Page 103 of Ruled By Fate

“I have to. Sherry and my dad…” Her voice broke. “I need to give them a good story, Cameron, or they will never stop looking for me, and it will ruin their lives. I will not ruin my best friend’s life, and I will not put my father through that kind of uncertainty and pain.”

He opened his mouth, but she stepped right in front of him. “I can’t. I won’t.”

He slowly nodded, planning on the fly. “You’ll need to be quick. When you took off the pendant—”

She gasped in comprehension. “They saw the light. They’ll be coming. She’ll be coming here, to Yorktown.”

He shook his head grimly. “You can be assured they are already here.” When she started to hyperventilate, he was quick to add, “They can’t see you. When you’re wearing the pendant, the darkness cannot see you. I’ll come with you to the hospital. If you wish, I can take a different form to stay out of your way.” There was a slight pause. “I only wish to help. I’ve never wished to do anything more than that.”

She looked at the floor. It was too much to process, but his abject hurt was impossible to ignore. “Cameron, what I said back at the bar. I was drunk. It’s been an insane day. I’m so—”

“Please, do not apologize to me,” he interrupted swiftly. “I already have infinite regret for the way my influence has made you feel and what my presence has done to your life. If you feel any guilt or responsibility for my feelings on top of everything else, I will not be able to bear it.” He squared his shoulders. “I’ll come with you in my Elysian form.”

She looked at him. His face was like a door closing.

I can add him to the list of everything I’ve lost today.

She cleared her throat. “Whatever you need to do.”

She looked around the little house, at the books on the shelves, the coffee mugs hanging on their little hooks, and the toaster that had captured the fascination of her celestial guardian. Her eyes rested for a heartbreaking moment on her miraculously revived plant, then the picture of her mother and father holding her as a baby.

I’ve barely been here a week.

How is it POSSIBLE it’s only been a week?

A knot rose in her throat as she wondered what her life might be like if she could choose the path she wanted. If she could wake up every morning in the arms of a man she could actually be with. If she could go to work every day and do her best, and her best would be good enough. If she could come home every night and relax with her friends, safe in the knowledge that this was the life she had chosen. If she could rebuild her relationship with her dad now that he was finally ready.

But here she was, with a chain around her neck — ruled by fate, about to say goodbye to everything familiar. About to say goodbye to her entire world, to run from a danger she scarcely understood, into the unknown… a place that would not return her remotely the same, if it returned her at all.

She stood abruptly. “I need a moment.”

He nodded, turning away. “I’ll send a signal ahead to let them know we’re coming.”

He knelt to the floor, and a wide circle of ancient lettering began to glow red around him as he murmured something in a language she didn’t understand. She stared for a moment, then turned deliberately away and headed up the stairs. There was no time for wonder, no time to process.

Soon, that will be the least shocking thing I see.

She sat at her desk in her bedroom and wrote two letters on the stationery she’d bought herself on her last birthday. One for Sherry. One for her dad. Something about how it was all too hard, and she was going to take a leave of absence and stay with Cameron’s family for a while. In Europe. Croatia. Something about how she didn’t want them to worry. Something about how she was sorry this was so sudden. Something about how she’d get in touch soon.

Pretty lies, so when they pictured her, they’d think she was somewhere beautiful. She’d rather they were stung by her selfishness, than terrified for her life.

By the time she was done writing, she could barely drag in a full breath. It felt as though there was tremendous pressure on her chest, a stone monument to everything she was losing.

She walked back into the living room and placed both letters on the mantle as Cameron stood by quietly. Then she took a last look around the lovely place that could have been her home.

“I’m ready.”

Chapter Twenty-Two: Mammon

?

“I don’t understand.” Her unit manager stared at her in confusion. “You just got here. What do you mean you want to take a sabbatical?”

Brie took in a deep breath, repeating herself for the fourth time. “With everything that’s happened, I need to take some time away. A leave of absence.” The accusatory gaze of a white kitten hanging from a branch over the words Just Hang in There loomed at her from the poster on the opposite wall. She stared at a paperweight on his desk, unable to meet either of their eyes. “I can’t stay here. I wish I could.”

“You haven’t even finished your orientation yet.”

“I know.”

---