Page 105 of Terror Tuesday

“Love you, Mom.” But she’s already ended the call. I chuckle to myself, knowing my dad is probably trying to get every pieceof information out of her right now. My mom is the only one who can hold him at bay.

What do I truly want?

Shoulders straight and chin up, I put the car in drive and pick a route. I’m confident. This is the way.

For the next few months, I can gather cash from my trust and purchase a home far from here. We can run. Maybe Elliot has family. I could choose a new name. Be someone different. A woman who hasn’t murdered her enemy. I’d be clean again. Whole.

I’d be redeemed through all the good deeds I could do in some small town somewhere… I hear Crystal Frond is nice.

Yes,thisis the right decision. I could be Mrs. Elliot…

I gasp.

I don’t even know his last name.

Through deep inhales, I try to steady my pulse. Still...Iammaking the right decision, I know. Here I go. Yes. This is it.

The night air is crisp when I step out, the gravel lot almost empty, except for a few older sedans. I wonder which is Elliot’s.

Despite the thumping of my heart, I freeze.

From the breeze out of my open car door floats a page from my diary. A scrap of a Monarch drawing that Vanq did for me when we were lying in my bed…

The sight draws tears to my eyes. She’s beautiful. Strong. Everything she went through was worth it. It’s night, but she’s here and knows exactly where she’s going. She’s not stressed about making the wrong decision because she’s confident inwho she is.

I can deny it all I want to.

But I knowwhereI belong.

TowhoI belong.

And I know exactly where my home is.

It’s written in my DNA.

Hurriedly, I jump back into the car. Elliot asked me to meet him at eight, and Valen’s note on the back indicated nine. The directions on my navigation system lead me about an hour down the country road.

There’s just enough time to make it.

I allow myself one sob to escape. A goodbye to Elliot. A farewell to a normal life and possible sunshine. No moreCaliphyllaservant. White dresses and West Coast ski resort towns are gone.

Valen was right.

I belong to the night. To the shadows, to the whispers of the dark, to the thrill of uncertainty.

I think we’re a lot alike.

Thunder crashes through the sky, navy ink clouds rolling across the moon. Fat raindrops splash across the windshield, then in a flood of a downpour as I make my way toward an unknown future.

Eventually, I reach my destination. Through tall twin abandoned guard towers in the fence, a small lane juts off the muddy route. I worry my Mercedes won’t be able to traverse it, but I have to try. Fortunately, the weather clears until it’s only a shower of wetness that sprinkles across the glass.

As I pull into the drive, my hand digs into my purse and finds a gun. One of my brothers’ weapons. I figured the knife wouldn’t help me. Valen would see me coming from a mile away. But a bullet in his back… His head… His heart…

That’s what my planwas.

Now, it’s been replaced by something else. Something different.

If he and I were able to kill Representative Blackwell…