Rosemary and Rue

I didn’t look back.

Danny picked up pretty quickly on my desire to make the drive in silence. Maybe it was the fact that I cried the whole way. The street in front of Home was deserted when we pulled up; he took the money Lily had given me for cab fare, looking at me with worry in his eyes. “You gonna be okay in there? You need some muscle?”

I patted his elbow. “I’ll be fine, Danny.”

“You sure?”

“I’m sure.”

“All right. You need me, you call.” Then he was gone, tires squealing as he blazed off down the street. I watched until I was sure that he was gone before pulling the gun out of my pocket and turning to walk up to the door.

It was time to go Home.

Home’s door was often closed but never locked; all you had to do to get inside is want to be there. Kids were posted in the front room twenty-four hours a day, making sure trouble didn’t start unless they started it. But when I turned the doorknob, nothing happened. The door was locked against me. Devin knew I was coming.

“This is October Daye!” I shouted, pounding my hand against the door. “Let me in!”

Footsteps, and the sound of locks being undone. The door opened, revealing a drawn-looking Manuel with gauze taped above one eye, not quite concealing the swelling. I caught my breath, letting it out in a slow hiss as Dare peeked around him, frighteningly pale, bruises standing out in sharp relief on her cheek and neck. Manuel saw the gun, and his eyes widened.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, voice pitched low. “I told Luna to have you wait.”

“Devin called us,” Manuel said. “We always come when he calls.” Dare was shaking her head in small, sharp motions, making go away gestures with her hands. Devin was angry that I’d left them at Shadowed Hills and gone on without them. Knowing what I knew now, he was angry they hadn’t been able to keep watching me for him.

Dare wanted me out of harm’s way, but that wasn’t an option. Not with the taste of roses lingering in my mouth. “If you go now, I’ll come for you when this is done,” I said, still quietly.

Manuel looked at me solemnly, opening the door wider in invitation. Dare whimpered and he shushed her, not looking away from my face. They were staying. This was their Home, whether they wanted it or not, and they were staying until the end.

I stepped into the room, scanning for potential trouble. I didn’t see any; we were alone. From where I stood, the building didn’t hold anyone but two green-eyed kids, a cursed changeling, and a killer. The room was smaller without its smattering of teenagers, and the scars on the walls seemed older. For the first time, it looked like what it really was: a flophouse with a fancy name, where kids who didn’t know any better let themselves be abused by someone who should have known better.

Crossing the room, I smashed the glass over the call button for Devin’s office with the butt of my gun. Shards flew in all directions, and Dare gasped, eyes wide with a mixture of awe and terror. When did I become the hero? When did she start looking at me like that?

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“I’m finishing things,” I said, trying to project a calm I didn’t feel. Silently I told myself we’d get out of there alive; I was going to live up to the unspoken expectations in her eyes. It was the only promise I could make. “It’s about to get messy. I’d go now, if I were you.” I knew they wouldn’t go—I wouldn’t have, when I belonged there—but I had to give them the chance.

“He’ll kill you if you don’t leave now,” Manuel said.