She got it.
And she just knew it.
She had to give up Prentice and her family to Bella before she could move on.
“Tick that one off, Messenger Man,” Fiona state proudly, straightening her shoulders. “Last night –”
“You don’t think it would be that easy,” Messenger Man interrupted her and Fiona was back to staring.
Easy?
He thought that was easy?
That wasn’t easy!
It was, at first, frustrating. Then annoying. Then heartbreaking (okay, so all of the time it was heartbreaking).
And a lot of other things besides.
What it wasn’t was easy.
“I don’t get it,” Fiona told him and she went statue-still when his hand came up and rested on her arm.
She stared at his hand.
No one had touched her in fifteen months.
She didn’t know this man but his touch felt good.
She swallowed and looked back at him.
“There isn’t much time and there isn’t much I can say. You’re learning your way but you have to be faster, Fiona. If you don’t, they’ll win,” he told her.
“Who’ll win what?” Fiona enquired, confused.
“They’ll win…” he hesitated again before he said, “you.”
Instantly, she understood.
And it frightened the life out of her (figuratively, of course).
“The black,” she whispered and he nodded sadly.
“We can hold it at bay for only so long,” he explained.
“I don’t want to go there again,” Fiona told him in a horror filled voice.
“And you don’t belong there but you have to succeed and you have to do it soon.”
“But, Bella –”
“Has experienced a lifetime of pain,” he interrupted her. “One night of understanding is not going to erase that, Fiona.”
What he said made sense.
And it was also irritating.
“I’ve been doing everything I can,” Fiona informed him. “And it hasn’t been easy.”