“K …” I took a deep breath and slid out of the bench seat, standing in the aisle, stretching once more.
I felt her eyes on me as I made my way toward the door. You’d think I would breathe a sigh of relief as I saw Ember approach the RV. You’d be wrong. Just as I reached the top of the stairs, Ember pushed past me and headed straight for Willow.
“What the hell are you doing in here?” She yelled, causing the hair on the back of my neck to stand up.
Willow’s voice was maniacally even. “What? You don’t trust your soul mate?” The sarcasm around the term threw Ember into a rage. I turned around and walked quickly back to the quarrel.
Ember’s hands flew everywhere as she screamed some more. “I don’t trust you! You’ve already tried to put your slutty hands all over him once, and I’ll be damned if you try again. He’s too much of a gentleman to tell you to fuck off, but I’m not.”
Willow thrusted her hands forward, aiming for Ember’s hair, but Ember stuck her arm up. The cracking of skin sent me forward, and I wrapped my arm around Ember’s waist, pulling her back as she lunged forward.
“Are you kidding me? You were going to slap me? Slap me, then! Do it! I fucking dare you, Willow. Slap me.”
I spun Ember around, so I was standing between the mortal enemies, my ears fielding obscenities from both sides.
“Guys, stop!” I yelled. A completely futile effort on my part as words shot through and around me, and hands grabbed at whatever they could.
Willow’s eyes were black with rage as her lip curled with each perfectly crafted insult.
“You’re a spoiled little daddy’s girl who can’t handle when she loses.”
Ember scrunched her face as she growled. Growled. “I’m spoiled? I’m spoiled?! You’re the one who grew up with her daddy’s trust fund behind every school you were admitted to, before you were kicked out!”
What seemed like a full minute later—and a minute is a long time when you’re in the middle of a bonafied cat fight—Regan raced up the stairs.
“What the fuck?” He held out his hands, seeming to feel as helpless as I probably looked.
“Get her out!” I nodded to Ember, who was closest to the door, as I held Willow back with my forearm.
I breathed half a sigh of relief as Regan squatted down and hoisted a flailing Ember over his shoulder.
“Let me down, Regan! This isn’t funny!”
“No shit it’s not funny, you’ve lost your head. Shut up and stop moving so we both don’t fall down the stairs.” Their voices trailed off as I remained planted in the RV, and saw the rest of the group and crew moving toward the vehicle.
Oh good. A full-blown scene.
“You can put your arm down, you know.” Willow spoke as if nothing had happened, though I could still her ragged breath between her words.
I turned slowly, my eyes nearly bulging out of my head. “You need to get it together.” Those were the only words that I spoke before dropping my guard and walking off the RV, to a still enraged Ember.
“November Blue, get ahold of yourself.” Ashby grabbed his daughter’s shoulders as they moved up and down against deep breaths.
Raven moved to my side. “What happened?” Her look was slightly suspicious, and I couldn’t really blame her given the undercurrent to the girls’ relationship, but I was still slightly offended.
“Nothing to do with me, Raven.” I shook my head, annoyed.
She sighed and said, “Of course not, that’s not what I meant.”
It was, but I let it slide. We were all human in our thinking, after all.
The muscles in my back froze as I heard the measured steps of Willow making her way off the RV.
Finally, Ember spoke as she pointed to the pot-stirrer who had her arms crossed as she stood just to my side.
“Her. She happened,” Ember seethed as she crossed to come face to face with Willow. It was kind of like watching a predator and prey in the wild, though none of us knew who was which at the moment, so we stood still. On alert.
“Girls,” Solstice, Willow’s mother who was normally ethereal and quiet, cut her words through the awkward silence. “Enough is enough.”
“This has gone on long enough,” Michael added.
I noticed that Mags and Journey were hanging back, watching the scene carefully, as though it were a series of whipping live wires.
Raven sounded flustered as she threw her hands in the air. “If this has nothing to do with Bo, then I demand you two spill what it is that has you at each other’s throats.”
Oh, God …
Regan and I looked at each other, his face paling as his eyes grew wide. Ember and Willow turned, facing each other with their hands on their hip as if they were silently daring each other to say it.
Just when I thought one of them had come up with a fabulous lie, Ember slowly lifted her chin and turned to face the band.
“For months … months … Willow has insisted that she and I are sisters. Half sisters. I’ve told her to drop it a thousand times, and she won’t. Now is a good a time as any to put it to rest, don’t you think.”