Maybe Fate: A Novel (New Adult Paranormal Romance) (43 page)

Glancing
at me, he saw the way I flinched. “No family?”

“
Right.
They said he came from the orphanage, and they were cruel to him
just for having no parents, no one. It was... strange. I guess I
must have related to him, in my own way.” Laughing bitterly,
he brushed his long hair behind an ear. “I watched him, after
that. For years, I just watched him grow up. I was rooting for him,
wishing he'd prove them all wrong. That even without a home, without
loved ones, he could find a purpose... find happiness.”

Shivering,
I crushed my legs tighter. This story was striking too close for me.
It was obvious, too, that Ethlyn felt a similar pain. Did the
twaelin truly feel like they had no homes, no family? Or was it just
him?

“
Anyway,”
he sighed, gathering his words. “Over time, he grew up, and
while some things got easier... most things didn't. He was never
adopted, I don't know why. He lived in that orphanage until he ran
away one day, when he was seventeen. No one looked for him, no one
cared. Just me, I was the only one.”

Ethlyn
went quiet, a long moment that made me tense with worry. I thought
whatever came next, it couldn't have been good.

The
thousand yard stare in his eyes, as he finally looked my way and
whispered, told me enough. “One day, years later, he fell for
a young woman. When that happened, he seemed so full of life. So
ecstatic. I was excited for him, it was ridiculous. When she didn't
respond to his advances, I suppose that was his breaking point.

“
He
was handsome, he worked hard, but it didn't matter to her. Nothing
mattered.

“
Seeing
him under that bridge, swallowing all those pills... I'd never sat
and watched someone committing suicide. Not in my hundreds of
years.”

Hundreds
of years...

My
chest hurt, every muscle like an elastic. I hadn't blinked for some
time, my dry eyes fixed on Ethlyn in horror.

“
I
decided to show myself to him. I appeared, and he looked at me, and
thought I was actually an angel.” His chuckle was so gritty,
so raw with barely held together despair. “He asked me if he
could finally feel what it was like to be happy, now. He asked me
why the world was cruel. I didn't know what to say... he was dying,
after everything, just giving up.”

Wrenching
his head away, he held his forehead tight. “I didn't know what
to do. So I asked him, if he could do it all over again... do it and
be strong, powerful, get everything he wanted out of life... would
he want to try?”

My
lungs ached for air.

“
You
can guess what he said.” Lifting his palms, he spread his
fingers. “He told me, 'of course.' If it meant he could do it
right, he wanted to leave the world with a better memory. Better
than finding him under a cold bridge, dead at the age of twenty-one.
So I held his hand, and I told him I would do that. I would do that,
for him.”

The
smile that spread over his face was on the verge of shattering. “You
know what I did. You know how we work, Gale. I sucked him up, every
bit of him... I
became
him. I swore I would become the Ethan that he couldn't be. I'd be a
better human, how could I fail at that? How could that even be a
challenge?”

I
felt the tears on my cheeks, but didn't remember when I'd started
crying.

There
was a hint of something in his face, an oddly familiar dementia;
wild, unstable. “But you're right, I'm still a monster.”

“
No,”
I breathed, shaking so hard it was a challenge to reach out to hug
him. “No, you're not! He was already dead, Ethlyn, he was...”
I
understand now, I get why he—that day, the cafeteria, he was
trying so hard, for so long, to just be human. To live the life of
someone else, FOR someone else.

He
let me embrace him, but he didn't return it. I felt my warm wetness
stain his shoulder, before he gently forced me away. “You're
wrong. I'm a monster, and a murderer. But tomorrow, that will all be
done with. This wretched life I've tried to live will be gone. I'm
not Ethan anymore, and I was a fool to think I could ever really be
human. All I want to be, now, is nothing.”

I
wanted to say more, to argue with him, but in a flicker the twaelin
had vanished.

Sitting
there in the yard, I stared at the place he had sat beside me.

Finally,
the world felt as cold to me on the inside as I thought it should on
the outside.

Nethiun

I'd
been circling the city for hours, trying to get a read on Ethlyn. It
was like he simply didn't exist, making we wonder if, perhaps,
Valenforth had never revived him at all.

There
was no need for rest, no desire for it. If Ethlyn was out there, I
would find him through sheer determination.

If
Valenforth was my only thread on the path to confirming my
suspicion, I'd defy all logic and track him down instead.

I
knew the Corpse King had taken up residence in the city, I'd seen
him on the campus. But even knowing that much, having a general idea
of where he had made his quarters on this realm, it did little to
aid me.

There
was no way the twaelin hadn't nestled himself inside of a private
bubble of energy. A place I couldn't get into easily, the walls
clearly a part of Valenforth himself.

That
was where I imagined Gale's body was.

Why
he had it was what I hungered to know.

Darting
around between the planes, I felt the first tickle of Ethlyn's
energy. It was in the middle of downtown, near the very place we'd
first fought.

Aching
for answers, I shifted faster, appearing in the air above the tall
buildings.
There,
I see him!
Ethlyn
was perched on a ledge, facing away from the lights of the early
morning. People would be waking soon, milling about their day.

Right
away, I noticed his body was different.
He's
in his original form, I guess that's to be expected.
The
memory of that day on the beach, my angry fists rampaging down on
Ethlyn's body...

It
pushed me into action.

He
was sitting there, one leg to his chest, the other dangling over the
side. When I appeared in front of him, hovering like a bird on a
wire, he hardly winced.

“
Ethlyn,”
I said, hands crackling with violently black energy.

He
looked at my fingers, my face, and still he didn't move. Was he
going to simply let me destroy him once more?

It
was so tempting, thinking about her pale face.

“
Nethiun.
I thought you'd show up.”

“
You
knew I'd come looking for you, then. Fine. Let's not play around,
tell me where she is.”

Laughing
dispassionately, he tilted his head. “Normally you're the one
who
likes
to play. Gale's exactly where you'd expect, at the side of the
Corpse King.”

At
his side...?

My
mouth fell open, hands lowering an inch. “He brought her back
to life?”

“
Of
course he did, are you really shocked?”

I
was, but I couldn't admit it. It was an oversight I hadn't
considered. Now, my mind was feverish. “What is he going to do
with her?”
Is
she okay? Is she in pain?
So
many questions, I could utter none of them to him.

That
flutter of infatuation that had been gone since I'd placed her head
on the sand, hair swaying in the breeze as if waving me to come
back, it returned with a vengeance. Gale was
alive.
Suddenly,
my world felt brighter.

“
You're
smarter than this, Nethiun. You know what he plans to do.”

He
was right. There was only one thing Gale was capable of, why the
Corpse King would bring her back at all. “How would he ever
convince her to do something so dangerous?”

Ethlyn
looked away, shame soaking over him. “Because she believes the
Queen was the one to murder her.”

Tensing
up, I felt my eyes straining. “You and I both know that isn't
how it happened.”

“
Of
course I know!” He turned towards me, projecting his guilt as
clear as the coming day. “Do you think I'm happy about this? I
never meant to hurt her, I never wanted that! I just... I lost
control, and now, I get to lose everything else. It's my penance.”

Inhaling
deeply, I narrowed my eyes in scrutiny. “How will you achieve
this penance?”

When
the twaelin said no more, I darted forward, hands wrapping in the
front of his sweater. Standing on the edge where he had been moments
before, I yanked him up before me. “What's going to happen,
Ethlyn? Tell me what Valenforth has planned!”

I
expected scorn, anger, the things Ethlyn had been so quick to give
in the past. Now, he grabbed my arms without struggling. His defeat
was palatable. “All of us, we're going to die. We'll finally
be destroyed, so we can answer for the sins we've made over our
endless lives. So we can atone for being the demons that we are.”

Lowering
my eyebrows, I released him roughly. “We aren't demons. And
dying does nothing to mend past mistakes.”

He
stumbled back, eyeing me warily as he regained his balance. “You
can't stop it, Nethiun. He's going to bring her to meet your
Mistress, and then it will all be over.”

“
Does
he wish to end his own existence too? Has he asked her to snuff it
out when we're all finished off?”

“
He
has, and she's agreed. This world deserves better than us.
She
deserves better than us.”

Contemplating
his tired voice, I stood there like a pillar in the wind. “She
deserves everything, and so much more. She won't get that doing
this.”

His
eyes, blue as the lips of a drowned man, watched me imploringly.
“Nethiun, don't fight this. Don't fight her. Let it all be
over, it needs to be over.”

“
No,
it doesn't. I'm not done living this life yet, I've only just
started to understand what it even means to have something to live
for
.”
Turning away, I spoke without looking at him. “The next time
we meet, you may get your wish for an end to this chaotic existence.
I won't give in so easily as that. Not when there's a chance I can
still save her.”