Predestined (Existence Trilogy #2)(50)

Glancing down at my dress I wanted it off. It reminded me of the other women and I felt dirty wearing it. However, I didn’t see my other clothes anywhere and I wasn’t about to get naked.

Chapter Twenty- One

The door creaked open behind me and I turned expecting to see Leif with food but instead it was Wyatt. He closed the door behind him and a sad smile touched his lips. He was more solid than souls were supposed to be.

“Hey Pagan.”

I stared at him as it registered that he’d just spoken to me in my head.

“Wyatt, I’m so sorry,” I replied stepping closer to him.

“This isn’t your fault Pagan. I didn’t understand any of it at first but Leif has visited me several times and he’s explained everything.”

“No, it is my fault. If I’d just gone with him when he told me about my soul you’d have lived. But I didn’t know. If I’d known they’d take someone else in my place I would have never stayed.”

“You thought Death would fix it in time,” he replied.

“Yes, I did. I guess you know about Dank now.”

Wyatt nodded then reached out a hand and although I wasn’t sure if mine would go through it or if he was a solid as he seemed I reached out to take his. The cold hard hand under mine surprised me.

“You aren’t like other souls. They can’t talk and they aren’t solid.”

“I believe it’s because of where we are. Here Ghede makes things the way he wants them to be. I believe he... uh,” Wyatt stopped talking and looked away. He almost seemed embarrassed and slowly tonight’s dinner came back to me and I realized what he was trying to say.

“He uses souls as his entertainment?” I asked

Wyatt peered back at me and nodded. My stomach felt sick again. Had Ghede used Wyatt that way? I was going to throw up.

“No Pagan, he hasn’t forced me to do any of ... that stuff. I’ve just seen it. I believe my age keeps me safe from it, I’m not sure.”

I leaned against the side of the bed and sagged in relief.

“He intends to keep you here you know.”

I lifted my eyes back to Wyatt’s and nodded. “I know. I just wish there was a way I could get you out of here. It isn’t fair that you have to remain here now that I agreed to come. He has me. I won’t leave.”

“How is Miranda?” Wyatt asked and the pain in his eyes sliced through me.

I remembered her sitting on her bed with his notes encircling her and the teddy bear he’d given her in her lap. I couldn’t tell him how much she grieved his death. It would be too much.

“She’s okay. She misses you something fierce but each day she gets better,” I assured him.

His face fell, “That was before. When she had you. Now she’s lost us both.”

The unsaid words hanging in the air between us were thick and painful.

“She’s stronger than you think,” I assured him but the memory of her drunken body staggering out of the graveyard said another thing entirely.

“I hope so.”

I could tell from his tone he didn’t agree. He was right of course. Miranda was like a fragile flower. One that needed tending and special care. Wyatt had always understood that and gone out of his way to give her exactly what she needed. I’d loved him for that.

“He’s coming,” Wyatt said, staring at the closed door.

“Can you stay?” I asked, not ready to see him go.

“No. But I’ll come back again.”

“Stay. I’ll ask him to let you.”

Wyatt shook his head, “I don’t want to Pagan. I don’t want to be near him.”

I understood. Leif had taken everything from Wyatt. His future. His eternity.

“Bye Pagan.”

“Bye.”

Leif opened the door and Wyatt walked past him without a word.

Frowning, Leif closed the door and walked over to the table beside the bed and set down a silver tray filled with recognizable items such as cheese and crackers, strawberries, dinner rolls, pulled pork and chocolate chip cookies.

“He isn’t fond of me,” Leif murmured as he handed me a large round porcelain plate.

“No,he isn’t. But then who can blame him? You took away his eternity. He is now stuck here, forever.” The anger lacing in my words caused him to flinch.

“I didn’t take his soul Pagan, my father did. I had no idea he was going to. Ghede answers to no one within our realm. He makes decisions that please him and he overindulges in anything pleasurable and corrupts enjoyable pursuits, making things that should be good and satisfying into depraved behaviors. Nothing I can say will stop him. I was a child when he asked me to choose a soul. I had no idea what the implications were. I chose you. I didn’t know then what that meant. You can hate me but try to understand I am not my father.”

He may not be his father but he didn’t have the courage to stand up to his father. He was weak but hadn’t I always known that? Even back when I thought he was a human Leif had been weak. He never really accepted the weight of his actions. He always made you feel as if his apology were something precious and special that you would be stupid not to accept. The charisma he’d carried had won him many advances. Who was he exactly? If his father was Ghede then who was Leif?