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But that wasn’t their fault. It was my insatiable curiosity that landed me here—it had nothing to do with Azarius or Elio.
I can’t let them take the fall for me.
They don’t deserve that.
They saved my life. The least I can do is defend them.
Before I know it, I’m interrupting Elio—whose explanation probably would have been much more eloquent than mine. “They’ve never met a human quite like me… uh… Mr. Rafe, sir.”
Smooth.
Every eye in the room is on me, and Azarius takes a step to the right to give me the floor. Dammit. It might have been better if he told me to shut the hell up.
Too late for that.
“I followed them,” I explain, unable to cut off the word vomit spilling from my mouth. While I’m at it, I might as well throw in some exaggerated details for extra measure. “They didn’t make it easy, but I’ve always been obnoxiously curious, and I wondered what they were up to. Then, when I saw the portal, it kind of called to me.”
“What do you mean, called to you?” Azarius asks, his eyes trained on mine.
“It kind of drew me in,” I explain, thinking back to the alley in Atlanta. It feels like forever ago. “Like there was an invisible string pulling me from the other side.”
“Interesting,” Rafe says, rubbing one hand on his chin. “And you survived.”
I open my mouth to say something sarcastic, but Azarius’s challenging look makes me snap my lips together. I’d better not push it—I might wind up making things worse.
“Yes. She had some injuries, so we brought her here to tend to them,” Elio says.
“And what exactly do you want me to do?” Rafe asks, looking between Elio and Azarius.
They both hesitate. Seriously, they couldn’t have planned out what they were going to say? They had sixteen hours to work on this shit.
“We would like to send her back to the human realm,” Azarius answers.
For the first time, I look at Rafe eagerly, desperate for his approval. My entire future hangs in the balance, dependent on his next words.
I hold my breath.
I count the seconds it takes him to answer.
“We can’t do that.”
His words resonate in my head like a gong, and I open my mouth to challenge him, but Azarius beats me to it.
“Why not?”
“She has seen too much.” Rafe glances briefly at Azarius. “She is nothing but a liability.”
“So, she has to stay here?” Azarius asks, shifting his weight back and forth. He’s antsy, but I’m not sure why until Rafe replies.
“You know that’s not possible.”
“Then what do you suggest we do?” Elio looks back at me, his eyes full of worry.
“She’s your problem. Dispose of her.”
I can hardly believe the words as they leave his mouth, and I feel like the walls are closing in on me.
His words are my official death sentence, and I’m not sure there’s anything I can do to change his mind. Beg? Plead? I don’t my next move planned, but it seems like Elio and Azarius are in just as much disbelief as I am. No one seems quite sure what to say.
