“You’re right. We would have. Thanks for having the will power to stop us.” I sounded angry or bitter and tomorrow I’d wish I had acted more mature about it.

We stood there in the darkness with nothing but the moonlight coming through the windows lighting the room. Neither one of us said anything. I studied his face for something to make this easier but all I saw was the regret. That hurt the most.

How was I the only Kamlock woman in history to be the one to get hurt by men? We were born to cause the pain. We were the heartbreaking gold diggers. Kamlock women didn’t get turned down. Except for me, it seemed. Not being evil meant being vulnerable. I took in the look of Rathe’s disheveled hair and the expression on his face. Even Rathe’s rejection couldn’t make me want to be like the other women in my family. I’d choose to be rejected over and over by men than to end up like my mother.

Without a word, I turned around and went to pick my purse up from the table beside the front door. When I opened the door, he didn’t say anything. No more begging me to stay. No more argument. He wanted me to leave. He just couldn’t admit it.

A door opened somewhere inside, and I sighed, knowing we had woken one of the others up. I wasn’t going to argue with any of them. I didn’t want to explain why I was leaving. They had all seen me laying on Rathe asleep before they went to bed.

“Where you going?” Duely called out to me. I was glad it was him.

“Home,” I told him quietly without looking back. His hearing was excellent. Then I walked out the door and closed it behind me.

“Are you going after her?” I heard Rathe ask.

“She’ll be safe. At least from anything out there that can hurt her,” Duely replied with a touch of sarcasm in his voice. He hadn’t been worried about my safety with the warlock after all. He had that stupid idea in his head I was special or something more. I could see souls of those passed on, I could control the weather sure, but the only other thing that made me stronger than the rest of the Kamlocks was I could experience emotions such as sympathy and love. I had a heart. That was not a super power. If anything, it made me weaker than the others. Tonight was an example of just how weak it made me. “The only thing you need to be concerned about is Heath’s reaction when he finds out you made her run away in the middle of the night,” Duely added. I rolled my eyes and kept walking away from the mistake I’d made tonight.

SEVENTEEN: THE DISOWNING

Seventeen

The Disowning