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“And you think I don’t make my decisions with my heart...” Kieran said.
It wasn’t a question.
I answered it nonetheless.
“You don’t get to,” I told him.
“I think I’m the one who will decide that,” he replied as he took a step forward.
He was too close. I could not look away.
“You don’t get to choose,” I repeated.
Was I trying to convince him or myself?
“Everyone gets a choice,” he said.
The door behind us opened with a creaking sound. Without thinking, I stepped away from Kieran.
It was Fiona. She did not have a wash basin with her.
“You should sleep,” she said, her gaze meaningfully darting between Kieran and I.
Kieran nodded and turned away from me as Fiona climbed to her bed. They seemed to be in a rush to get over with the day. Soon, everyone was in their beds.
But I could not sleep.
My chest tight with disbelief at their indifference, I waited until everyone was fully asleep.
Then, I slipped away.
Finding the manor had been easy; there weren’t a lot of big buildings in this small town.
Monsters die every day, the girl said as I peeked over the wall. You can’t save them all.
There weren’t any guards outside the manor.
I will save the ones I can, I replied as I slipped away from the wall and used the shadows to walk up to the two-story building that seemed abandoned. First, I would walk around the building to ensure there wasn’t anyone who could see me, and then I would get inside to find the monster.
That’s stupid, the girl said as I waited to make sure there was no sound coming from inside the building. I knew she could see and hear through my mind, and I appreciated her silence whenever I could get it. I might have preferred it if you told your friends about me. You didn’t even have to mention that I gave you the monster taint. You could have told them that I’m special and can access minds from afar.
I don’t like lying to my friends, I told her.
This isn’t lying.
I decided not to respond. Arguing with her was not helpful. I’d already sneaked away from the inn while my friends slept, and I felt terrible about it. I didn’t want to talk about how I was going behind their backs to save the monster.
I hear something, the girl said.
I don’t.
You were thinking about your friends,she replied frustratedly. You’re not paying attention.
I heard the quiet chatter in the next moment, and gruntingly, I had to agree that the girl was much better at paying attention than I was.
She remained silent as I pressed my body against the building to listen. The sounds weren’t coming from the room right next to me. There was a window above my head. I reached up to try to open it and gladly realized that it wasn’t locked. I turned around and started to lift it very slowly, and soon, I had a way inside.
Climbing up the window and getting inside wasn’t hard. I made very little noise, and I was sure the fae inside the manor did not hear me. Although the room was very dark, I could tell this had been a dining room at one point in time, but the dust had settled over the furniture, and the room had a damp smell that told me it had not been used for a while.
