A Discovery of Secrets and Fate (Chronicles of the Stone Veil #2) - Sawyer Bennett Page 0,31

fleeing.

As time has gone by and my sister hasn’t checked in to at least let me know she’s safe, coupled with the odd vacancy to her voice in the message she left and the things Carrick saw, it’s all just further proof there’s not a hint of my Fallon left.

Probably in vain, a part of me has thought about reaching out to Blain to see if he feels she’s acting strange, for, surely, he would have to know. But I’m not even sure how that call would go. While I have his number for emergency situations, we’ve never talked or texted once since he’s started dating my sister. That alone would be so out of the ordinary that if he told Fallon, it could make her suspicious of me.

In times like this, I’m glad that while we loved each other as sisters, we weren’t close to the point we contacted each other a lot despite living in the same city. The fact our lives were so radically different kept space between us. Also, the fact she was engaged to a douche kept me away, which is just more proof I shouldn’t reach out to Blain.

Since my withdrawal from Carrick and my refusal to do anything more than train with Titus, I’m trying to get back to my regular life. I’m working hard at the coffee shop and training with Titus, but I’ve changed things up a bit. I’m going into the coffee shop each day and home each night to cook for my roommates. This has been the easiest way for me to feel more normal, resuming the way we did things as a unit. We hang out at dinner, laugh, and eat good food, and they think all is great in my life. Sadly, I revel in that farce because I don’t like them worried about me. Being with Rainey, Myles, and Adira makes me feel merely like an ordinary person, which I love.

One other thing I’ve done this past week is I’ve even locked my abilities back down again. I refuse to look under glamours. If I feel dark vibes or fizzy feelings, I ignore them and refuse to see past the human visage of whatever fae or daemon stands before me.

My evenings after dinner are for Titus. My roommates think I’m doing work at the coffee shop—because I am, after all, a busy business owner. Every weeknight, I meet Titus at the gym Carrick bought and we continue to hone my fighting skills. And it is indeed more refinement than teaching of skills. Titus has shown me everything in his arsenal, so now all we do is practice to make me better. While we concentrate on my whip usage, we still spend at least an hour each night utilizing other weapons.

I even brought my nunchucks last night and showed him what I could do. I spent twenty minutes backing him up around the empty room while swirling my sticks. Titus is big and hard to hurt so I wasn’t holding back. I got in several strikes before he called a halt, then proclaimed me proficient in not only the whip but the nunchucks as well. While I don’t see how I’d ever use them, I resolved to carry them in my backpack with the whip.

Blessedly, during our sessions, Titus hasn’t tried to push me to talk about the prophecy. He hasn’t even mentioned Carrick to me at all. I’ll admit, I’m curious as to what he’s been up to. He’s been silent on the business end of things with One Bean, and I assume he’s busy running his empire.

Or maybe, he’s just given up.

Part of me feels that—out of some sort of misplaced duty—he’s assigned Titus to make me as self-reliant as possible, knowing my danger probably increases every day that passes either from Fallon, other fae and daemons who get word of my abilities, or the prophecy itself enacting. Regardless, there’s a tiny bit of me that feels like a hole has been left behind by Carrick’s absence and I hate that feeling. I keep expecting it to close up, but it doesn’t, and he remains in my life by still occupying my thoughts.

But tonight is the night I’ve decided to put all that out of my mind. Tonight is about having fun and forgetting as much as I can. Or rather, remembering how good the normal parts of my life are.

Adira and I decided to go out for a low-key night on the town. Normally,