Page 101 of Soul of Shadow
“You sound insane. And even if you’re right, I don’t care. It doesn’t matter if our father is a Norse god or Tom Cruise or some drunken asshole from three towns over. He left. He abandoned us, and I have no interest in knowing him.”
“That’s it, then?” Charlie asked. “You’re not even going to help metryto figure it out?”
“No, Charlie,” he said, turning around, grabbing ahold of the knob, and pushing the door open. “I’m not going to help you. You’re on your own for this one.” Just before he stepped into his room, he looked back over his shoulder. “That’s clearly how you like to operate, anyway. No need for support. No need to tell your brother that his baby sister is still alive.”
“Is that what this is really about?” Charlie asked. “The reason you haven’t looked me in the eyeoncesince we left that cave? Because I didn’t tell you about Sophie?”
He said nothing, just pursing his lips.
“Mason, I only learned that she was still alivelast night. I’ve barely had time to process the information, let alone think about sharing it.”
“Think about sharing it?”His lips pulled back in disgust. “She’s my sister, too, Charlie. I think you forget that sometimes. That you don’t have some monopoly on grief. That the rest of us lost her, too.”
It felt as if he’d slapped her. “I don’t—”
“A day is more than enough time to tell your older brother thathis younger sister is still fucking alive,” he said. “But clearly you don’t see it that way.” He shook his head. “Jesus. You’re so goddamn selfish.”
And with that, he stepped into his room and slammed the door in her face.
That was it, then. The real reason Mason hadn’t looked her in the eye a single time since they left that cave. Because she hadn’t told him about Sophie.
All at once, it hit her. Everything. The panic. The fear. The regret. All the emotions that she had squashed deep, deep within herself for the sake of getting through the night, of saving the people she loved and making it out alive. They descended upon her like a twenty-foot wave, swallowing her up and sucking her to the bottom of the ocean.
She stumbled blindly down the hall, feeling her way to her bedroom. She just needed to make it inside. Just needed to close the door behind herself, and then… and then…
Her hand found the doorknob.
She pushed the door open, hobbled though, slammed it shut, and collapsed against it, sinking to the floor in her tattered dress.
Her first thought:We did it. We made it out alive.
Her second:We will never be safe again.
