Fate's Revenge (Twisted Fate, Book 4)

Chapter Two

Exhaustion kept me from dreaming, though the images of what I had endured before and during my return to Glory Academy from Hell's Fire haunted me as soon as I woke. Unless I was consciously plotting ways to escape, everything came back to what I had discovered. Even then, my thoughts would inevitably venture back to Mike and Suzie, and the Dark Souls—what Marcus had done.

How would I leave without running into Mike and Suzie?

What would I do if they decided to pay me another visit before learning that I was whole again?

There was no way I would be able to lay quietly while they smooched in my room.

Not that I wasn't getting good at it.

Learning to get up without showing awareness had been difficult, but the next few times I woke after they left my room, I was alone. Everything was easier with practice and, although my eavesdropping didn't provide me with what I wanted to know, I learned more over the next three days than I ever could have if they knew I was awake.

Not that it was anything important, just what they'd been doing since I had made the uninformed decision to astral project into Hell's Fire and get stuck there without a way back. It was a day-to-day conversation at best. Hi, how are you? Even though I couldn't answer. School is great. We learned the most amazing things today! Not that I cared, but nobody was censoring what they said.

The blue began to fade as my soul healed my body and my body my soul.

Soon, I knew I wouldn't be able to escape detection.

Every day I became stronger and exercised in bed when I was alone so that I could pretend to be sleeping in a moment's notice. My feet were starting to itch to touch the floor. I really wanted a shower that lasted longer than two minutes in the middle of the night so I could wash my hair.

The better I felt, the more I wanted to be included in the conversations around me. To open my eyes all the way and see the expressions on my true friends' faces when they talked to me, to touch someone without having to wait for them to reach out to me, and just... respond.

"I wish I had never brought you here," Gabe said from the side of my bed.

He'd arrived ten minutes ago, and I'd only opened my eyes enough when I heard the door begin to open to see him in his usual jeans and polo shirt, his black hair shaggy and tousled, which brought out the depth of his azure gaze. It was hard not to keep them ajar to watch the dips and curves of his mouth as he spoke, every word a musical note to soothe the betrayal in my soul. It wasn't the sound per se, but the meaning.

Why couldn't Mike say these things?

Where was his remorse for ruining my life?

Or had he lost it when he had lost his honor to be with Suzie?

Gabe took my hand and began rubbing circles on my palm with his thumb. "I'm sorry we made you. I can't believe I brought you here to protect you, and this happened." He sighed. "It was wrong. None of this would be happening if you hadn't been forced to come."

It took all my concentration to keep from laughing as his touch began to tickle my skin. I couldn't even twitch without my farce coming to an end. Still, his guilt was painful to hear. This wasn't his fault. If his touch wasn't so distracting, I might have broken my resolve for silence. None of this was because of him.

How could he be blamed for my birth?

That's what set everything in motion.

Not an angel or anything anyone had actually done, but my existence. Fate. With the Sisters' interference, I doubted even my parents could be blamed. Destined to exist, I was just lucky to have been placed with my parents instead of another, less loving couple. Like Suzie's parents. As mad as I was over what she was doing with Mike, I wouldn't wish that on anyone.