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have handled it.” He whirled by me so fast that papers flew into the air. “Was she this accident-prone in her other lives?”
    I grinned, restacking the papers and setting his laptop on top of them. “More so. That’s why I need you to look out for her.”
    “What’s the word you always use? Abolished? She abolished our family. Why should we go out of our way to help her?” He finally stood still to zip his suitcase. “Tell Dylan to come pick me up. I’m not living with her. I can’t stand her.”  
    “You have experienced only this lifetime of knowing her.”
    “Whatever. I met her last lifetime.”
    “You were four years old—hardly enough time, or memories, to judge someone.” I sat on his bed, resting my head in my hands. “She has no memory of abandoning us. You can’t hold that against her.”
    “Ha.” He huffed. “For years I’ve watched you mope around and shut yourself off from the world because she broke your heart. She deprived me of a normal relationship with you. Both of my brothers moved away because of her. I hold that against her.”
    For the first time I realized how deeply my depression had hurt Carson. This was his only experience of having brothers, and I had been a terrible one. “I’m sorry for that. Dylan didn’t want to leave, but Amber felt being around Maryah would cause her too much guilt.”
    “Right. The bitch drove everyone away.”
    “Carson, watch your mouth. She’s still my soul mate.”
    “What? I don’t get you, man! You moved away because she might come live with us. Then you go out of your way to create your old frou-frou bedroom and—”
    “She needed a safe haven when she arrived. She lost her family. Our bed and the elements in our room might give her serenity.” It devastated me that my arms no longer provided her that.
    “Serenity? Peacock stuff and a dream catcher? She doesn’t remember that crap!”
    I nodded at his Howlite necklace. “That doesn’t negate their powerful energy.”
    The white stone helped calm tempers, and Carson had anger issues. It also helped souls remember past lives, and Carson wanted to remember more of his last one. It was his initiation life as an Element, but he died as a toddler, so he’d mostly only remember from this life forward.
    “How can you pretend she didn’t screw this family over in every way possible?” He threw his hands up in the air.   “Harmony suffers every day because of what she did!”
    “Carson, enough!” I tried pushing his flailing arms to his side, but his strength was no match for me. He tossed me across the room like a feather. Just before I hit the wall, I traversed in midair and reappeared in front of him. “You aren’t the only fast one in this kindrily.”
    We were face to face, blood bonding us physically, supernal selection uniting us eternally. Anger still flashed in his eyes, but I remained calm. I possessed volumes of life lessons he hadn’t begun to learn. “I won’t tolerate you scathing her.”
    His jaw tightened. “Why’d you even move out? You made a huge deal about how her being around would push you over the edge, but here you are, saving her from fires and watching over her anyway. You’re totally contradicting yourself.”
    “Until you find yours, you can’t understand how impossible it is to be separated from your soul mate—or how difficult it is to be around them when they have no idea who you are.”
    Carson held up his index finger. “One, I will never get roped into the soul mate BS. I’ve seen how it turns out. Two,” he extended his middle finger as well then poked my chest. “Just tell her the truth.”
    I flinched, resisting the urge to rub my chest. I could already feel it bruising. I envied his strength. “I wish it were that simple. The past has taught us that no one believes in our way of existence unless they’ve experienced it firsthand—and remember it. If we tried explaining who and what we are, Maryah would be terrified and probably