Page 68 of The Chosen Two

She pulls back and looks at me. “What the hell, Miranda?”

I’m still grimacing in pain.

“Sit down,” she says. “I’ll get you a snack and some ibuprofen. I can’t imagine what you must feel like after having to fight goddesses.”

“Oh, okay. So Eliza found out before me? That’s fair.”

I glare at him, then remember, this is not his fault…this is not his fault… We are working through all of this insanity together… “To be fair, I thought I had started the conversation withyou. I didn’t realize thatyouwasn’t you.”

Eliza looks back and forth between us. “I’m sorry, what? What do you mean he wasn’t he? Who was he if he wasn’t he?”

“And incubus named Lu,” I grumble. I can tell she has more questions. Many, many more questions. “I’m going to have to fill you another time, Lize. Coffee this week? Tuesday?” George is going to suck up me taking a day for myself here and there if this is going to be for the rest of my life.

Eliza nods. “That’s fine. I’m not leaving before dinner today though. I don’t trust you two to get all these kids fed. You should both go lie down. You look like hell. I’ll walk you up the stairs to make sure you don’t tumble down. I have to get Tabby from her nap anyway, or she’ll never sleep tonight.”

She leads the way up the stairs, mainly because Jake and I are both hobbling, and we don’t want to slow her down in her mission to wake her sleeping baby.

I take a short, hot shower and then fall into bed as Jake gets into the shower himself. (The sheets are fresh and clean. I love Eliza so much.) A few minutes later, he falls into bed next to me. I turn on my side to face him, and he’s already looking at me. We scoot toward each other bumpily, with no grace whatsoever. Then we fall asleep, wrapped in each other’s warmth and love, and, at least for me, with tears in my eyes because of the road we have ahead of us.

We needed that nap more than anyone knows. We sleep right through each kid trying to wake us up for dinner, so Eliza decides to stay the night. We wake up briefly when Sammy wedges his way between us, but it is still dark outside. I snuggle up to him, smell his hair, and push the curls from his face so I can kiss his nose before I fall asleep again, his body heat warming my soul.

***

I don’t wake again until a few minutes before my alarm will sound to start the school day. The moment I move and stretch my sore limbs, I feel gross again, so I go take another hot shower. Between the blood, the sweat, and the emotions, I wonder if I will ever feel clean again. Then I go make a pot of coffee so I can get started early, figuring out my future.

My phone dings with a text.

We should still train. Come by today when the kids are dropped off.

I stare at the message, not sure how to respond, when I feel Jake’s arm circle my waist and his breath on my neck before he kisses me under my ear. I smile, put the phone down, and then push myself around to face him. I cross my arms around his neck and look into his beautiful brown eyes. They’re so much warmer than Lu’s. Will I ever forgive myself for not realizing that wasn’t Jake? Will Jake ever forgive me? Will I ever forgive him for sleeping with the Muses?

I don’t know. I don’t know what the future has in store for us. What I do know is that our relationship deserves that we fight for it, so I need to have my head on straight. I can’t be worrying about being The Guardian right now. At least, not alone.

At 9:00 a.m., I pull into George’s driveway and park the car. He opens the front door and smiles at me as I climb out and shut the door. His smile drops when Jake does the same. I look back at my husband and signal for him to wait one minute. Then I jog over to the house.

“You brought Jake?”

“George, I need to focus on figuring out my marriage and working through everything that just happened. If you want me to keep training, for right now, he needs to be included in this. He won’t be here every day, but he needs to feel this isn’t some secretive thing you and I share. He needs to be part of it. We have a lot of broken trust we need to repair, on both our ends. I can’t have our training oppose that work. Plus, after his abduction, it’s pretty obvious Jake needs to learn this stuff as much as I do. This Guardian’s has a husband, so we need to rewrite the rules a bit.”

George harsh glare fades into understanding. He nods.

I hear gravel crunch behind me and know Jake has approached.

George blinks and looks to him. “Hey Jake. Welcome to headquarters. Let me show you around.” He steps aside and gestures for my husband to come on in.

Jake looks inquisitively at me as he steps past and over the threshold.

George pats Jake’s shoulder and guides him toward the dining room. “I’ll show you the dojo. You want to learn how to fight, too? May come in handy the next time someone tries to abduct you, you know?”

Jake looks back at me. I smile at him and nod my encouragement, like I did to my kids on each of their first days of preschool. I close my eyes, take a deep breath, look to the heavens above for some strength, and walk in after them.

I know now just how much power our beliefs have. So if I strongly believe everything will be okay, maybe it just will be.

Epilogue

“George,itishighlyunusual for a docent to request a conference with the League. It has only happened a handful of times in our entire history.” Perry Philips is seated in the middle seat behind the dark wooden desk that takes up the entire width of the dais.

I want to ask him why they have this ridiculous setup. It can’t be the most effective way for them to conduct their everyday business. The seven men who make up the League of Docents are spaced out, one next to the other, all the way across the room. Doesn’t seem like the best way for them to communicate to each other either. But, out of respect and all, I keep my mouth shut on the subject.

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