Page 265 of Caelum

The philosophical question had me frowning. “Just live? Not have to fight a war they were born into?”

She tensed. “Without purpose, we’re nothing.”

“Stop being so astute,” I teased, gently rubbing her scalp as I stroked her hair. “We have no idea what’s going to happen, Eve, but that doesn’t shake our own purpose, does it?”

“If I’ve to stop being astute, you’re to stop being so wise,” she chided dryly and sighed into me. “I’m not scared.”

“Aren’t you?”

“No. I’m not. I promise. That’s the strangest thing of all. I’m really not fretting, but… my thoughts are everywhere, you know? I just can’t seem to shut down.”

“Me either,” I admitted, staring up at the ceiling once more. There was a patch of damp that had been irritating the shit out of me ever since I’d noticed it. Every time I looked at it, it seemed to move, and yes, I knew that was insane, but the darkness and the shadows played tricks sometimes. When a car drove past, flashing the beams of light from the headlamps inside, it made it flicker which had my overactive imagination zooming into being.

“You know if you didn’t have to be a soldier?—”

“Which, after we’re done, I won’t have to be,” I pointed out.

“Yeah,” she murmured on another sigh. “After that, what do you want to do?”

It took me a second to realize how floored I was by her question. How genuinely unsure I was about answering.

All my adolescent life, I’d been heading for one path—war against a race that had outnumbered us for centuries.

But Eve was right.

If what we did worked then…

Freedom.

At least until more Ghouls were born, but that meant their numbers could be controlled, surely?

A breath shuddered from my lungs at the thought. “Anything?”

She hummed. “Yes. Anything.”

“Then I’d be a photographer.”

I felt her astonishment—literally. It throbbed inside her, along with a million questions I knew were on the tip of her tongue. “Why?”

“Because a photo can replace a thousand words.” And I’d learned that if words could burn, a photo could cut you to ribbons.

“What would you photograph?”

“Anything and everything.” I didn’t tell her about the million pictures I had of her on my phone. It wasn’t me being a creep, I was just capturing her essence. The essence of the woman who had Chosen me.

“What about you?” I asked after she fell silent. “What do you want to do?”

She shrugged. “I wasn’t born to be much else than a wife and mother, so I pretty much know that that’s the last thing I want to do.”

I couldn’t stop myself from snickering at that. “Girl power?”

“Does that mean what it sounds like it means?”

Another snicker. “Yeah.”

“Okay, well, girl power.”

“You could even hashtag that.”

---