Fate's Demand (Twisted Fate, Book 3)

Chapter Thirty-Four

If I dreamed, I didn't remember the next morning.

No Darkness, no David, and no answers.

For once, all I had received from sleep was rest.

When I woke up, I finally took the time to look around my new surroundings. The dorm room wasn't big, but it was a single, just as I had requested. Everything was white: a bed, a closet, and a desk. It looked just like the first room I'd found myself in except that the bed was a normal mattress instead of cloud, which added to my sanity even if it wasn't as comfortable.

There was an attached bathroom, also white, but thankfully private. I hadn't come prepared to enjoy a good soak in the bubbles, but with the jets on high, a little soap, and bubbles I received. Sinking deep, the irony that this and a bed made from cloud was the best things about Heaven wasn't lost on me.

I needed clothes. Toiletries. Why didn't Heaven have a mall? Or a way of manifesting things like that? Even after a long soak I felt dirty the moment I was dry, the minimal clothing I had brought dwindling until items had to be worn again. How could there be a jet tub and mirrors—a school! —and no laundry machines?

With a sigh, I got dressed and hoped that nobody would judge.

*****

It took three attempts to find my class.

Raffy had already started his lecture when I entered without bothering to knock, and he cut himself off mid-sentence. The attention of the students switched to me and, despite the discomfort of their focus, I tried to smile.

"Alyssa, sit down so I may continue," Raffy said, looking out of the corner of his eyes at my position in the doorway. He remained focused on the students, but I knew he saw.

"Actually, I just stopped by to let you know I won't be joining you from now on," I said.

"You can't drop classes." He turned on me with a scowl. "This isn't high school."

"And you aren't a real teacher." I smiled. "Since I have already graduated, I don't see how you think you can persuade me to stay. You certainly can't force me."

"You need to learn what's taught more than anyone, Alyssa. You can't lead with ignorance."

"I can lead with strength," I said, aware of our audience hanging on every exchange. "I will be in the library if you need me. I believe that is what will provide me the knowledge you won't teach. When you complain to Gabe—which I know you will—please let him know I am there."

"Aly—"

"Also, tell him the only class I am willing to participate in is combat—I like fighting."

Looking around the classroom, I found a few of the faces that had surprised me in the library and smiled. I turned and grinned even wider at Raffy, then pivoted away. Closing the door on whatever Raffy intended to say next kept my grin in place. There was no question in my mind that he would go to Gabe.

It was the only reason I stopped to tell him I wasn't planning to attend class anymore.

*****

The third and final time that I'd died had resulted in an immediate return to life. There hadn't been any stops on the way up or down. I had closed my eyes with my last breath and when I opened them again, I was alive, sitting at the supper table with my parents a week before my death was to occur.

The first two times wasn't anything like that.

I'd woken in a field of cloud, listening to a voice without a body, which I now knew was the Brothers. Heaven. It had been confusing and the only thing I had known for sure was that there was an absence of pain. At least, it had been a pain-free zone in the field I had been in.