I’d Give Up The World For You - Chapter 222

Leo’s face changed faster than a set of traffic lights. First, he looked shocked. Then horrified. Then so full of rage he was like a cartoon that had fire erupting out of its head.

It only lasted a split second. Daisy didn’t even have time to scream. She must have imagined it because of how angry he was. Nothing had burned and he was back to squeezing his bandaged fists as usual.

“You think I could ever be in love with that—that—” he sputtered before letting off a string of unfamiliar curse words. “No! Why would you—how could you—Daisy, I don’t! I never! I hate her with every fiber of my being but it has absolutely nothing to do with that!”

She was inclined to believe him based on how furious he seemed at the very suggestion. What was it then? It didn’t make sense that they didn’t have a close relationship at some point.

“Sorry. She has to know you really well though to be able to write about you. I thought that was why.”

Leo clutched his head in frustration. “No! She only knows things about me because—oh, I can’t say it! But it definitely wasn’t that. Never that! She’s a disgusting roach I want to crush but that’s all I feel for her.”

Daisy barely held back a disbelieving laugh. A roach he wanted to crush? That was lovely imagery. Also much more violent than she had come to expect from him. He hurt himself when he was upset but he never hurt anyone else.

“Why can’t you say it?”

“You would never believe me. Why do you think she had to know me well to write about me, anyway? Don’t tell me you read the book.”

He had a rather terrifying look in his eye but she couldn’t lie. “…I did.”

“Why would you do that?!” Leo demanded.

“I wanted to understand what upset you so much! I thought you had read it too. It was total nonsense aside from a few details like your appearance, your last name, and what happened to your family but I figured you wouldn’t tell just anyone about that or about your less visible scars.

“Honestly, it really pissed me off that she took advantage of your pain like that. No matter what happened between the two of you, nothing gave her the right to do that. I assumed she was being a petty piece of trash because you broke her heart or something,” Daisy admitted.

He slumped against the brick wall they stood near. “You actually read it. And you don’t think any less of me?”

“Why would I?! She was full of crap! I was more concerned about why she would do something like that to you than anything else. She did something horrible to you…I just wanted to understand it because you would never tell me.”

“I…I can’t Daisy. I’m sorry.”

“Can’t or won’t?”

“Like I said, you wouldn’t believe me! I don’t want you thinking I’m crazy,” Leo said desperately. “It’s really nothing personal. I swear.”

“It feels personal,” Daisy muttered, crossing her arms over her chest.

He might love her but he didn’t trust her and that bothered her more than she could say. What was so terrible that he couldn’t tell her? She huffed and told him to forget it. They headed back to the car in tense silence.

It continued eating at her for days. She couldn’t come up with a single rational explanation for this. Only an irrational one. One so irrational she shouldn’t be entertaining it at all.

Months ago Daisy wondered if Juliet had something to do with the deaths of Leo’s family before dismissing it. She would have gone to jail for something like that…unless people didn’t think it was real. No one would arrest an author for killing off a fictional character.

It was too ridiculous! Leo couldn’t possibly be Rukelion Blaze…but it would explain why he hated Juliet so much. And that trick of the light she had seen the other day where his head caught fire when he was upset.

Rukelion Blaze was a fire mage. A very powerful one. He had gone on a rampage after losing his mind due to grief and burned the world down before the story even started. A fire mage would be able to set himself on fire without burning. But magic didn’t exist!

How would a fictional character even make it into this world? Let alone get identification documents.

The idea that a fictional character—a villain no less—had fallen in love with her was too bizarre. Her suspicions had to be wrong! There could be a whole bunch of other reasons he would hate Juliet aside from a bad breakup. She simply couldn’t think of what they were at the moment.

Daisy was only entertaining such a fantastical idea because she was worn out from their fight. Leo hadn’t spoken to her much in days, spending his weekend studying at the library instead of at home.

He wasn’t going to tell her what was going on. She had to figure it out for herself.

She made up her mind to get the dumb prequel when it came out even if it meant she had to read it in secret.

Leo had been angry when he found out she read the first book but he also seemed slightly panicked. There had to be a reason behind that. Even if it wasn’t the way-too-farfetched one her tired brain had come up with.

Daisy couldn’t take the awkwardness anymore and made up with him once he came home after making her decision. He nearly wilted with relief when she did and started acting like things were normal immediately even though they weren’t.

He wouldn’t suspect she was up to anything this way but she had a plan. She was going to read that book and track down that author if she had to in order to get answers.

===

Rukelion hated keeping secrets from Daisy. He hated that he couldn’t tell her what was on his mind most of the time and that she was having a hard time because of it.

This was worse than when he had to hide things from her before. She had been much more understanding then because she had known he ran away from something dangerous. Now she seemed to think he was being stubborn for no reason.

Making things difficult for her was the last thing he wanted but he truly couldn’t tell her. She would never believe him. It had been a miracle he had managed to get his fire under control when he found out she thought he had been in a romantic relationship with Juliet. The thought repulsed him so much that he hadn’t been able to hold back.

He knew Daisy had questions but he couldn’t answer them. She didn’t have her memories so anything he told her would sound completely crazy.

She already thought he was crazy in some capacity. That was why she had wanted him to go to therapy. He couldn’t make things worse by letting her know exactly how bad the situation was.

Rukelion was working on it. He was meeting with Amy like she wanted him to and they were working on a stupid treatment plan so they could be happy together like they were supposed to be. He couldn’t do anything to jeopardize that.

Letting her know he was a fictional character who loved her enough to stalk her to another world wouldn’t fly. She might break up with him over that and he couldn’t let that happen!

Would he ever be able to tell her everything? If she hadn’t gotten her memories back after this long she probably never would.

It might hurt sometimes but now that Daisy was in love with him it didn’t matter as much that she had forgotten most of their history together. They could make new memories. And they were. They had done a lot together over the summer and throughout the fall when he wasn’t doing schoolwork.

Hiking—walking through nature for fun without a real purpose—was new to him. So were public swimming pools, the zoo, and the butterfly garden.

Rukelion didn’t really care what new activities he tried as long as his wife was with him but he had to admit that people here had some pretty interesting ideas. He would have enjoyed those things even if they hadn’t done them together.

He couldn’t waste the second chance he had been given. He was able to meet and woo his wife all over again without having to worry about revenge. She was his first priority now even if he had to lie to her sometimes.

He was doing his best here. Why couldn’t she see that?

Daisy did forgive him for his infraction and he was incredibly relieved. Sleeping on the couch those few nights because she refused to hold him when she was upset made his nightmares so much worse. He never wanted to experience that again.

Was there some sort of plausible story he could come up with for why he hated Juliet so much that would fit within the parameters of this world? Creativity had never exactly been his strong suit.

Llyris would have done a much better job of that sort of thing than he ever could. He always had a rather vivid imagination.

Rukelion sighed. What was he supposed to do in this situation? Lying wasn’t working out as well for him as he had hoped but he couldn’t tell the truth either.. For once Amy was right about something: relationships were hard.