Page 79 of Saints & Sinners

She sighed, shaking her head but not saying anything more. The golden glow dimmed as she finished, and the mark was now just a faint bruise on my skin that would eventually go away. She sat back against the bed, studying me with those perceptive green eyes, and I crawled towards her, resting my head againsther shoulder.

“Marnie?”

She hummed.

“Have you ever thought about... not doing this?”

“What do you mean?”

I tilted my head to look up at her. “I mean, if you were given the chance to be with someone, to live a normal life—even if it meant forgetting everything about Celestia, the Ascendants, the angels—would you take it?”

She hesitated for a second. “No,” she said with a frown, but it wasn’t the answer I had hoped for. She straightened against the wall, and I sat up. “I’ve always wanted to ascend. I don’t think anything has ever made me change my mind, not my parents, nor the Ascendants around me...” Her expression softened as she glanced at me. “It’s what I was born to be. I want to help people. I want to protect and heal our world, even if that means I won’t ever have a normal life.Thisis my dream. It always has been, and I intend to follow it through.”

Her words hit me harder than I expected. I’d never really let myself consider that possibility. Joe’s life wasn’t normal, even with me in it, and now I’d said something to him I could never take back.

“What about you, Grace? What would you do if you could choose anything?”

I blinked at her. What did I want? The truth was, I didn’t know. I’d spent so long just trying to survive, wanting to become stronger, that the dreams I once had were now a myth.

“When I was little, I used to want to be a doctor,” I said and smiled when I remembered how I’d dress up as a doctor and pretend to heal Joe. “I guess that is why I was supposed to join the Healers Sector. Joe knew I would like it. Heal people the way you do, just without the powers, I guess.”

Marnie smiled. “You’d be good at that.” She then nudged myshoulder. “But you’d also be good as a Warrior, Guardian and a Messenger.”

I let out a shaky breath. “You just always know what to say, don’t you?”

She laughed. “Only sometimes.” She reached into my drawer and picked out a packet of skittles. Handing me some of the green ones while she picked at the reds, she added, “Just don’t push Joe away. Father or not, he still loves you like one.”

I nodded, my heart squeezing with shame as I allowed her words to linger inside my mind.

“And be careful, okay?” she said. “Because whatever you’re also doing with Hunter to help him find his brother, it’s not just him who’s at risk.”

The skittles began to melt in my hand, and I couldn’t find the strength to even eat a simple sweet. She was right; whateverwashappening between me and Hunter was a mess and not just from helping him. But for the first time, I wasn’t sure I could walk away from it.

Not after tonight.

The following day, my mind was still far from calm, and the morning sun did little to lift my spirits. I was scared Joe had gone to see Nadael, that he’d told her everything from the Riftkeeper mark to what I yelled at him before he left. Maybe that was why I hadn’t eaten any breakfast, left at the crack of dawn and was now making my way towards Nadael’s office. I was trying to think of ways I could start the conversation with her. Most were utterly terrible, ranging from ‘I snuck out... by mistake’to ‘I was sleepwalking, and they say not to disturb you when that happens, so Hunter followed me to keep an eye onme, and we just so happened to encounter Riftkeeper’s!’That one was surprisingly the least bad of them all.

“Grace!” Eden’s voice called out from behind me, and I slowed down, turning reluctantly. Her expression wasn’t the usual smile and dimples as she approached, which already meant something was wrong. “I am so glad I found you. You weren’t in room 104?”

“I—” I hitched a thumb over my shoulder. “I was just heading towards Nadael’s office.”

She gave me a tight-lipped smile. “No need. She is currently overseeing the Messengers Sector in time for the competition. I wanted to let you know in person that you’ve been reassigned a new accommodation.”

I froze. “What? Why?”

“It was Joe’s request,” she replied matter-of-factly, as if she just hadn’t ruined my morning with that announcement. “You’ll be rooming with Marnie Lewis.”

My frustration wavered for a moment. As much as I loved Marnie, being moved without warning was infuriating. I knew the reason, but it only made me more inclined to be angry with Joe. “Do the boys know?”

“Yes, I believe Hunter is the one who also said it was for the best.”

Those words shot through my chest, shattering the last bit of resolve I had left in me.

I swallowed, trying to steady myself, but I couldn’t. My throat felt tight, and suddenly, all I wanted was to go back to last night in that motel. “And Joe?” I said, my voice breaking. “Where is he?”

“He’s with the Council.”

“Ofcourse, he is.”

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