Page 155 of I Ran Away to Evil 3
Would he even believe me?
“Alright,” I said, lowering my hands to my sides. “After everything,you, at least, deserve to know …” I paused, closing my eyes. Bracing myself. When I opened my eyes, I looked at the half elf in front of me.
He was standing in my home, wearing a tunic with rolled-up sleeves tucked into his pants. His dreads were pulled back into a ponytail, and his locket hung about his neck. Julian looked at me with a gentleness unimaginable to how he was in the video game or any other timeline.
I met his eyes and said, “I’m not the real Gerda Jones.”
CHAPTER 84
We Can Let Fate Decide
Julian
Julian had been expecting any number of secrets.
The troll was powerful enough to establish portals inevery singlekingdom from here to the Southern Sea. The window beside her couch overlooked that very ocean. She could have admitted to any ability or skill, and he wouldn’t have been surprised.
But he wasn’t expecting this. Anxiety twisted his heart and crept into his voice. “How long?”
“Five years,” she replied, standing straight and holding her ground. His worst fears dissipated as fast as they’d come.
“Five years?” Julian approached her.
She nodded as he lifted both hands and gripped her arms, leaning down and burying his face in her neck. “Then that’s fine. Gods, Gerda, don’t scare me like that.”
She stiffened. “I literally woke up in this body, Julian. What do you meanit’s fine?”
“You are still the troll I met and fell for.” He kissed her shoulder before pulling back, looking her in the eyes. “If Life and Death mixed up your soul in revival, then you might have come back in the wrong body. It’s the stuff of legends, but it’s not unheard of with inexperienced necromancy—”
“I’m not from Valaria,” she cut him off. “I’m not even from thisworld.”
He kissed her nose. “Which explains your strange manner of speech.”
“I’m beingserious,Julian.” Gerda put out both hands to push against his chest, forcing him back.
“So am I,” he replied. His hands slid down her arms until he scooped up both of hers in his and squeezed them reassuringly.
“You don’tsoundlike it,” she accused.
“Gerda—” He stopped. “Is that how you want to be called?”
“… Yes.”
“Gerda,” he restarted, “I’m not a fool. I’ve been with you night and day forweeks. Do you think I haven’t noticed you make food that I’ve never even heard of before and talk about things that don’t exist? For a while, I thought you might’ve journeyed here through the Sea of Monsters or found some lost bridge portal—” Julian stopped, his blood going cold. “The bridge in the North,” he said softly. “Our paths don’t split at the dungeon—they split at the bridge you’re looking for.”
She held his gaze. “I have a chance to go home.”
Julian dropped her hands and took a step back. She was so sure.So ready to leave.
“What is waiting for you there?” he asked, all emotion leaving his voice. It was hard to even speak, and his words were harsher than he’d intended. “A family? Your ex-husband?”
Despite his earlier claims, hefeltlike a fool.
“Actually, that was something Gerda and I both had in common.” She smiled tightly. “But no, he isn’t waiting for me. No one is.”
“Thenwhy?”
“Because I don’t belong here,” she said.
