Page 93 of Little Nightmare

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I?—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

“I choose you and Lily, but the road…” I shook my head. “It’s not one I’ve traveled or would wish for you.” He pulled me close until his forehead touched mine. “It’s your choice.”

I wrapped my arms around his neck. “Are you on this road with me?”

“I’m the one trying to read the map,” he rasped. “I’m just not very good with words or direction.”

“Ah, so the enemy needs me?”

He tucked my hair behind my ears. “More than you will ever know.”

I stood on my tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his mouth and said. “We accept.”

“Thought you would say that.” My dad’s voice came from behind me. I turned around. His blue eyes landed on Ace behind me then back on me. “This isn’t the path I would have chosen.”

I walked up to him, all my life he’d been the protector, the savior, everything to me and I’d always wondered what parts of him I got since it felt like they all went to Tempest. I almost laughed when it suddenly dawned on me. I got bits and pieces of his darkness, his determination, and his need to forge his own path, something new, something he was told not to do.

At a young age he was pulled into the mafia after being told not to do it and he did it anyway, he took over the family anyway, he made the hard choices. My mom was standing behind him with Bella. Both of them were paying too close of attention to Lily to even care what conversation was going on with us.

It was always life or death.

---