In hindsight, I knew.

So many things alluded to this fact that I purposefully ignored over the years. I never asked Adam for his surname, even after the failed magic debacle. I didn't try to learn his sister's name again. And I certainly noted the similarities he had with Rex in the books. Rex's full name was only said during his character introduction. He never went by Adam or Rexford, only Rex. His father only calls him Junior and everyone else calls him Rex.

So that means I was right. Adam did have a predestined mate. It wasn't someone I could just push aside to take her place. He was the hero of this world. And his future lover was his true love, the world's heroine. She was beautiful and just and a healer that brought joy to everyone. They were on the freaking cover that I admired over and over. She was made for Adam. What did that make me? Did he hide this from me because he knew that?

How could I compete against someone he was destined for?

'...are you listening?'

The last clear image I could see was my hands shaking as I tried to work air through my lungs. Everything hurts.

I knew this was going to happen on some level. If I hadn't ignored the warning signs and gotten out sooner, would it hurt less?

I could hear my name being shouted, but it sounded far away. I couldn't see as the world turned to darkness, and my chest burned.

'...hey.'

Did Wyatt know? All of the strange secrets the two held and the way they both seemed to have gifts. Why did they hide it from me?

'If you'd just knock off the morose thoughts and listen, you'd know.' Mordecai's voice taunted me.

I felt someone grab my shoulders and shake me. "Wendy, if you want answers, then you need to listen. We don't have time for this." A voice, Wyatt's, said, but it barely pierced my spiraling.

'Even less time if you destroy this world.' Mordecai said, sounding amused.

That snapped me out of it, well, mostly. I blinked as I tried to banish the darkness encroaching on my sight. The world looked weird all around me like it was out of focus.

"Wyatt, stop," Adam said. "This isn't the way to do this."

"You're too soft on her. You're the reason we're in this mess. If you'd told her from the start, none of this would have happened." Wyatt said, dropping my shoulders.

I looked down at my hands and noticed that they were still shaking. "Tell me everything," I said around my dry mouth. How often had the two started to reveal something but were cut off? Wyatt continually interrupted at the perfect moment, or it was something like an earthquake. These strange occurrences weren't coincidences all these years.

'You can thank me for that.' Mordecai said. 'There's an order to this that needed to be established.'

"Why?" I said with clear eyes, meeting two sets of somewhat evasive ones and, hopefully, the pair that was clearly messing with me sight unseen.

"This isn't the first timeline I've known you in," Wyatt spoke first.

"The one my ancestor dropped me into?" I said.

"That was the first time we met," Wyatt said. "The world reset shortly after, and I was able to meet you again."

"Did you make a deal with Mordecai?" I asked, thinking of Sunny, Wyatt, and everything slowly adding up.

'The fool.' Mordecai said scornfully.

"I work for him for now. But I wanted to be able to meet you again and repay the debt." Wyatt said. He looked rather sheepish.

"And you worked with Adam," I said, turning my focus on the more taciturn one in the room. "What were you two trying to accomplish?"

"I wanted to make sure I had time with you. Without the strings of different worlds, deities, and past lives getting in the way." Adam said. He looked tired, and I bit my lip. His hair was mussed, his face long.

"This is why you hid so much," I said. That didn't explain why he hid his full name. Rex, in the books, would have never gone by Adam. Did he know to hide this from me? Judging from the two, it was orchestrated.

"It was going to come out eventually. I just wanted more time before it all did." Adam said.

"So the two of you knew everything," I said. It bore repeating as I reviewed everything that had happened since I met Adam and Wyatt.

"We also helped you make deals with townspeople of Green's Mountain so that repairs on the Evans property could happen," Adam said.

That hurt, I can't lie. All the things I'd worked on so proud of were really nothing I'd accomplished on my own.

'So now what? I want to know if I have time to grab some wine and dates for the show?' Mordecai said.

Was this the show the deity had been hoping for all along? The pieces he helped put together created the mess that was my life. A spark of impatience and anger flickered in his direction before I stopped it. I could blame my ancestor all I wanted, but really, I only had myself to blame. If I wasn't so stupid, none of this would have happened.

"I need time alone," I said, avoiding everyone's eyes to look up at the ceiling. "I need to process everything, and I can't do that with you two here."

Wyatt left without another word, which was surprising to see. Adam lingered, and I avoided his touch and eyes as he stepped towards me.

"Wendy," Adam said. His voice was hoarse, and I could feel my heart sway.

Against my desire, I met his gaze.

"I wanted to tell you everything I just…" Adam said as he raked his hands through his hair. "I'm sorry."

My lips quivered as I battled the urge to cry. "I understand. I just need time. Please trust me." I managed to say. My voice was gross, and you could hear the snot I held back.

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Adam reached out to hug me, and my body flinched against my will. His hand faltered before he withdrew it and left quietly.

I watched the door close, and I fell to the ground, finally giving in to the desire to pour out my heart in hot, wet tears.

'Well. Not the show I was expecting. At least the peasants are gone.' Mordecai said with a sigh, and it was the last thing I heard before the lights went out.

I woke up feeling as muddy-headed as before I passed out. Rest was not the break I desired, as my dreams were haunted by memories, and my brain tried to lay it all out for me. I wasn't upset with Adam or Wyatt for robbing me of what I thought was my own work. Well, I'm not too bitter, I should amend.

Fear was the true motivation behind why I wanted to be alone. Adam was the protagonist of this world. I read all about him and loved his leadership and fair-natured self. I even loved the way he redeemed himself for his true love.

There was no way I had a chance against this tale. Adam loved me now, but what happened when the world properly reset. How could I look at this book the same? It was better to withdraw now and lick my wounds.

'Or you could grow some balls and stand by your man.' Mordecai said. He was chewing something loudly in my head, and I flinched.

"Are you seriously eating dates and watching my life like a TV show?" I said with a glare aimed at everything around me. I couldn't see the deity, but he lived rent-free in my head.

'I didn't spend all this effort setting up the stage to back down now.' Mordecai said with a laugh as he sipped something loudly.

I could feel my eyebrow twitch. "You don't understand; it's not that easy. I'm not his destined love."

'Who says he has a destined love?' Mordecai said.

My ancestor was clearly playing dumb. If he could read my thoughts and hear my spiraling, he knew exactly what I meant. Even knowing that I couldn't help retorting back to him. "You're the Goddess of Destiny; you took over your mother's job. Shouldn't you know all about destiny?"

I had pieced together that fresh information from the various things he'd said. Over and over, he mentioned fate, destiny, and how he was the one in charge of mine. He must have stolen his mother's job somehow if he had such power.

'If you want me to say no, you are his destiny; you'll grow old and wrinkly before I do.' Mordecai said with a snort.

I grit my teeth as I battled my temper. Why was it that Mordecai made me want to throttle him so much? Why was he doing this to me? "I want to be left alone," I said pointedly. There was no response, and for a few seconds, I waited to see if I had been left alone.

I had been, and that was when my dark thoughts indeed took over.

Days passed, and I wallowed further and further into decay. I hadn't bathed and instead laid in bed. My space made it far too easy to pull out snacks, but I soon lost my desire to eat. I just wanted to lay down and enjoy the comfort of my blankets.

Wyatt had stopped by but cared for the farm animals and said nothing to me. I could hear him talking to himself as he got chores done, but I ignored it.

If I died due to starvation, I would still leave this world, right? The longer I was alone, the deeper I fell into depression. I couldn't dig myself out, and the longer I stayed in the pit, the more I realized I wanted to be in despair. It was easy to give up and own how awful I felt.

Since I seemed to desire nothing but to feel miserable. All of my past failures, one by one, became humongous sources of shame and guilt as they paraded in my mind.

I had long run out of tears by the time Lucia slammed my bedroom door open. I gazed blankly at her, unable to make note of her attire or expression.

I think she said something, but I could barely make it out. That is until icy cold water slammed me from above. I gasped as my system was overloaded with the chilly sensation.

Lucia spoke, but her words alluded to me as she grabbed me out of bed and stuffed me in the shower. She cleaned me, scolding me the whole way. Sat me down at the table and watched me eat.

After my first mouthful, her fierce expression crumbled into an anxious smile. "Wendy, what is going on?"

I scanned her face as I tried to eat her chicken rice soup. Did Lucia know? She doesn't seem to.

'I don't think Wyatt would have told her.' Mordecai said, startling me out of my thoughts. This was the first time in days I'd heard from my ancestor.

My thoughts turned gushy towards him. He hadn't abandoned me.

'Of course I didn't. You're my last living descendant.' Mordecai said.

I frowned. That's not true. I tried to tell him in my head. My grandma and Gus are still alive.

'The last living one I give a fig about.' Mordecai said.

You mean the figs you've been eating. I thought, annoyed at the sound of him eating yet again.

"Wendy?" Lucia said, and I realized I left her question unanswered.

"I'm just going through delayed depression over the loss of Grandpa Evans." This wasn't entirely untrue. I missed the old man, and I felt a lot of guilt over his passing. If I had done more, maybe he wouldn't have left. I spent much time wallowing over that these past few days and, of course, other things I undoubtedly ruined.

"Have you talked to Adam at all?" Lucia said.

Adam. My heart panged something fierce at his name.

'You're still not over that hump?' Mordecai said, and I could feel the tongue lashing coming my way.

"No. I haven't." I said, opting to ignore Mordecai. I wanted to, but I was afraid to see him. He had been so loving and forgiving of all my faults. How could he accept all of me when I wanted nothing more than to run far away. And it was simply because of his last name.

'And you wonder why he didn't tell you.' Mordecai said scornfully.

I need a mute button for you, my annoying ancestor. I thought sourly.

'I'm just calling you out on your bullshit.' Mordecai said unrepentant. 'What's the real reason for this cowardly retreat of yours?'

"You should talk to him soon, Wendy. We're all worried about you, and Adam looks worn down." Lucia said, drawing my attention back to her.

I latched on to her words and chose to ignore Mordecai. "I'll talk to him soon. I just needed some time alone." I said with what I hoped passed for a smile.

It must have failed because Lucia's brow crinkled with concern. "Did you two have a fight?" Lucia asked, her gaze burrowing into me.

"No, it wasn't a fight," I said, looking away from her eyes to stare at my bowl of soup.

'Cowards don't fight, they run away.' Mordecai said with a laugh at his attempt at a joke.

"Wyatt said you sent him and Adam away. What could it be if it wasn't a fight?" Lucia said.

'Yes, Gwendolyn, why have you pushed your lover away? What are you so afraid of?' Mordecai said, and I blinked as my emotions rose up in my chest.

It hurt to breathe again, and I rubbed my throat as I lost my voice. I knew what I was running from. I could lie to myself again and say it's because of the whole destined lover, but I was too greedy and selfish to let that stand in my way. No, that had been an excuse to avoid the actual reason. The absolute truth is that my real fear was how much I loved Adam.

This world wasn't real. I was in a book, And when I finally left it. I would be leaving behind Adam. Could we genuinely live together for the rest of our lives? Could I get over not being with him? It would be simpler, easier even to cut our love short now. I was destined to live for hundreds of years. I couldn't spend that time with him. Even if I left the book and tried to pull Adam out of it into my world, it wouldn't be my Adam. It would be the version that never met me. I couldn't overwrite the world's writing with my desire…what was done was done, and my exit from this world would be the undoing of our love. I would have to live with the loss of him when I eventually left. Could I risk falling deeper in love with him?

My sight grew blurry as I finally admitted what held me back from seeing Adam.

I wasn't just wallowing over whatever Adam failed to tell me all these years. I was preparing myself for what life would look like without him. That all-too-familiar pressure of loneliness pained me greatly. I don't miss the days I spent all my time alone. I should be used to being alone. But I really didn't want to go back to being by myself. All alone.

'Not entirely alone, not anymore.' Mordecai said, and I whimpered. 'If I were you, I wouldn't waste what time you have left.'

I called Adam after I told Lucia I was better, and she left.

"Wendy," Adam answered the phone, and he sounded exhausted.

"Can you come over?" I barely had time to finish the words before he teleported to me. I blinked and hung up the phone to run into his arms.

It would take me a while to get over his ability to teleport, which wasn't in the book.

"I'm sorry, I just needed time to process it." I buried my face in his chest, and he wrapped his arms around me.

"I know," Adam said as his hands held me tight.

"You have other powers, right?" I said, pulling away to inspect his face. Exhaustion lingered on his face. And I cupped his cheek. I was to blame for these dark circles under his eyes. He leaned into my hand.

"Yes. I have spacial abilities. I keep my teleportation a secret. I've had it all along, but it's not something I usually use."

I thought of all the times Rex could have teleported out of danger in the story. "Why wouldn't you use such a power?" That didn't make sense.

"If it became known, then people would plan for it. It's better to have an ace up my sleeve." Adam said.

Ruthless and paranoid were adjectives to describe Rex due to his upbringing, but not something I'd ever had the chance to see combined in Adam.

"Wyatt knows," I said. There was a bit of salt in my sore feelings about this.

"Wyatt has powers, so he was bound to catch me," Adam said.

"The world has reset…which is why you're close to your sister?" I said.

Adam said. "That reminds me, I've wanted to know why my name matters. Your reaction was extreme. How much do you know?"

"I came to this world via a book, and it talked about what would happen. It mentioned you." I said, pulling away to guide him upstairs to the study. It was my second favorite room in the house and where we had spent the most time together growing up. Better to have this conversation in a place where we both feel safe and comfortable in memories.

"How much did it say about me?" Adam said, getting to the heart of the matter. He sat on the loveseat, holding on to me to ensure I sat beside him.

"I thought it said everything, but I had no idea you could teleport," I said, meeting his clear gaze. He visibly relaxed, and I narrowed my eyes, wondering what he wanted to hide.

I then broke down everything I knew from the book and told Adam everything.