Page 6 of Tear of Destiny

“Teresa cares about you, so I’ll spare you this time. But if I see you again, I’ll show no mercy; you can count on that.”

With that, he turns and leaves with Snow.

My knees quake as I watch him disappear – out of the street and out of my life. The realization hits me so suddenly that it robs me of energy, and my legs buckle under me. Noah catchesme again and holds me tight. But even he can’t comfort me right now. The realization that Max orchestrated all this and manipulated me so that Ayden and I would break up is more than I can bear. Especially since, in the end, it was all down to me: if I had trusted Ayden, Max’s plan would have failed.

Bitter tears well up, and the pain is almost unbearable. I almost wish I could feel the numbness again that I experienced when I came close to transforming. Instead, the agony pulses through me with every heartbeat and feels as if it’s about to tear apart every fiber of my body.

“I’m sorry,” says Noah, squeezing me tight. “I made everything so much worse for you.”

I slowly shake my head and wipe the tears off my cheeks. “No, I did that all on my own. I should have known him better. I should have talked to him. That’s what he holds against me now, which I can totally understand.”

“You should tell him what really happened and why you were gone so long. Maybe then he’ll be more understanding.”

I know it’s hard for Noah to say this. Which makes me all the more grateful. I nod. “Maybe. I’ll try.” But when I think of the look on Ayden’s face, I doubt it will make any difference.

I slowly pull away from Noah. I feel weak. This altercation has drained me, but I need to get back. I have no choice. I need to clear things up.

“Don’t take on too much. You’re still vulnerable,” Noah says, looking at me anxiously.

I nod. “It won’t happen again.”

I can tell that Noah doesn’t want to let me go. He opens his mouth to say something, to stop me, but in the end, he just strokes my cheek and says, “Good luck.”

I nod, square my shoulders, and walk away without a backward glance.

Chapter 4

I’ve just got back from speaking with the principal. He was understandably pretty angry about my disappearance. I had no choice but to tell him about my fight with Ayden. But I didn’t tell him what happened after that. Instead, I make up a story about going to stay with a friend; I turned off my phone because I didn’t want to see or talk to anyone until I had calmed down.

Mr. Collins called me irresponsible. Did I have any idea how many people were worried about me? They searched for me. Especially my mother. She was scared out of her mind. I’ll never forget the way he looked at me. Cold and disdainful, as if he’d known all along that I wasn’t right for Ayden and that it would never work out between us.

“Do you realize what it was like for him? I’ve never seen him so upset. He was constantly out searching for you. I never expected you to have that effect on him. But you obviously don’t think about anyone but yourself. Clearly, it’s for the best that things didn’t work out between you two.”

I had no choice but to clench my fists and nod. What else could I do? If I told him the truth, his reaction would have been worse,and it would have caused even more problems. But it’s hard. I never wanted to hurt anyone, especially not Ayden.

“Stay away from him. That’s the best thing for both of you.” And with that, he sent me away.

Now I’m in my room. Before I went to see Mr. Collins, I called Mom. She was beside herself and cried with relief. When I told her the lie about staying at a friend’s place after my fight with Ayden, she tried not to react badly. But she was angry with me, which is totally understandable.

“One message from you – that would have been enough. Just one word.”

I feel like the lowest scum. I’ve hurt so many people, and now I have to hurt them again by lying to them.

I lie on my bed and wait for the tears to come. But there’s nothing left. Just this emptiness that saps my energy. So many things have gone wrong; there are so many things that I wish could have turned out differently.

I have no idea how long I’ve been lying on my bed. But at some point, I must have fallen asleep. A quiet knock wakes me up and jolts me back to the present.

I stand up and open the door. I’m overcome with relief when I see Kate standing there. She takes one look at me and then steps forward and gives me a big hug.

Finally, I start to cry. All the despair bursts out of me. Ayden, Max, Noah, my mom, Mr. Collins – they all pop into my head, and every thought just hurts so much.

Kate pulls me back into the room and closes the door behind us. She slowly steers me to my bed, and I let myself sink down onto it. She’s instantly at my side again, putting her arm around me giving me all the time in the world to collect myself. When the last sobs finally abate, I wipe the tears off my cheeks.

Kate looks at me expectantly. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“I don’t know where to start,” I say. But I know I need to talkto her. I can tell her the truth about everything. I can finally stop lying, keeping secrets, and sugarcoating things. And so I tell her the whole story – about going to see Ayden after spending the evening with her. About how I knocked and caught Max in bed with him. His reaction when he saw me and how I ran away and lost control and almost turned into one of the fallen.

“If Noah wasn’t there…” I mutter. I tell her about the grueling experience in the lake, about the agony and how I thought I might die of the pain. And finally, I tell her about how Ayden found me and Noah.

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