Chapter Eighteen

I ended up exploring the pool area for a while and eventually made my way to the beach, where I sat in the sand and gazed up at the early morning sky. The sunlight was just peeking over the horizon, its light bouncing off the glass-like water of the bay. So peaceful.

Meanwhile, an emotional storm had begun brewing inside. My mind and heart were filled with so many emotions that I could hardly form one coherent thought. Well, except for, Leo really cheated on me? I should've known. He'd been spending a lot of late nights at "the office" and then staying up late to work on the house in a sort of maniacal manner. Asshole.

The worst part was that I still hadn't mourned the death of our relationship, and this, on top of everything else, was pushing me to the breaking point. One more straw, and this camel's back was done. Just in time for the end of the world.

I sighed toward the pristine blue sky. Was this world really about to end? I couldn't understand how something so big and amazing could disappear because of one man's actions, whether it be King's past or Draco's future.

You just said so yourself: everything has a breaking point.Though, some called it the tipping point. The theory stated that every world-changing event—be it evolutionary, a movement, or a technological advancement—was the result of something reaching a tipping point. To get there, you first needed the proverbial final straw on the camel's back. With it, the possibility of change transformed into reality.

A good metaphor was turning a water molecule to ice. There was only one degree of separation between the two.

Then there was the point of no return, a similar construct, but with irreversible consequences. For example, sometimes surviving a bullet wound was the difference of one drop of blood. Though no two bodies were exactly alike, the average person could lose up to two liters and survive. For some, that was the limit. Go one drop over, and they'd be toast. Maybe I could survive drowning if they got to me in four minutes. But one second longer, I was done. Point of no return.

So if the difference between change or staying the same was one piece of straw, or the difference between living and dying was one breath, one second, or one drop of blood, then why couldn't the end of the world ride on one person?

People could be piled up on each side, fighting for annihilation or survival, but it could all hinge on one man or woman to tip the scale in the wrong direction. And once it happened, you had momentum. Unstoppable. The tipping point became the point of no return.

So maybe Draco wasn't the anti-Christ. Maybe he wasn't an evil man out to destroy the world, but he might be that last straw. Maybe he would do something good, one act of kindness, and it would stop our descent into chaos. Or maybe he makes a mistake, and that mistake pushes us toward the end.

I didn't know, but I'd bet my life on one thing: Draco wasn't evil. It was cruel and wrong to call him the anti-Christ. I'd said it out of anger.

God, I hope he knows that.Because deep down inside, I wanted him to win more than anything. It felt more important than my life right now despite hardly knowing the guy. Yet, seeing Draco triumph for the sake of him showing these fucking clowns they could not buy the world and turn it into their personal playground of depravity made me happy. I wanted him to crush these sick assholes. I'd give anything to see Draco win.

"It's our connection. I told you," said a deep voice.

I looked up to find Draco standing beside me.

"I feel the same about you," he said, "if it's any consolation." He sat in the sand next to me and stretched out his long legs.

"I thought you were ditching me."

"Can't," he said. "I still need you."

"Pfft. You don't need anyone. This is all you—your story."

"You really believe that?" he asked.

"I do." I was just a passenger.

"Did I mention that I had a girlfriend for ten years?"

"How?" He'd been asleep.

"She was part of the dream they placed me in." He exhaled longingly. "I loved her in a ‘take a bullet for you' sort of way. We planned to marry and have children. We were going to grow old together. And then I woke up, and she was gone."

I winced. What a heartbreaking thing to go through.

He continued, "After waking, I crawled out of the basement where they kept me, bleeding from my hands and knees because my skin was like tissue paper. But I kept going. All because I believed that maybe I'd been in some terrible car accident, and she was probably out there, worried sick, looking for me. Imagine my disappointment when I discovered that she had never loved me or been my girlfriend and that thirty years of my life had been stolen. I wanted to die."

How terrible. It almost made my pain over Leo feel trivial. To love someone with everything you had, only to have them snatched away with a life you thought was real.

"I'm so sorry that happened to you," I said.

He stared out at the crashing waves. "It has not been easy; however, the moment the dream ended, my real life began." He turned to look at me. "The irony is that it began with a dream of something real."

We locked eyes, and my stomach clenched. One look from this man had me in knots that could take a lifetime to unravel. Everything inside still told me to run, but I knew I couldn't leave him. All I saw was the good in this beautiful man. And knowing that optimism was my Achilles' heel didn't change it.

"Do not worry, Piper. I understand. Which is why I am trying to keep my distance."

"You keep saying that, and in the next breath, you talk about our connection. I just don't see how the two things are possible." I slid my hand over his in the sand, not even aware I was doing it.

He glanced down at our touching hands. "Are you arguing for us to be more?"

I moved my hand away. I didn't know why I kept wanting to touch him—like on the plane—but I did. "I'm asking how we can be—"

"Everything and nothing?"

"I guess." I shrugged.

"I do not have a clue, but I suspect we are about to find out." He stood and offered me his hand.

I stood up on my own. "Please stop talking like a riddle. I like my words like I live my life. Honest."

He rubbed his scruffy jaw. "Earlier, you said you believe we each make our own fates. Maybe the outcome of us depends on which path you choose, which fate you follow."

"Or you."

"I might not have all the answers, but I am not the one who's conflicted. I know exactly what I want." He reached into his pocket and held out a key card. "The suite has two rooms. If you wish to continue this journey, be ready to go at noon. From here on out, it is your choice to be with me. I won't force you anymore."

My eyes lingered on his handsome face for a long moment before I took the key. I already knew I wasn't going to leave him, and if I knew, so did he. "See you at noon."

He leaned in and kissed my cheek. "Get some rest."

I watched him walk away with a heaviness inside my chest. This all felt so wrong, so…contrived. At the same time, there was no doubt we had to keep going. It was too important not to. Still, it felt like we were moving through a maze created by forces or people much more powerful, or at least craftier, than us. The question was, what would we find once we got to the end?