#TeaserTuesday 5 - Trust

For today's #TeaserTuesday, we're delving into the issue of trust (do you sense a theme here, folks?). I'm a bit sad that Vel wasn't able to be in this book more, but he still had his presence in his own little way.

Enjoy!


"Remember?"  Vel said, shaking her hand a bit. "You led us to the Arch. You never would have been able to do that if the Great Creator—"

"Then why did He take away the only thing in this entire universe that ever made me happy?" Lyssa barked, snapping her head up to look at him for the first time. She was sickened by the way he watched her lovingly. "Why me? Why does everyone else get to be happy and...and I don't."

"Because you don't let yourself be happy," Vel replied gently but with edge in his voice. "You obviously cared a lot about him; you trusted him. And you haven't trusted another person since, me included!"

"I trust you," Lyssa mumbled, unable to look at him in the eye.

"No you don't. Because if you did, you wouldn't have been jealous that I had a new girlfriend. If you trusted me, you wouldn't be sitting here telling me that you still think you're a bad person, and that you're damned to Plethegon even though I told you otherwise. If you trusted me,"—he reached across the table and took her hand—"you would tell me what you saw last year."

"I can't," she whispered, anxious at the thought of sharing something so personal. 

"Well, you can't go through life pushing people away and expect to find the same kind of safe haven you found in Tauron," Vel said, releasing her hand and sitting back. "To get that kind of connection again, you're going to have to trust that maybe not everyone is the enemy. Maybe you'll lose someone again, but that's no excuse to shut everyone out completely, especially the people who obviously care about you."

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