Chapter 20: The Choice

Luna POV

I went to see Sarah, and she was waiting on the window of the hospital. She was expected to be asleep, however, she was in a chair, completely dressed, with a small bag packed beside her.

Sarah said, We have little time, I don't even have time to ask you what is going on. "They're watching us. They understand that we have something in store.

"Sarah, you're hurt," I said. "You need to rest."

I will sleep when I die, Sarah, I will sleep when I die. She grabbed my arm. Her hold was feeble yet insistent. Luna, I am aware of who the traitors are on the council. I understand who works with The Keepers.

"How?" I asked.

Something slipped up in the mine, the man in the mine, Sarah said. He added that my daughter was in the group. And I realized something. I understood that Emma may not have been killed. I also learned that The Keepers could have captured her. They might have raised her. They could have made her one of them.

I could feel that the world was turning. "Sarah, that doesn't make sense. Emma would be twenty-five years old now.

"I know," Sarah said. She was sobbing and was attempting to conceal it. But what, who knows, should they keep her youthful? What should they do to make her something supernatural so that they would control her? Suppose my daughter lives, and is in arms against us?

It was too much. It was too complicated. It was too painful.

"There's more," Sarah said. One of the council members visited me to-night. She replied that she recognized that I was talking to you. I know you were going to help me, she said. And she said she would make me suffer, in case I did.

"Who?" I demanded. "Which council member?"

The silver headed woman, Sarah said. The one who was nice to you at the trial. The one we all trusted. She is one of the key leaders of The Keepers.

I was as though someone had punched me in the chest. The woman who had appeared to have been mindful of justice. The woman who had shown fair and kind. She was the enemy all along.

We have to report to the council, I said.

"No," Sarah said. The council is fractured in advance. Should we accuse her when we can show no signs, she will deny it, and make the reverse against ourselves. She will tell us we are trying to make war. And everyone will accept her since they are already scared.

"So what do we do?" I asked.

"We run," Sarah said. "We leave Pine Ridge. We disappear. We do it so that they cannot hurt anybody with the help of us as a trap.

I thought about the note. The proposal to go and restore peace to Pine Ridge. I even imagined how easy it would be. How easy.

"But if we run, they win," I said.

"No," Sarah said. "If we run, we buy time. We purchase time to get to know how to do them in real life. We buy time to find Emma. We purchase time to know what The Keepers actually desire.

"They want revenge," I said. They would like to cause harm to every one of the people I love.

That is what they want on the surface, Sarah said. "But there's something bigger. Something that scares them. There is something about you that has to make them desperate enough to pursue you the world over.

"What?" I asked.

"I don't know yet," Sarah said. But I believe your grandmother is aware. I believe Elena has been hiding the actual cause to you. And I guess when we get to know what it is, everything will be different.

I assisted Sarah in rising out of the chair. She was painful and feeble, yet her eyes were resolute. She was ready to fight. She was ready to run. She was willing to go to any extent in order to save the people she loved.

We were heading out of the hospital through a back door when we noticed that Ethan was in the hallway. He was standing in our way, and his features were indistinguishable.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"Away," I said. We are going to vanish, and The Keepers will never torment another one.

Ethan stepped toward me. He put his hands on my face, and kissed me. It was a kiss that was a farewell. This was a heartbreak, desperation kiss.

I am going with you, Ethan said drawing away.

"You can't," I said. "Your pack needs you."

My pack does not need me, said Ethan. But I can never live without you. I shall not leave you alone again.

Sarah moved toward the exit. "We need to leave now," she said. Might as well get away with saying goodbye.

So we left. The three of us. Running again. Always running. The thing was that we were not running away this time. We were rushing towards something. Toward answers. To the reality of what I was and why The Keepers so desperately wanted to bring me down.

And when we drove off Pine Ridge I saw that Ethan had made a decision. He'd chosen me over his pack. He'd chosen love over duty. He had decided to be with me at the cost of losing all the others.

Which meant that I had to be fit to make that decision. I was forced to be tough enough to get through this. I was forced to be courageous enough to counter attack.

Since somewhere off there, The Keepers were persuading. The lady with silver hair was in wait. Sarah's daughter was waiting. And my grandmother was waiting there with secrets which she was going to tell me.