The clearing smelled like burnt powder, wet iron, and the kind of sour, cold sweat that comes right after you realize you’ve been banking on a lie.
I stood there in the weeds, my boots sinking into the gray shale, staring down at Echo. Her words were still hanging in the damp air between us, heavy and jagged enough to cut. *Ask her about the money. The real reason she stole it.*
Right next to me, Elara went completely rigid. The small plastic bandage on her cheek had peeled away at the corner, and the skin beneath looked gray, all the color draining out of her face until the mud across her forehead looked like dark charcoal. She wouldn't turn her chin. She wouldn't shift her gaze from the empty brass casings littering the gravel by her feet.
My stomach twisted into a knot so tight it fe
