When the Sky Fell on Splendor by Emily Henry

Author:Emily Henry
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2019-03-12T00:00:00+00:00

EIGHTEEN

LEVI, NICK, AND ARTHUR stared down at me, splayed out on the linoleum in a daze. Sofía ran over and crouched beside me. “What the hell were you thinking?” she screamed at Arthur.

Remy jogged up the stairs and knelt on my other side as Sofía helped me up to sitting.

“What happened?” he asked. “We were behind the house when we heard you screaming.”

“They happened,” Sofía raged. “When Nick and I got in here, they were holding the door shut while she screamed bloody murder!”

Levi tried to hide by sinking into himself, but his height wouldn’t allow it. “We thought you needed to be scared, Franny, and—”

“You mean he did.” Nick rounded on Arthur. “This is what it’s come to? You almost gave us heart attacks! Handsome Remy broke a gah-damn window to get into that basement! We thought something was killing her!”

He shoved Arthur, but Art barely seemed to notice. He was staring at me, breathless and flushed in the sober light of Sofía’s LED lantern. “It worked. I knew it would work.”

“I can’t believe you,” I spat, staggering to my feet.

He blinked, coming back down to earth. As his eyes met mine, his victorious expression faded into guilt, which quickly dissolved into a mask of cool indifference. “Yes you can.”

“Fine!” I shouted. “I can, and it makes me sick. How could you do that to me?” Now I shoved him, as hard as I could.

He stumbled into the kitchen countertop but quickly regained his balance and advanced on me. “I did that for you, and you know it! You have a gift, and you need to know how to use it, Franny!”

“Why?” I demanded, heart thudding viciously. “Because that’s what you would do? Because you can’t stand being normal? You’d scare your sister to death just to feel like you’ve got a starring role in a comic?”

Arthur’s eyes hardened and he stepped forward, forcing me back. “You said you trusted me. You knew what that meant.”

The anger dimmed just a little, crumbling back into the secret knot it usually lived in. Some part of me had known. I’d seen his shiny plan glinting behind his eyes and been complicit, because I wanted to understand and control this.

“You didn’t have to take things that far,” I said weakly. “Were there even mysterious boxes back at the car?”

Arthur cracked his knuckles. Hair sticking up in wild tufts, he looked every bit an evil mastermind. “Not as such.”

I faced Levi, who once again shrank like a Newfoundland who’d peed on the carpet.

“We never would’ve left you alone,” he said guiltily. “We just needed you to think you were. We wouldn’t have let anything happen to you.”

“She could have gotten seriously hurt and you wouldn’t have even known,” Sofía said. “She could have fallen down those stairs!”

Arthur’s lips tightened. “I didn’t think of that.” He turned toward me. “Franny, I’m sorry I scared you.”

Nick slow-clapped. “So he does know the words.”

“There’s a reason we tried standing in a circle, sending prayers up to a ceiling fan first,” Arthur said.

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