Beth never lied about how welcome I was. I always knew exactly where I stood with her. I’d take that over your lies any day.”

Lachlan flinches at my comment, and my first instinct is to feel bad. That thought alone enrages me. I push my chair away from the table ready to leave. Aydin’s hand shoots out and grabs my wrist to stop me.

“Don’t touch me,” I warn venomously.

“Vinna, please hear us out,” he begs and immediately pulls his hand back.

I stand silent as I stare at the wood of the table and try to calm my rage.

“I’ve spent all night beating myself up for letting this happen. I was desperate for acceptance, for answers. I clearly made all of this more than it was. The truth is we don’t know each other, and I’m not owed anything...”

I look from the table up to Lachlan.

“We share blood, but that doesn’t connect us. It doesn’t make us anything more than the strangers we are.” My eyes move from Lachlan and settle on each of them as I fall silent.

“Give us another chance," Keegan tells me softly, his tone hopeful.

“Why? Why should I do that?”

“Because we’re family and that’s what family does.”

“Family?” I snicker humorlessly. “I don’t even know what that word means, Keegan. I never have. All that word has ever done for me is beat me down like I was less than nothing and then throw me away. So, what the fuck am I supposed to do with that?” I ask him.

“Then let us teach you what it really means," Aydin reassures me.

“I was trying to, but all you’ve taught me so far is that none of you are worthy of my time, because none of you really give a fuck about me. You all think you’re so much better than Beth because you don’t beat me like she did, but you’re not. You still treat me like I’m nothing.”

I look at Aydin. “Or worse, convince me that I’m something to you when you know it’s all a lie.” My eyes fall on Lachlan. “And just like Beth, you’re ready to throw me away when it’s convenient for you. Or I should say, whenever you deem me too much of a fucking threat.”

I feel gutted. The hurt and betrayal are fresh and festering.

“I’m done. I’m leaving. All of you just stay the fuck away from me.”

“Leaving is not an option, Vinna, you are claimed and underage," Lachlan declares, and I can feel his rising anger.

“Just try to fucking stop me. You think you know what I’m capable of? You have no fucking clue.”

“Vinna, you can’t just walk away from being a caster," Silva tells me.

“I’m not. I’m walking away from all of you and this fucked up coven you want to pretend could ever be my family."

“You are not leaving!” Lachlan slams his hands on the table and stands up squaring off with me.

Here we go. Magic sparks awake inside of me and I ready myself.

“Lachlan!” Birdie yells, as she stomps into the dining room, Lila and Adelaide close on her heels. “What are you doing? We’ve given you time to work through how difficult all of this is for you, but enough is enough! What are you hoping to accomplish behaving this way with her?”

I expect Lachlan to rage at her like he does with me, but he drops his gaze guiltily.

“What if it were you? What if you disappeared and Vaughn discovered your daughter? Would this be what you’d hope for her?” Adelaide asks lovingly.

“It should be him here, not her!” Lachlan bellows, a tear sliding down his face, and his admission breaks something in me.

“Well, it fucking isn’t. You selfish piece of shit. You think I asked for this, any of this?” I scream at him.

“Neither did I!” he yells back.

“Yeah, but the difference between you and me is that I’ve made the best I possibly could with the shit I’ve been given. All you do is pout, feeling sorry for yourself, and destroy the only connection you have to your brother. You’d rather have him here than me, and now you have neither!”

“Vinna, he’s just hurting-”

“Who isn’t Keegan? How much longer are you going to sit with blinders on and let me get crushed under the weight of his pain? Why am I so easy to sacrifice? You liars want to pretend I can be family. But you sit by over and over again and watch him try to break me!”

I leave, my hands shaking from the adrenaline and magic coursing through my body. No one tries to stop me. No one says a word. I pull my spare keys off the ring in the garage and jump into the Jeep. I fidget impatiently waiting for the garage door to open when someone pulls on the handle of my door.

I look over to find Aydin’s pleading face. I stare at him hollowly as he tries to say something, but I’m backing out of the garage and barreling away from the house before I can make sense of his shouts.

I don’t know where I’m going. The fucked up reality is that I don’t have anywhere to go. I drive with no destination as I race in a random direction, speeding to get away as fast as I can. I drive and seethe for who knows how long until everything inside of me feels empty and everything outside of me becomes unfamiliar.

The tingling staticky feeling of a barrier washes over me, and I realize I’ve left the Solace boundary. I start to slow down so that I can turn around when my steering wheel suddenly jerks and the Jeep starts to shudder. I wrestle it over to the side of the road and climb out in search of the cause. My back wheel is mangled. Shredded pieces of tread trail from the Jeep back to the road.

“MOTHERFUCKER!” I shout out to the sky and stupidly kick the offending tire.

I run my hands through my hair and look around like the solution to all my problems is in the trees. I’m pretty sure they’re laughing at me as they bear witness to the horrible luck I’m having.

I’m standing on the side of the road in short cotton shorts and a tank top. I don’t have my phone or wallet. I don’t even have shoes on. I chuckle humorlessly at my stupidity. Well, I’ve never changed a tire. Hopefully it’s not that hard, I muse, pissed off.

I dig around in the back until I find all the tools I think are necessary. I make my way to the tire and sit down in front of it. I’m at the perfect angle to clearly see my front tire slowly but steadily deflating, as I loosen the lug nuts on the back tire.

Fuck! I press my forehead against the mangled rubber. One flat I can try to tackle, but I don’t have two spare tires. I get up, brush my ass off and rehome the tools. I lock up the Jeep, and I start walking.

The blacktop of the road is warm on my feet, and a soft breeze has my hair tickling my back and shoulders. I’ve been walking for a little while replaying the harsh words that the paladin and I traded hours ago. I’ve been cementing my resolve and filling in the details of what I’m going to do now when the steady thrum of a car sounds from somewhere behind me.

I stick out my arm, thumb up, in the universal sign of I need a ride. A Range Rover materializes in the distance, and my nerves and adrenaline start fluttering around at the thought of one of the paladin being behind the wheel.

The vehicle gets closer and starts to slow. It comes to a stop perfectly parallel to me, and I hold my breath as the passenger window rolls down. I curse in my head when the absence of the tinted barrier doesn’t reveal a paladin, but Enoch Cleary.

“Are you okay? What are you doing all the way out here?” Enoch asks, speaking across the dark-haired guy sitting in the passenger seat.

“Um, my car has two flat tires.” I point behind me in the direction I’ve been walking from.

“Was it that Jeep just outside the boundary?” the dark-haired passenger asks. “What’d you run over?”

“Yeah, and I have no idea," I answer flatly cursing my luck that theirs is the only vehicle that’s passed me since I started the trek back to civilization.

“Nash move to the back. We can take you home," Enoch tells me.

I scoff, and I’m not sure if it’s from his use of the word home or that this group of casters are offering to help me. Nash opens the door and slides out. He’s tall and fit and the opposite of Enoch in coloring. His hair is black and his skin fair. His eyes, I notice, are deep dark blue as they roam down my underdressed body to my bare feet.

He steps away from the now open door and offers me a hand like some gallant gentleman helping a woman into a carriage. I look around me, silently begging the universe to send another vehicle this way, so I don’t have to accept Enoch’s help.

No other car magically appears, so I force myself to walk past Nash’s open hand and climb into the passenger seat. He chuckles at my obvious dismissal of his chivalry and waits until I buckle myself in before he closes my door and then squeezes into the back seat where two other guys are already sitting.

“Where are your shoes?” Enoch asks me, his eyes on my bare feet.

“I forgot them."

He’s quiet for a minute. “Forgot them in your car or somewhere else?”

“I was in a hurry when I left.”

Enoch seems bothered by my confession as he presses the gas and navigates smoothly back onto the road.

“So why the hurry, where were you going?” A Jared Leto look-alike from the back seat asks me.

“Why do you care?”

He raises his arms in surrender. “Whoa, I was only curious why you’re out in the middle of nowhere with no shoes, bag, or phone?”

“Trouble at home?” The observant Nash queries.

I scoff again. Apparently, that is the noise I’m now going to make any time someone speaks the word home around me.

“Trouble would be an understatement," I mumble quietly to myself, as I focus on the road in front of me.

“What’s going on?” Enoch questions, picking up on my quiet grumbling.

“What makes you think I would tell you?”

Enoch releases a deep sigh and drums a rhythm on the steering wheel. “I think you have the wrong impression about us Ms. Aylin.”

“I wonder how that happened Mr. Cleary?” I mock his overly polite cadence.

“We’ve never laid a hand on the shifters," Jared Leto look-alike defends.

“Maybe, but I watched you sit back and allow it to happen, and it clearly wasn’t the first time.”

Enoch brakes at a stop sign and turns to me about to say something, but he gets cut off.

“It’s not our place to step in," Nash mumbles.

I turn around and scowl at him. I’m ready to explain all the ways that I think his comment is bullshit, but a big SUV is coming up behind us, and they don’t look like they’re going to stop. I barely have time to shout out a warning before they plow into us from behind.

I jerk back and then sideways, completely askew as Enoch’s SUV jerks to a stop. Everyone inside is cursing and taking stock of themselves.

“Is everyone o—"

Before Enoch can finish his question, something plows into us hard and fast on the back driver’s side of the car. We start spinning like we’re on the teacup ride from hell and my head smashes back against the window. I can’t do anything as we’re thrown around, and I’m jerked every which way amid the sounds of crunching metal and breaking glass. The side of my head takes another hit from somewhere, and the world around me blinks to black.