Michael (The Airel Saga, Book 2) - By Aaron Patterson Page 0,4

widened in comprehension. “No…no, that’s not true—”

“How can you say that?” her eyes filled with tears, her fists clenched at her side.

“Kim, I mean—”

“Shut up! Just shut your mouth!” She wiped at her eyes. “You killed my best friend!”

“Kim—”

“Traitor! Bastard! Murderer!”

Michael grimaced. I guess this is where it starts.

She stalked closer to him and looked up at his face. “I want to kill you!” She was pointing her finger at his chest. “I should push you off this cliff. You don’t deserve to live. You are a…” She stuttered—face flushed.

“Kim, listen to me. Airel is alive.”

Her jaw dropped. Then she stepped back from him, shock spreading across her face. “Liar!” she hissed. “I don’t believe you!”

“Kim, trust me. I am all those things you said I am. I have to live the rest of my life knowing what I did to her. But I’m telling you the truth—she’s alive.”

Kim looked like she was dizzy, and her eyes darted around as if a torrent of different emotions were pouring through her.

“Kim. Can I take you to her? Let me take you to her.”

She eyed him warily. “Why should I trust you?”

He shrugged, harrumphing. “I’ve got no reason for you to trust me, Kim. None at all. Like I said, you were right. I am a traitor and a murderer. And I am a…a bastard. You don’t know how right you are about that. Are you going to follow me back to the house or not?”

“How ‘bout not,” she said, crossing her arms and cupping her elbows with her hands.

I can see how this is going. “Tell you what. Why don’t you head back, now that we’ve found each other, and see for yourself. I’ll wait here for a bit and let you two have some time. You probably need it. I’ll probably see you in the kitchen by the time I get back. I bet she’ll need something to eat anyway.”

She sniffed at him. “Whatever.”

“That’s our Kim.” She’s probably going to make me regret saying that.

Kim turned and sprinted into the woods like a cat.

“It’ll be dark soon,” he called after her. “Better hurry.” He had decided to take his time getting back, coming dark or no. Maybe try to see if El would answer a question or two…

Before Michael could articulate a single question in his mind, watching Kim scurry off, he felt something new within him, a kind of draw to light and warmth. It was magnetic, and as he opened his heart and mind to it, he was surprised at how the light seared his mind, how the warmth burned him, it felt good to be truly honest about all that he was.

But what he was was ugly.

Then he could see what was happening. It was El. He’s here, somehow, right now, he thought panicking, and, completely opposite to everything he had ever known or been taught, without really choosing to, he fell to his knees right there in the dirt.

It felt then to Michael that everything made sense: that he really had more in common with dirt than he had ever dreamt. He felt low, and his decisions paraded before him, accusing him in a strangely familiar voice: “Manipulator. You manipulated Airel.”

Is that me? he wondered.

“You got close and lied to her, charmed her, fully intending to kill…and then you stood by and did nothing until it was too late…and then, dear boy, what did you do? Something very, very selfish…and very, very risky indeed, did you not? Yes, you did. And you know why you wrote in the Book, don’t you? Yes, you do…. You didn’t do it for Airel; don’t kid yourself. You did it for YOU.”

Michael collapsed, his face in the dirt, weeping, trying with all his heart to argue, “No! I did it for her; I love her! I love her with all my heart! More than my own life!”

“Nevertheless, you stood by and watched her die…”

Truth was hard to come by. He didn’t really know up from down. “But it wasn’t too late! I made it right!”

“Did you?”

Michael was silent.

“…or have you made it worse? Some things cannot be undone.”

He felt like he was going crazy, talking to voices inside his own head, begging El like a dog. That one fact, that he felt like begging his sworn enemy for relief, filled him with shame and regret. All he could do was hope that what he had done would work out in the end…that she could forgive him when she saw who