Page 38 of Fade With Me

That made sense. If he was some kind of guardian, he probably swore to protect me. To find me.

I frowned, feeling the sharpness of his revelation sink in.Immortal.A sorceress.Queen. So much to absorb. The idea felt overwhelming, and a part of me wondered if I was losing my mind for even entertaining it. How could any of this be real?

“So…” I hesitated, still trying to piece it all together. “If I’m immortal…how old am I?”

Zeke tilted his head, thoughtful. “We stop aging when our magic fully manifests, usually around twenty-five or thirty. After that, time doesn’t really matter. You’re probably…about two thousand years old.”

I stared at him, my jaw slack, completely dumbfounded. “Two thousand years old?!” The words stumbledout, as if they had no place in the same sentence, let alone my reality.

He shrugged. “Give or take a few centuries.”

I let out a disbelieving laugh. “So…I’m basically ancient? And here I was thinking twenty-nine was old.”

He grinned. “I’d say you’re more like a fine wine, only getting better with age.” His hand rose to gently pluck a single leaf from my hair, his fingers brushing my skin as he did so.

I shook out my tangled locks, sending loose leaves and bits of debris tumbling to the ground. “I probably look like a hot mess after that fall,”I said, my voice betraying the self-consciousness I felt about my disheveled appearance.

Zeke’s eyes fixed on me with an intensity that made my breath catch, as if I were the most captivating thing in the world. “You look beautiful.”

Flustered, I cleared my throat and quickly changed the subject. “So…does this mean I can’t die?”

He exhaled slowly, his features growing serious. “No one is truly immortal, not in the sense of never facing death. But for us, it’s incredibly hard to meet our end. We’re far more resilient than mortals.”

I blinked, my words edged with disbelief. “None of this makes sense! I mean, you’re clearly some god-like being.” I motioned toward him, emphasizing my point with a sharp sweep of my hand. “But me? I’m not evengood at being human. How could I be all-powerful? I’m just…me.”

I fell silent, my gaze fixed on the horizon as my thoughts tumbled in a chaotic swirl of confusion. The words circled in my mind, impossible to untangle. I was just an ordinary person, struggling to make my way in the world. The idea that I was somehow extraordinary, that I had powers beyond anything I could imagine, felt almost inconceivable.

Zeke observed me closely, his eyes intent, studying every flicker of emotion that crossed my face. It felt like he was peeling back layers, trying to see through the facade. “What do you remember before working at the diner? What did your life look like before that?”

I hesitated, my mind racing to summon any memories. But to my surprise, I drew a blank. I couldn’t remember a time before working there.

It was like everything began the day Reggie mentioned Sal was hiring for a waitress position. I could still hear his voice, persuading me to take the job. I had no work experience, no high school diploma. Reggie hadrefusedto let me get my GED, calling it an unnecessary waste of funds. But I was desperate to earn my own money, so I took the job without question.

Anything before that was a complete void. No recollection of my childhood, my family, or my past. It was as though my life had only begun then. The realization left me feeling lost, as if I were staring into a vast emptiness.Yet, one thought persisted:Why had I never questioned this before?

“Let me ask you this,” he said carefully, his voice steady, almost cautious, as if testing how much I could take. “Has there ever been a time when you’ve done something…unnatural? Something that didn’t quite make sense?”

A memory flashed, my bedroom lightbulb exploding in a fit of rage. I’d brushed it off as a faulty bulb, but now, with Zeke’s words, I couldn’t ignore the growing realization. Then there was Sal, the lights flickering when my anger flared. With Reggie, the same: flickering lights and the table trembling slightly as I lost control. I hadn’t connected the dots before. Now, it was undeniable.

“Alright, fine,” I said, stepping back a little, my hands fidgeting at my sides as frustration pooled like hot lead behind my ribs. My brow furrowed, and I folded my arms tightly, trying to hold myself together. “If I'm meant to have unimaginable power and sit on a throne, why am I serving coffee and pancakes to mortals? Why am I living like one? What the hell am Idoinghere?”

Zeke shrugged off his jacket and spread it on the ground before sitting beside it, his posture relaxed but purposeful. “Sit,” he said, patting the fabric.

I hesitated before lowering myself onto it, my eyes never leaving him. His expression had shifted, more guarded now, shoulders taut, like he was measuring the impact of his words. When he finally spoke, his tonecarried the weight of a truth he clearly didn’t want to burden me with.

“There’s a guild,” he began, his voice low, each syllable dragged from somewhere painful. “They call themselves the Shadowweavers. A brotherhood of impure-blooded warlocks, corrupted by dark magic. All they desire is power—power over our kingdom, over everything. They’ll do whatever it takes to bend it to their will.” He paused, his eyes distant, the truth almost too much to bear. “And to get that power…they’ve waged war on us. On our people.”

The resonance of what he said settled between us, heavy and unrelenting. I pulled my knees to my chest, wrapping my arms around them, feeling both the rawness of his confession and the burden it carried.

“They’ve torn apart everything we built. Left nothing but death, destruction…chaos.”

Grief flickered across his face. His jaw clenched. He paused, bracing for what came next. When he looked at me, his gaze was steady, haunted.

“And at the center of it all…pulling the strings, their so-calledfearlessleader.”

He exhaled, like he’d been holding it in too long.

“Reggie.”

---