True: An Elixir Novel by Hilary Duff Read Free Book Online Page A

fault he was even there to begin with.”
    “How do you figure that?”
    “I should have made him stay home with Rayna!” I insist.
    “The man’s a house,” Ben says. “You really think you could have stopped him?”
    “Why not? You think you could have stopped gravity!”
    He leans forward to make another point, and I’m set to volley it back . . . when he slumps back into the cushions. “Wow . . . Can we stop fighting about which one of us is more horrible?”
    I find a weak smile. “Okay. Is Sage upstairs?”
    Ben nods. “Asleep. I didn’t know where you’d want him, so I put him in the guest room.”
    “Great. Thanks.”
    Neither one of us says anything for a long time. It feels good, though. I’m so down-to-my-bones exhausted, I can’t imagine trying to chat . . . but with Ben I don’t have to. There’s no pressure. Even after everything, I can just sit with him in silence and feel totally at home.
    Then I wonder. “Did you ever tell Suzanne about . . .”
    I wave my hand in the air. It’s the only way I can think to sum up everything Ben might have told his girlfriend—all about Ben’s past lives, and mine, and how time after time the men with Ben’s soul caused tragedy for me and Sage.
    Ben gives a short laugh and shakes his head.I smile too. I know Suzanne—she works for my mom—and there is no way I can see her handling that kind of conversation.
    “Just as well,” he says. “She ended it. You know, after . . .”
    Now it’s his turn to drift off, but I know what he means. After the night on the beach, when I threw myself at him. Maybe it should make me uncomfortable that he brings it up, but it doesn’t. I can tell he’s not upset about it—not anymore. He just says it that way because he’s as tired as I am; it would take too much energy to do anything else.
    “You okay?”
    “Oh yeah. It’s better, actually. Suzanne’s a little bit . . . high-maintenance.”
    I nod sympathetically, but a second later we both burst out laughing because Suzanne isn’t just a little high-maintenance, she’s ridiculously high-maintenance. But even that isn’t it. Not really. We laugh because it feels so good and light and easy and normal , and we both keep going until we’re gasping for air. When I’m completely spent I take a deep breath and let it out in a long sigh . . . at the exact same time Ben does, which starts us laughing all over again.
    “Can I tell you something?” Ben says once wesettle down. I expect him to make some kind of joke and I narrow my eyes at him. “I really admire you.”
    I scan his face for sarcasm, but there’s none. “Me?” I ask. “For what?
    “I admire your strength. Most people, if they faced even a fraction of the stuff you’ve had to deal with, they’d land in a psych ward. But you handle it.”
    “Badly.”
    “Better than you think.”
    Ben has a throw pillow in his lap and twines his fingers in and out of its fringe. The circles under his eyes . . . I’ve seen him pull three all-nighters in a row juggling work and research projects, but I’ve never seen him look this tired. More than tired. He looks worn, like . . .
    Like an old soul.
    Ben can talk all he wants about how much I’ve had to handle, but he’s dealt with just as much. Nico’s death was the worst. If I were any kind of friend at all, I’d urge him to go on vacation someplace far away, where he could try and forget everything that happened this year. The Elixir is gone; my drama doesn’t have drag him down anymore.
    The problem is there’s no one else I can ask.
    “I’m hoping you can do me a favor,” I say.
    “You want me to do some research and find out what’s going on with Sage.”
    It’s exactly what I want, but now I can’t say it. I can’t drag him into this any deeper.
    “No,” I say. “Forget I mentioned it. You’ve done enough.”
    “Stop. Of course I’ll help you. We’re friends.”
    He looks at me meaningfully, and I hear