Page 24 of Broken Fate
Is it me? Is it him?
I didn’t know, and that saddened me further.
Clive led me into a kitchen and, without asking, started to prep a simple meal of meats, cheeses, and slices of soft, fresh-baked bread. I snagged a chunk of meat as he was cutting, the hunger rising like a tidal wave as the sharp scent of the cheese mixed with the savory spices on the meat made my stomach demand to be fillednow.
After a few more pieces of food had disappeared down my throat, I stopped abruptly and stared at Clive, who was still preparing food for himself.
“Was it all an act?” I blurted out without any preamble or leadup.
“Was what an act?” he asked, looking up.
I leveled my gaze at him. “You. Me. Our friendship. Everything.”
His eyebrows rose, revealing his surprise. I wanted to snort. How could he not have expected such a question from me?
“No,” he said a bit more defensively than I expected, his tone running with an undercurrent of anger.
I looked him in the eyes, judging him and the level of truth in that simple word. “How long?” I asked, trying to keep my emotions from taking over the conversation, but it wasn’t easy.
After Lanna died, I retreated into myself. The few friendships I did have had withered away as I kept everyone at bay, too afraid of feeling that same pain and guilt again. And it had remained that way for years. Until Clive showed up. His parents had moved to the area to start a farm as part of a pilot project of some sort.
And despite my best—and meanest—efforts, Clive had never given up. Why he’d determined that he wanted to bemyfriend, of all people, was beyond me. The kids at school didn’t get it either, and he suffered a lot for being friends with the “sister killer.”
But win my friendship he had in the end, and we’d been inseparable since. And yet he’d lied to me. Hidden a big part of his life from me.
Our friendship was dying, and I didn’t know if I could save it, and the pain cut at me like the knife in his hand had done to the cheese. It had been a long time since I’d been hurt like that. A long time. Not since the ice …
“Nearly two years,” Clive said quietly, bringing me back to the present.
I didn’t bother to hide my surprise. “And you kept it from me,” I accused, unable to completely prevent any hurt from slipping out.
Clive had the good sense to blush, his face screwing up with discomfort. “Yes,” he said quietly. “I did. I had to.”
“Why? Why didn’t you try to tell me?” I asked.
His brown eyes bugged out. “Itried,” he said plaintively. “Jada, Itriedso many times. I brought up the ideas of freedom and making our own choices. Just never directly in reference to the Alphas, of course, but I did try. You never wanted to talk about it.”
“What?”
He sighed. “Not the way I saw it, at least. You always wanted to go on about traveling and seeing everything. I thought maybe it meant you would be open to the idea of joining up. After all, we want the same thing.”
My jaw hung open slightly at the last line. “Wewhat? I don’t want what you want, Clive. I don’t want to fight people. To kill them! I don’t want to be a what? Rebel? Terrorist? Whatever you call yourselves!”
“Freedom fighters,” he said stubbornly.
“Freedom fighters,” I repeated a bit derisively. “Clive, youkilledpeople back there. They aredeadbecause of you! Do you get that?”
“Yes,” he said, a firmness I’d never heard entering his tone, like steel coating his spine. “And I would do it again without blinking if it meant freeing you before they killed you.”
The blood drained from my face at his conviction. Whowashe?
Clive shook his head, assuming it was just fear at the idea of being killed. “Don’t you get it, Jada? Don’t you understand yet? They don’t think you’re acting out. The Alphas. They think you’re one of us.”
I stared. “What have I done?” I moaned quietly, overwhelmed and wishing I could take it all back. “They think I’m a terrorist?”
“You made a choice,” Clive snapped, not easing up on me. “You chose. Maybe not for the same reasons as us, but you made a choice, Jada. I didn’t do that for you. Nobody here did it for you. You did. You tried to destroy the Fate Stone.”
“I …” My protest died on my lips. He was right, of course. I made that decision, not anyone else. I’d not even told anyone what I had planned. It was on my shoulders, and I would have to live with the consequences, I supposed.
