Fate's Demand (Twisted Fate, Book 3)

Chapter Twenty

Nobody knew the plans I'd spent all night concocting except for Suzie. If I didn't tell her, she would make my life hell when she realized she wasn't given the chance to say goodbye. Not that it was important, given her parents' attitudes, but she'd jumped at the opportunity to say, "Adios!" with flare.

"Do you think they bought it?" she asked as we drove to the arcade.

Had they? I bit my lip. I hadn't given my parents the chance to think about it so that they wouldn't have the opportunity to try to stop me. Not that they could, but I didn't need the guilt of thwarting their attempts on top of the blame I already felt for leaving so soon after my mother's return.

"Are you okay?"

I unclenched my fist from the steering wheel and tried to smile. Keeping my eyes forward, I ignored the urge to turn back and head home. "It had to be done, right?"

"Yeah, but—"

"Let's just go talk to the guys or angels or whatever they expect to be called—"

"Brothers."

I glanced at her and then back to the road. "What? They aren't—"

"That's what they are called," she said. "Up there, I mean." She raised her eyes and then looked at me. "They are called Brothers."

"Oh."

She shook her head and laughed. "Yeah, I don't get it, either. They aren't technically related, but I wasn't about to argue with an angel about what family meant."

"I think, to them, we're all related." I pulled into an empty stall in the back of the arcade, not wanting my car to be visible to any of the traffic that passed by.

"That's what Mike said."

Huh. Well, at least he was explaining things to someone. Was it wrong that it bugged me? Why would he tell Suzie and not me? Aside from our friendship and her visions, Suzie didn't have anything to do with what was happening. Even her connection to Deryk was a by-product of knowing me.

Clenching my jaw, I grabbed the door handle with one hand and pulled my keys from the ignition with the other. The door swung open and I looked over my shoulder as I stepped out into the dreary, today-is-going-to-suck weather. "Help me with the tarp."

"Shouldn't we wait?"

"Not if we don't want anyone to see it." I sighed. "Let's just do it so my parents don't drive by and see I didn't have time for a proper goodbye to them but was able to stop at the arcade."

"But—"

"Do you want to go or not?" I snapped. It was out of the norm for me to be so snappy, I knew, but my patience was shredded.

After waking to gray skies and chilly fall temperatures despite it being the start of summer, I had spent the first half of the day figuring out a believable lie to tell my parents and the second half executing it. In the schematic of problems that I was forced to face, dealing with Suzie was a low priority.

"What about our bags?" she asked when we'd finished with the tarp.

"We'll let them get the bags," I told Suzie as the back door opened after I used my key. It swung inwards away from us.

It was the least the Brothers could do and a much less of an immediate necessity than covering the car. A toddler could carry my one bag. Suzie, of course, had filled my trunk with luggage as though she was heading out on a month-long cruise.

Suzie followed me inside with a smile, eager to pass the burden off to somebody else and leave. She must have been told more than me because I still wasn't sure I wanted to go. Darkness had no qualms about using her to get to me and, judging from their frequent appearances, it wasn't going away unless I did. If I left Suzie behind, it would just be a way for Darkness to ransom my return. After getting home from Teigan's party, all I could think about was the deal we'd made and realized that, while I'd agreed to leave once the terms had been fulfilled, I'd never said when that would be. Stalling had never been ruled out. I could stay until I died, really, if I wasn't worried about the consequences to the people I love. Besides, no part of our agreement did it say that I couldn't leave after arriving.