Chosen Fool (Forever Evermore #5)(5)

Just another morning after.

Elder Zeller stepped beside me where I stared—without seeing—at the vast varieties of fudge on one of the shelves. The charming shop smelled of melted chocolate, and the hominess of it all unsettled my stomach. I really wasn’t in the mood for this. He gazed at the choices and asked casually, “Which do you prefer?”

I blinked, and I lifted a finger to the white raspberry fudge. “That one looks interesting.”

He grunted, his dark eyes scanning the selection. “Many look interesting, Ms Jules. But there’s usually one you prefer over the rest.”

I snorted and lowered my hand. In life you never really got what you preferred, whom you wanted. “Never choose just one, Elder Zeller.” It was a devastating truth. “Or you’ll be sadly disappointed one day to find it’s been taken by someone else.”

“Ah,” he murmured slowly. “Now that I completely understand.” He raised his right hand, resting it casually on one of the shelves, and his index finger pointed as he ran it over a few choices. “May I offer some advice?”

I crossed my arms, trying to actually study the selection this time. “I thought I was the one giving advice?”

The Elder chuckled softly, lifting a bar of peanut butter fudge from the shelf while continuing his perusal. He murmured offhandedly, “Perhaps, though it was flawed advice, a practice of fear that I already know well. Now, I would like to offer you the expertise of the experienced.” His finger paused on one choice, but he shook his head and continued. “Will you allow me to do so?”

My eyebrows creased as I re-ran our conversation through my mind, seeing a whole other direction of meaning behind it. I turned my eyes to him, watching carefully. “If you must.”

“It’s simple.” His head cocked as he read a label. “Life is filled with much heartache and many pleasures. But when you try to ignore the unavoidable—true love—well, the unavoidable means you can’t, nothing stops it. Not even fear. True love is too passionate. It always comes back in the end, deeper than lifelong loves, deeper than life’s involvements, and even deeper than mates. If your love is from the soul, it’s timeless.” He chose another bar of fudge, but I didn’t pay attention to which as he lowered it. “Even more tragic are individuals who think they’ve found it by harboring affection for another…while their true soulmate may be right in front of them.” Wicked, dark eyes landed on my guarded gaze; I was hiding every damn thing I could from this too intuitive Elder Vampire. “Life is short and fear is no obstacle for the soul.”

His words haunted me as he silently moved away.

I stood frozen in place, barely able to breathe. I fought for well-honed control of my emotions, staring blindly at nothing. Until I realized it wasn’t nothing I was staring at. I blinked slowly as Leric came into focus at the end of a dark row of treats on wooden shelves.

He was speaking with a water Elemental, one of the clerks of the store, who stared at him wide-eyed even as she—somewhat adorably—tried to hide it. More than likely, this was her first time meeting a spirit Elemental. My brows puckered and I wasn’t entirely sure what I felt as he touched her arm lightly, his tan fingers lingering a few moments too long and making the attractive woman blush and stumble over her words, before she led him to another aisle.

I jerked my attention back to the choices of fudge.

But my action ended with me grunting and eyeing a woman directly next to me.

I hadn’t even heard her sneak up.

She leaned with a shoulder against the shelf.

Merely staring at me.

She wore a black hooded robe, her gorgeous red curls spilling from underneath it.

She was a Com.

With no shoes on her bare feet.

I ogled the cracked woman—who appeared my age. “May I help you?”

“No.” She just…stared. “I’m Julia.”

I raised a white brow. I could tell she knew who I was. “Are you looking for an autograph, Julia? Or a selfie to plaster over social media?”

Her lips twitched. “No.”

All right. This was weird. “First spirit you’ve met?”

“No.”

Weirder yet. “Then why are you gawking?”

“I don’t gawk. I merely like to keep an eye on my property from time to time.”

I glanced behind me, evaluating the fudge. “I’m not going to steal any, if that’s what—”

“Who are you talking to?” Sin asked, interrupting me.

I jerked my attention around. Sin now stood where the Com had been. I glanced left then right, but the woman was nowhere in sight. “That was creepy.”

“What’s more frightening than you talking to yourself?”

I sighed deeply and trained my attention back to the fudge I had been staring at for fifteen minutes now. “Never mind. It was just a freaky-ass employee. Or the owner.”

“Are you going to get anything?” Sin asked, rolling with my explanation. He shifted his stance on the wood flooring that was scarred with age but still gleamed from loving care. He now stood so close his heat radiated to my left arm. Warmth that I knew and cherished.

With my emotions still a tumbling mess of shit—if I was honest with myself—I flicked a finger at the selection. “What do you want?” I was proud my voice was steady.