The wind howled at me in this barren landscape. I stood at a precipice and stared down.

  Should I jump? Fear was flooding me as I stared at the other end. Nero was there watching patiently. It's your choice, he seemed to say. Well, I was halfway to damnation, so I might as well. I took a few steps back and got ready to run and leap in before Noali’s voice interrupted me. I searched for her but didn’t find her.

  “Datha. I come on behalf of Fate. You have one chance to prove that you can be redeemed as an Oracle,” Noali said, her hands slamming against my eyes and blinding me. I pried her hand off but I was still blind. I cried as pinpricks of burning pain shot through my optic nerves.

  “As such, your abilities are being suspended for now.”

  I cried again, wiping my eyes. They were aflame! I felt a part of me being yanked into the abyss.

  “You have broken sacred rules and abused your power. Have run from your duty and Fate. She does not take kindly to that. Your fate is still being decided,” she finished. I rolled into a Kin-sized ball and wept from the pain.

  “May Oppolomei judge you fairly,” whispered Noali, her footsteps sounding far away. Another set of footsteps neared me, and two strong arms picked me up from the dusty ground. They placed me within a purring beast before joining me.

  I felt cold air, but couldn’t see where it came from, and the furry beast was also metal. I wrapped my hand around a tall, thick stick.

  An arm went around my own and directed my hand elsewhere, wrapping my fingers with their own.

  “We are almost there, Datha,” came Nero’s soft-spoken tone. It was deep, and despite me feeling pain, I felt safe.

  Something I had lacked with Mikale. Never knowing what would set him off first thing in the morning.

  The beast stopped moving, and I heard something open and close. My side was opening and closing! Nero, as it could only be him, carried me up some stairs and took a turn setting me on a something round. I heard the pop of something and Nero rummaging to get a few things. Then something cool was pressed against my eyes.

  “That should take some of the inflammation away,” he said, picking me up again and taking me to a dark room, sitting me down on a bouncy thing. It was soft and tough at the same time. I wiggled on it, finding a good spot for myself and curling up again. The divan dipped, and arms went around me. I was pressed against a hard body and blushed.

  “Let me see,” he whispered in my ear as he slowly removed the compress. I blinked, making blurry shapes within the room. My eyesight came back to Nero, who was swishing an odd bottle of potion on some cleaning paper. He brought the paper to my eyes.

  “Close your eyes for a minute,” he said, and I did. Letting him wipe my eyes with the strange concoction. He turned my head slightly, dabbing at my eyes. I blinked as the blurry objects took form. I glanced around as weird objects made themselves known to me.

  “Where am I?”

  “My Earth summer home,” said Nero as he stepped away from me.

  I went to touch my eyes, but Nero caught my hand. “They’re still slightly swollen and sensitive. The best thing for them would be to rest.”

  “I can sleep in the dream world?” I asked, and Nero chuckled.

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  “I used my Watcher abilities to walk realms. Right now, we are on Earth. You deserve a break from everything that’s been going on,” he said.

  I jumped to my feet before tumbling backward. Nero caught me, but I fought his hold. “Take me back to Sapherine right now!”

  Nero shook his head. “Not yet.”

  I growled and tried to shove him, but my eyesight blurred again. “Bring back my sight!”

  “You exacerbate the blindness with your tough-as-nails routine. You don’t have to feign with me,” he said, running a hand down my face.

  I shivered and sat back down, calming down. “I need to be on–”

  “Why? So you can keep running from fate? Keep playing the doting girlfriend to an abuser? Act tough all you want, but I see through everything. You forget that I too have seen Jonah’s sacrifice and I also know what it is you truly run from, but fate is a bitch, and those that defy her, pay the worst penalties. You have defied her not once with your running, but twice with telling Myra of Jonah’s fate, and she is pissed, Datha.”

  “I–I only!”

  He slid a finger up the side of my face as tears left me. He sat by my side and folded me up in his arms, running a hand through my hair, and sighed. “Can’t you see I am trying to help you? Fate is cruel. The exact thing you are running from is what will happen if you don’t stop.”

  “How can I stop it?” I asked in a small voice.

  “Stop running from it. I’ve seen your current path, and it leads to well, I can’t tell you, but nothing good. You will get punished by fate, but if you own up to your mistakes, you’ll have chosen something better and–I can’t say but you deserve a chance, so I am here as Watcher to guide you on better paths,” he said, trailing those fingers calmly through my hair.

  I held onto him, but inside I seethed. All my plans are done with because Fate had a hissy fit with my choice? There had to be a way to circumvent the bitch! Some way or form! I’d find it. The future could shift and–

  Nero’s arms squeezed me. “Come on. I’ll show you where Jonah comes from.”

  I nodded, taken from my thoughts. Nero had cured me, so I owed him. I followed him to where a beautiful metal beast lay. It was a shiny black with a red stripe on its side. He clicked a button on a remote, and it purred to life. Taking my hand, he walked me down some steps, and I noticed a wide stone wall separating him from his neighbors. I turned back to the silver beast.

  I turned to him. “What is this beast’s name? It is beautiful!”

  “It’s a car. A technological advancement of this world,” he said, smiling, opening the door for me to get in. I slid inside, taking in the strange shapes and ducts in front of me. He slid in and grabbed the beast’s ear or nose, and spun it while shifting the big stick I had grabbed earlier. The beast's breath blew cold in my face, and I shivered.

  He noticed and pressed a few buttons. The beast warmed up!

  We rode a long piece of black road, which had other beasts of all shapes and sizes. Nero touched a button, and singing flooded the beast! I turned my head, listening. It was a Sapherine lullaby sung in a different form! I kinda liked it.

  Nero led the beast to a busy street where many beasts lingered about. Shifting what he told me was the gear shift, he settled the beast in a resting spot made for such. He called it a parking. He opened his door and slid out before coming over and opening mine.

  I stepped out and realized we had come to an establishment. It was decorated with paper lanterns in old Sapherine 2nd era scrawl, except I couldn’t read it. The doors were made of glass, and they had large windows all down their side so you could take in the city. “Where are we?”

  “In the middle of where Jonah and Myra lived. Let’s enter the restaurant,” he said, guiding me up a few steps to the glass door. Cool air reached me, and I glanced around. It looked kind of like the restaurants back in Sapherine, except everything was of higher quality, and there were several things that I didn’t know the name of.

  We sat at the back near a window where I watched the city. I turned to him, amazed. “Do you come here often?”

  Nero shook his head. “Usually I wander the property or watch a movie.”

  “Movie?”

  “I’ll show you sometime.”

  The food was great and the service top-notch, soon we were back in the beast with full bellies. We stopped on a cliff overlooking the ocean. He sat back and sighed, glancing at me.

  “I’m not naive enough to think I changed your mind, but Datha, Fate is coming for you, so you better prepare yourself because the first thing she is taking is your sanity.”

  My eyes widened. “Have you seen this?”

  “You know I can’t tell you. All I can do is push you to the correct path. I’ve done all I can. Now it’s all up to you. Ready to head back?”

  I nodded, and we got out of the car. A sucking noise alerted me to a portal nearby. He walked over to my side and held my hand for a minute.

  “When you get back, Mikale will have handled things not to your liking. Fight him, Datha. For your sake, don’t stay by his side anymore.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “It isn’t any of your business who I–”

  “I know you are using him, as much as he is using you. End the cycle. What you are running away from, he can’t help you with it. Nor does he help you avoid it.”

  I grabbed and shook him. “What do you know!”

  “There’s only one constant in all your realities, Datha,” he whispered.

  “What is it?” I nearly yelled.

  He leaned closer. “Me.”

  Then he brushed his lips against mine, kissing me sweetly. It was far different from Mikale’s punishing kisses that were all for his pleasure. No, this was different. Caring and sweet, taking in my reactions and acting accordingly. I moaned, pressing us closer. My hands trailed down his face as he held my own. I wrapped them around his neck.

  He stopped kissing me to look me in the eye and trailed his hands down my hair.

  “Datha, I love you,” he whispered before he shoved me. I suddenly felt myself careening down the cliff face and into the portal. His violet eyes were all I could see.