Rowan

Banished. To a small town where no one knows me. I tell them I'm just visiting, but the truth is much worse. They don't need to know the truth. They don't want the truth.

Not if she's proof of anything.

She's banished, too, but she's just banished from her sister's life. On the outside, looking in. Hiding her pain with angry looks and angrier words. Maybe I was crazy for wanting to know her, or maybe I just recognized someone I could relate to. Someone who wouldn't judge me.

I just needed a way to get her to talk to me.

Willow

A ticket? The new cop gave me a ticket. He was proving which side he was on, and it wasn't mine. No shock there. No one was on my side. I wasn't welcome in my hometown.

Then he bought me a drink? What was with him? Everyone would tell him to stay away from me. But if he wanted to waste his money...

I shouldn't have had the drink. I shouldn't have talked to him. Or kissed him. Or let him in when he walked me home. I was playing with fire. He was gorgeous and snarky and the first person in far too long who acted like I mattered.

It was addicting. He was addicting. But I knew better than to think good things happened to me.