Fate's Revenge (Twisted Fate, Book 4)

Chapter Fifty-Six

Suzie didn't come back to life.

She is a Pure Soul.

The girl I met with resembled the one that had been my friend, but I didn't know if it was her anymore. Of course, it was her, but... something had changed. She was different, or maybe it was me that wasn't the same. Perhaps neither of us were affected, but our friendship was. That is if it still existed.

Had we moved into leader-follower territory?

I sighed. After a half hour of coming up with more questions than answers, all I knew was nothing, aside from the fact that I was exhausted. Letting go of my knees, I pushed them out to lay flat in front of me. The effort felt excruciating and slow. The bed was so far from the door, and the floor so much closer. I'd never make it across the room, but to topple to the side? That took no effort at all—I just had to let go.

So, with my cheek pressed to the cool floor, and my head in my hands, all that I had to do was close my eyes, but even that was an effort.

*****

The solution came to me as I dreamed. It was so easy, though the outcome had the capacity to produce nightmares. Nothing was ever certain until it was, but I knew enough to understand the backlash from what I began planning since I woke was going to tear somebody a new one. Only I wouldn't be here to find out who it was going to fall upon.

*****

"Alyssa?"

Gabe entered my dorm without knocking and turned to close the door. He began to cross the room to where I sat on the edge of the bed with the mattress fisted in my hands, but paused, hesitating. Slowly, as though it took all the effort in the world, I lifted my head from the floor to meet his gaze. A few seconds ticked by and then his eyes fell to the bag at my side.

"Alyssa?" He looked back to me and furrowed his brow. "What—You're leaving? Again? Even after...?"

Patience wasn't my forte, but I knew he had to piece this together on his own. Watching the emotions contort his face once the surprise wore off was hard, but necessary. At first, there was pain and the obvious question of why. I'd gone through it already, so it was easy to answer.

"It isn't because you—or even us," I told him. "But knowing who you are doesn't change any of the other things that have happened, most of which don't involve you at all. I can't expect you to understand."

"But—"

I raised my hand to cut him off. Again, I knew what was next: confusion. Only in my case it had been constant, right from the beginning.  Even now, it lingered, and I had resigned myself to accepting that wouldn't change. Not unless I upped the stakes and forced the information out of hiding.

It was too bad Gabe wasn't the one holding the answers, or I might be able to be happy.

"I didn't want to go without seeing you, Gabe, but there's no other way for things to work out."

"No."

Anger disappeared in him faster than I had allowed in myself. He repeated his exclamation in a softer tone laced with denial. There were too many questions to guess which he was thinking, and when he knelt in front of me and put his hands on my thighs, I couldn't think of a single thing to say.

Not.

One.

Word.

He raised his gaze, appearing pleading, and I licked the sudden dryness from my bottom lip. The lack of moisture expanded to my throat and I couldn't swallow. How was I supposed to go through with the plan if I couldn't remember how to speak the speech I'd rehearsed twenty times?

A/N: It's short, I know, but... Only one chapter left!! I'm so, so, so excited to start sharing the next book!!