I’d Give Up The World For You - Chapter 219

Amy’s mind was racing. She hadn’t ever thought about books having their own dimensions before this but was it possible that the heart and soul fans poured into it had helped make it real?

She realized Callie was still looking at her expectantly and she pasted on a smile. “That’s really cool, Callie. You did a good job with it.”

“Thanks!” the girl replied happily. “Let me get the book for you. Come find me as soon as you’ve finished with it so we can discuss it, okay? I’m stoked to get your opinion!”

Amy nodded and thanked her as she took the book and went to go read out in the living room. Her husband Rick was surprised to find her reading a YA novel when he came home and called her out on it. He knew she wasn’t exactly into fantasy.

“What are you doing, hon?”

“Research,” she said vaguely. “How was your day?”

He loosened his tie and bent down to kiss her forehead. “The same as always. What about you?”

“Today was the craziest day of my career and that’s really saying something. Unfortunately, I can’t talk about it. Client confidentiality and all that.”

Rick was very familiar with the constraints of her job by this point. They had met when she was still in her PhD program so he had been there every step of the way throughout her career.

“I’m sorry. Why don’t I handle making dinner tonight? You seem like you need a break.”

Affection for him welled up inside of her. Amy smiled warmly at him as she let out a sigh of relief. “You’re an angel, Rick. Thank you.”

As always, she was so grateful she had him in her life. They had hit it off immediately after their friend groups met up one Friday night at a bowling alley. He quickly became not only her boyfriend but her best friend. They had gotten married three years later.

Thinking of marrying your best friend brought her thoughts back to Rukelion. Who was doing his best to get a hold of his mental health so he would make his wife and best friend happy.

Amy really hoped that reading this book would help her understand where he was coming from more. What she really needed was the prequel but that wouldn’t come out for a while. She would need to make sure to preorder it and read it before Callie’s birthday.

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Amy became progressively more horrified in the following weeks as she heard more of Rukelion’s story. He had joined the military at fifteen, which was totally illegal here, and worked his way up the ranks by killing people who trusted him.

In his mind it was perfectly justified because he had infiltrated it solely for the purpose of bringing down everyone involved in the slaughter of his country. Different morality or not, it was horrifying to think of someone a year younger than Callie killing so many people.

He had been cold and calculating as he gathered allies, not particularly caring about them. And why would he? They were enemies from a country he hated.

Everything Rukelion did pertained directly to his revenge plan except his relationship with Daisy that he maintained through letters. He had proposed a fake engagement before he left to keep her suitors away so he could work on winning her over himself when they were reunited.

That was calculating too but he had done it because he had wanted to be with her when it was all over. He had been planning for his future in addition to living for his revenge. The problem was that he approached everything in his life so strategically.

Even now he was thinking like a war strategist trying to get his wife back. It was his natural state considering how long he had to live like that but he didn’t need to do that anymore.

Rukelion clearly thought of therapy the same way. As yet another task he had to accomplish on the way to his ultimate goal. Something to check off his to-do list. Amy was willing to bet he wouldn’t be nearly as forthcoming about everything if he didn’t.

Based on what he was telling her, he lived for the sake of accomplishing his goals but didn’t end up finding the satisfaction he hoped for once they were done. Fighting the king of Mirea and seeing him use that plant magic again had really messed him up. Then he had to deal with a bunch of life changes at once on top of his wife being unhappy about them.

He hadn’t been able to compromise fully with her, which was what led to them fighting shortly before her death. That would make the event more traumatizing than it would have been otherwise.

And in the end even after Juliet Gallagher, author of the novel, indirectly got Daisy killed she still couldn’t let go of her belief that Rukelion was evil and threw him off course as he tracked his wife’s soul. Though it made him furious it had probably worked out for the best. He wouldn’t have been able to establish a real identity for himself here on his own.

It took over a month for him to tell her the basics of everything that happened and Amy was completely stunned. At least it gave her a reference point to start with trying to come up with a treatment plan for him.

Daisy had been right that he needed to process what he had done and let go of it. There was no going back. All he could do was try to move forward.

That was obviously what he wanted. He wouldn’t be here right now if that wasn’t the case. He was genuinely trying to make up for his past mistakes even if he didn’t always go about it in the best way.

Rukelion wanted to make things up to the woman he loved, have a family with her, and live peacefully but it wasn’t that simple. He had an awful lot of anger to unpack first. He would never be at peace until he did that.

Amy had to go about this several ways because of the complexity of his case. He was having an identity crisis, was a war veteran, experienced childhood trauma, and had a lot of unprocessed grief. This wasn’t going to be easy. It would require serious effort on his part and time. A lot of it.

Love for his wife and hatred for so many others warred within him constantly. The latter had largely controlled his choices back in his world but he had chosen to leave everything behind because of the former.

Now that he was here, everything was driven by his love for Daisy but he still struggled with the anger and hatred for Juliet since the rest of his enemies weren’t accessible anymore. That was going to cause him serious problems if he didn’t get a hold of it.

Amy wished she could get in contact with the author and ask her about her role in all of this but it would be breaching Rukelion’s trust. Her only other option was reading the prequel when it came out.

In the meantime she tried breaking down everything they needed to do into steps. They had to start somewhere.

Rukelion was determined to follow her instructions exactly but he still frequently got upset and burst into flame as they talked things over. She had almost gotten used to it by this point. It didn’t freak her out nearly as much after seeing it so many times.

He was struggling though. Hard. Unpacking nine years’ worth of trauma would take a toll on anybody but especially someone like him who was used to powering through things as if nothing was wrong.

The poor kid was seriously depressed and Amy wanted to send him to a psychiatrist to get put on antidepressants but there was one rather serious problem with that. She didn’t know if his physiology was different because he had magic.

Putting someone who could catch on fire at any given moment on medication that might make things worse did not seem like a good idea to her. But after too many breakdowns she felt like she didn’t have any other choice. If it wasn’t working out after a few weeks he could go back and reevaluate.

She kept a close eye on him and asked him about his symptoms but wasn’t able to tell whether or not they were helping or making things worse. Because things had already been about as bad as they could get. He wasn’t exactly suicidal but she was willing to bet that was solely because of Daisy.

Rukelion talked about her a lot in a rather off-handed way. Mostly it was things they did together but he also occasionally mentioned things he wanted to do with her in the future.

When Amy asked him how school was going on day he said his class load was a bit much but he wanted to get his degree done as quickly as possible so he could get a good job and start saving money for a house with a lot of land where he and Daisy could garden together like they had back on the farm.

Everything he did these days seemed directly related to her. That wasn’t healthy or safe but any time she tried to say anything he got upset and his hair caught fire. After a while she gave up and accepted that she needed to pick her battles.

Still, she was worried.. If Daisy ever decided she couldn’t handle him anymore, he truly wouldn’t have anything left to live for.