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He was almost gone. And I knew, I just knew, I couldn’t let him step out that door. Because while I had no doubt he’d come to his senses, I might never forgive him. For someone so committed to seeing the best in me, it didn’t take much for him to assume the absolute fucking worst.

“Don’t,” I cried. “Wait.”

And because I had no idea what else to do I…flung myself at him. It was probably the least dignified thing I’d ever done, which, y’know, talk about stiff competition. As I moved, I caught sight of my shadow on the wall, outstretched arms doing the full 1922 Nosferatu death scene. But, somehow, I managed to get them wrapped round Caspian’s waist. My cheek to his unyielding back. And there I clung.

He stopped. I guess he had to or look as ridiculous as me. “Let me go.”

“What the fuck are you doing?”

“You were in bed with my sister.”

“I’m cuddly, Caspian. I like to sleep with people. I mean literally sleep with them. Not have sex with them.”

He didn’t move. Just stood there, sucking the heat and hope out of me like an ice sculpture of a man who thought I’d fucked his sister.

“Oh come on.” I squeezed him desperately. “Use that magnificent brain of yours. Putting aside the fact that I would be mad to want anyone else while I have you, do you really think I’d be stupid enough to cheat on you in your own house? Knowing you could turn up at any moment? Is that it? Do you think I’m stupid?”

His hand crept up and covered mine. His fingers were cold and trembling slightly. “I don’t understand why you’d…why you’d…”

Given Caspian’s own discomfort with physical intimacy, it did make a terrible sort of sense that he couldn’t imagine sharing a bed with somebody without dicking them. But while that helped me understand a bit more about what was going on, it didn’t make me feel any better about it.

“Why do you do this to me?” I wailed. “I’ve given you no reason to doubt my faith or my…my virtue.” Oh God. Now I was in a Victorian sensation novel. I was probably about to discover I was my own twin brother who had been confined to a lunatic asylum. “And with your sister for God’s sake. What the fuck is wrong with you?”

Of course, Ellery would choose exactly this moment to come out of the bedroom. She was wearing my CALLIPYGIAN T-shirt, a pair of cat-head thigh-highs, and a death glare. And I wanted to strongly encourage her to go away but, unfortunately, she spoke before I could. “I’ll tell you what’s wrong with him. He thinks everyone’s like he is.”

Caspian spun round so fast it centrifugal-forced me away from him and sent me crashing to the floor. “What,” he asked, with hideous calm, “is that supposed to mean?”

“You don’t value friendship so you don’t understand why anyone would.”

This was definitely one of those stay down situations. I huddled, wishing I had a helmet or something.

“The thing is, Caspian”—Ellery’s lip curled with a frankly spectacular degree of scorn—“while fucking you up is one of the few things I really enjoy, I like Arden. And I don’t want to fuck him up as well.”

Caspian sighed. “You’re being childish, Eleanor.”

“I’m not the one freaking out because he thought someone else was playing with his toys.”

“You have no right to interfere in my affairs or embroil Arden in your attention-seeking dramas. He is my partner. He is not your friend.”

“He’s also right here,” I said. “And I’m seriously not enjoying being the stick you use to beat each other.”

There was a brief, profoundly awkward pause.

And then Caspian extended a hand to help me off the ground. “I apologize for my sister’s behavior. She’s been impossible for years and I have no idea what makes her act like this.”

My mouth dropped open. Caspian didn’t so much end arguments as nuke them from orbit. I really didn’t want to take sides here but he was crossing an unacceptable dick threshold. “Um—”

“It’s you.” Ellery wasn’t breathing well enough to be yelling. Her voice sounded genuinely broken, caught somewhere between tears and screaming. “You make me act like this. You’ve made me invisible. You’ve made me worthless. You’ve taken away everyone who’s ever cared about me. Dad. Mum. Lancaster. Nathaniel. Even your fucking self.”

If we were in a movie, this would be the moment that changed everything. They’d hug and cry and lay their feelings bare and promise to be better people and a Sam Smith song would play and everyone would go home all uplifted and shit.

Except we weren’t in a movie. And what Caspian said was, “I’m not having this conversation with you.”

Ellery stared at him with eyes that were so like his and so not.

Then she turned and walked back into the bedroom, emerging about thirty seconds later with her boots on and her bag over her shoulder.

She was gone without another word.