I hear the soft growl escape Darian’s lips, and I feel a tinge of dark amusement.
“She won, Darian. She got what she wanted.” I take a gulp of coffee, letting it burn my mouth. The next part of what I have to say is harder, because it means putting aside my injured pride and accepting reality. “There is no one aside from Willow who holds the blame for what happened that night. Perhaps you could have done more, but I now see that you were just as terrified as I was, Darian. You were young. And you feared what the white witches would do to me. I understand that. I guess I understood it when I saw everything on your flash drive, but the hurt wouldn’t go away. The humiliation, the manner in which I was so utterly dehumanized that night—it still haunts me.”
His body is stiff. “If I could go b
