Page 8 of This Cruel Fate

The early-autumn air ruffled her hair as she leaned against the stone railing. She pulled the suit jacket closer around her body, hating the way it brought her comfort.

“Fuck,” Xolia shouted over the quiet grounds. She rested her head against one arm and let the other fall over the side, dipping into the inky pools of shadow. Things weren’t supposed to go this way. I am happy. I’m supposed to be happy. Supposed to be and actually being were two entirely different things. Xolia feared she related to the former more often than the latter. She needed to let Silas go, for real this time. She had thought she had done it, but now he wouldn’t leave her alone. Just as she was about to let the tears fall, the soft clicking of the door made her tense. Conversation filled the night air before it was closed off again.

“I’m really not in the mood,” she said, quickly wiping away any evidence that she had been about to cry.

Rather than some worried questions or well-intentioned platitudes from Marshall or Rowan, she was greeted with Atlas’s caustic voice. “But you don’t even know what I’m about to say.”

Xolia sighed. This was the last thing she wanted. Telling him off would only spur him on, so she steeled her nerves and stood up straight. “What do you want?”

“From one disappointment of the night to another, do you have a minute to talk?”

Chapter Five

Despite feeling like a disappointment, she didn’t think she had missed the mark quite as much as Atlas. “I don’t feel like commiserating with you.”

Apparently, that was enough of an invitation for him, and he walked right up to the railing, leaning his elbows against the ancient granite. He didn’t speak right away; instead, he stared off into the dark grounds. If Xolia hadn’t been waiting for the inevitable arguing, she might’ve let herself relax into the peace the night offered. No one else dared to come to the balcony, leaving them isolated from the rest of the gala. She hated that, in this moment, they were one and the same.

“Did you hear the news?” he finally asked.

“Yeah.” It shouldn’t hurt—shouldn’t leave her with a void in her heart.

“Did you see him before?” Atlas asked, turning to face her.

“No.” She scoffed. “I haven’t seen him since the day the rebellion ended.”

Atlas nodded. “I saw him a week before.”

Xolia stopped breathing. “What?”

“It was normal for me to see him about once a month,” Atlas said, his tone remaining casual despite the life-altering words he was smacking Xolia with.

She briefly shut her eyes. I am who I am in spite of Silas. He does not define me. I create my own happiness. Every single phrase that she and Krista had worked on ran at full speed through her head. Silas had not been an ally. She hadn’t needed to see him, hadn’t needed his harmful ideology in her life. She was happy. And happiness was the important thing.

Still. . . “How was he?”

“Eh.” Atlas shrugged. “A miserable bastard. He wasn’t built for prison. Or isolation.”

The conversation lapsed. A million questions danced on the tip of Xolia’s tongue, chief among them was did he ever ask about me?

Before she could pluck up the courage to ask, Atlas changed topics. “Why didn’t you pursue politics? Peter still wants you in his Senate.”

Xolia arched a suspicious brow at him. “Why are you asking this now?”

“Indulge me.”

Sighing, Xolia thought about her life over the past seven years. And how it had been before that. “I wasn’t happy then. I did my part, and now I can focus on my own life.”

“And you’re happy now?” he asked, disbelief clear in his voice.

I don’t know. “Of course.” Xolia inwardly congratulated herself when her voice didn’t waver. Whatever these feelings meant, she wasn’t going to wade through them in front of Atlas. “What about you?” If he was going to probe into her life, she would return the favor.

“What about me?”

“Are you happy, Vice Chancellor?”

“I’ve never cared about something that trivial,” he said. Tapping his fingers against the railing, he stared at her. Much as she wanted to shrink away from his gaze, she didn’t. “I really came out here to proposition you.”

Xolia narrowed her eyes. He couldn’t seriously be offering what she thought he was.

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