Save Me

The Decision May Kill You

“This is bad, right?” Peter asked as he paced outside the conference room. “I mean…he just stopped everything and said…”

“I know what he said, son. We’ll just have to wait it out.”

“I don’t think I can do that. What if he decides she needs to go back? What if he decides Drake is the best person to take care of her?” He stopped in front of his father. “What if they take her away from me and I never see her again?”

His father stood up and gripped the top of his arms.

“Peter. You need to calm down.”

“I can’t calm down. She may be taken from me in a matter of hours. How can you seriously ask me to calm down?”

A light bulb a few feet away popped and flickered out. Peter closed his eyes and tried to reign in his temper. Getting upset wouldn’t help anyone. But that’s what was happening; he was panicking and getting upset. He was afraid everything that happened with the love spell would come back to bit him in the ass and it was. The way Darken made it sound…

All that calm and confident façade he’d built up since she got back was drained away with the possibility that the judge would go in Drake’s direction.

“I don’t want to lose her, Dad. I can’t. Not after everything that’s happened. Not after everything we’ve been through to get here. It wouldn’t be fair.”

They were alone out in the hallway. Bren and Gwen had taken a walk since Bren was still upset over having to answer questions thrown at him by Drake. The Paramores had disappeared down the hall in a whispering mass. There was no sign of the ghost.

Fitz was sitting on a bench a good twenty-five feet away, hunched over with his eyes closed. He looked like he was praying and when Peter read his lips, he found Fitz was. He was quietly reciting the Prayer of St. Francis. Huh. Peter didn’t know he was Catholic.

Then again, Fitz had a lot to pray for.

A door down the hall opened and Bren walked in their direction with a purpose. Whatever he knew, wasn’t good. Couldn’t be by the way he was hanging his head and looking at his feet while he walked. Peter knew the past three months hadn’t been easy on his friend. Along with the mood swings, there was worry of relapse. Where Peter was keeping it together for Cass, Bren was not as steady on his feet. Cass was the only reason he got clean in the first place. Even though there was no way they’d allow Bren to become addicted to magic again, there were always other things he could become addicted to. Peter could almost feel the possibility hanging in the air when he talked to Bren on the phone or like now, as he continued his path to reach Peter. The life of a recovering addict wasn’t easy.

The thoughts flashing across his friend’s face reinforced that.

“We have a problem.”

“How big of a problem?”

“Potentially catastrophic.”

“Why?” Carter asked. “What’s…”

“The ghost was right.” Bren turned to look at Fitz. “And you should count yourself lucky, Mr. Kennedy, because you’re getting a second chance. Or a third, depending on how you look at it. Not that she’s going to make it easy on you.”

~ * ~

“Now, before we get to the formalities,” the judge sat in the seat next to me. “I want to make sure you’re ok.”

“I’m ok, your honor.”

“That’s not what the psychiatrist said.” I looked down at my lap, fiddling with the insignia ring on my finger. “It’s nothing to be ashamed of, Cassandra. You were in there for the Hunters to try and find a way to control your magic and instead they treated you like you were insane. Something like that is going to take time getting over.”