Page 81 of Cloud Storm

Lancelot gets up and starts pacing around the room, burning a hole in the carpet. He’s upset, very upset.

“You said you wanted to know everything, well now you do. You’ve learned the whole ugly truth about me, and now I’m going home,” I murmur, wrapping the sheet around my body as I prepare to leave, eyes full of tears, but not wanting to cry here.

“When are you going to stop that damn habit of running away?” he growls.

“Look how you’re acting, I know what it means.” The Suit is back. I can read between the lines.

“Don’t you dare move from where you are, Ariel.”

“And stay here for what?” I yell. “Are you going to humiliate me now that you know my shame?”

It’s good that Lancelot is not one of those X men, because if looks could kill…

“What are you ashamed of?” he asks. “Trusting a person who claimed to be your friend or facing the situation and finding a safe place?”

What?

“You said it yourself, Ariel, you did what you had to do, and I’m proud of you.”

Wait, what?

I don’t understand.

I frown at him, wishing he’d explain himself.

“I’m furious, pissed off, to tell you the truth,” he says. “But not with you. I want to skin all those who have hurt you, dismember them slowly.”

“I don’t want you to do that.”

I already feel terrible carrying all this guilt, and seeing his bloodstained hands wouldn’t ease that.

“Ariel, you may have learned a lot of things from books, but you have no idea what it’s like to have someone who cares about you, right?”

“Are you breaking up with me?”

He is really indignant at my question.

“And why would I want to do that?”

“Because I’m a whore,” I answer in a choked voice.

“Don’t ever call yourself that again,” he warns as he strides toward me. “Never!”

The air is filled with electricity, the tension between us so thick that it can almost be touched.

“Lancelot…” I murmur.

“Never!” he repeats, wrapping me in his arms. Only then do I let myself go…

From: Arthur

To: California Girl

Date: October 19, 2019 06:07

Subject: Out of the cage

They say the truth sets us free. Fly high, my Hummingbird.

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