Page 84 of Crown of Death
“It isn’t an easy thing, to have one’s life totally changed,” he says quietly, staring at me fervently with his green eyes. “Human’s thrive on normalcy. They crave it. You thought normal was going to be your life. Were you not born to a vast destiny, you could have lived thislife.”
But in the back of my mind, the words echo,but then I never would have metyou.
I give him a sad little nod, and together we climb into thecar.
Chapter 19
Monday.
One finalweek.
Sevendays.
I’m an emotional wreck. A ball of anticipation. Of wrecked feelings. Of racing thoughts and moments of numbdespair.
“Get out of the damn way!” I scream at the car in front of me on the way to work. I lay on the horn, but it doesn’t make the driver any smarter. They continue blocking the lane they shouldn’t have pulled into with all thistraffic.
Finally, ten minutes late, I pull into the parking lot of Sykes FuneralHome.
My hands quake violently as I walk to Emmanuel’s office. My voice shakes as I tell him I need to talk to him. I’m pretty sure I’m going to puke as I tell him about my fake apprenticeship inAustria.
He sits there silently for a minute when I finish telling him these are my final five days at work. He stares at me with hardeyes.
“Austria?” he questions. “Not the catacombs in Rome? Not the mummifiers in Egypt?Austria.”
My heart drops into my stomach with an acidicsplash.
“Yes,” I say, forcing myself to sound confident. “At St. Margaret deTod.”
Emmanuel keeps staring at me. But slowly, so slowly I’m pretty sure I’m going to die from dread that he’s going to see the holes in my story, his facerelaxes.
“Well,” he finally says. “I can’t say I’m happy you’re only giving me a week’s notice.” He stands. “But I suppose you didn’t get much choice. And,” he stops in front of me, “it sounds like it will be an incredible opportunity foryou.”
A smile breaks out onto my face, and I let out a breath of relief when he wraps his arms around me in ahug.
The next step in saying goodbye to my human life:check.
I text Amelia after work that day and ask if I can come over for a few minutes. Once more feeling sick, I head to her newapartment.
She cries. When I tell her, Amelia isn’t exactly happy for me and doesn’t understand why I’d want to learn how to completely desiccate a body to preserve it for centuries, because that’s just disgusting. She buries her face in my chest and justcries.
“It’ll only be for a year,” I comfort her. “I swear, when I’m done, we’ll go on an epic road trip. To California or Florida or somewhere warm with anocean.”
“We better,” shesobbed.
Feeling hollow and tired, I head back to the house thatnight.
The moment I walk in the door, it’s obvious everything iswrong.
“Were there not security cameras installed before we purchased the home?” I hear Cyrusbellow.
I step into the living room, and my blood goescold.
The house has been tossed. The furniture is all out of sorts. All the bookcases have been toppled. Everything from the kitchen has been drug out and the cupboards look like theyexploded.
“What…” my voice shakes. “What the hellhappened?”
Sharp eyes turn to me. Cyrus, glowing red. Mina, with fear and shame. Fredrick with justterror.