The Guardian Mist by Susan Stoker Page A

was smeared on her beautiful yellow sweater. She shook her head, but didn’t say anything more, couldn’t say anything more through a throat that was so closed off, it was a miracle she was still breathing.
    “Good. I’m glad you weren’t hurt. I need to get your statement. Can you tell me what happened tonight?”
    What happened? Rin knew he wasn’t talking about the miracle of finding her one true love. Knew he didn’t care about how two souls had managed to find each other even though the odds were against them. The police officer didn’t want to know about the fog or poems or rings. She sighed and took a deep breath.
    She needed to get to Roman. And the only way to do that was to tell the officer what she knew. Then she could go to the hospital. All thoughts of her birthday party, sister, and mom were gone. Roman was the only thing that mattered.
    Rin slid the bloody ring she’d been clutching onto her finger and closed her eyes for a moment at the jolt of energy she felt racing down her arm into her chest. Roman. She felt him with her even when he wasn’t physically there.
    She looked down. The poesy ring was still crimson. It gave her hope. Surely if Roman died, the ring would go back to being dark gray again.
    Sometime between them sitting on the bench and now, Rin had realized that the ring was about her. Her and Roman. Not her mom. Not Tina. Maybe not even MacKenzie.
    Somehow her ancestors, going back to the original owner of the ring, Theodosia, had meant for her to have the ring. She’d grown up the way she had, all to make her compatible with Roman. Oh, there were a lot of ways they were different, but the bottom line was that if she had been brought up as Tina had been, she never would’ve appealed to Roman, and vice versa. She would’ve lost out and the ring would’ve stayed dark.
    Rin turned to the cop, wanting to get this over with. She needed to get to the hospital. “We were sitting on the bench talking…”

9
    R in sat in a fake leather chair in the emergency waiting room at the best trauma center in the city. She’d washed her hands, but was still wearing her bloody sweater. Her mom had urged her to go home and change, but Rin wasn’t about to leave the hospital.
    The last two hours had been a whirlwind. She’d gone back to the ballroom to grab her purse and keys so she could get to Roman, but had run into her mom, who’d promptly freaked out, rightly so, at the sight of her daughter covered in blood.
    Rin didn’t think they would leave the party, but Cassia caught a glimpse of the ring on her daughter’s finger. It was a brilliant scarlet that couldn’t be missed.
    Her mom grabbed hold of the ring and looked into Rin’s eyes. “It’s red.”
    She’d nodded.
    “Tina?” Cassia asked, turning to her other daughter.
    Tina had merely shaken her head, telling her mom that it wasn’t red because of any feeling she’d had with any of the men she’d met that night.
    Without another word, Cassia and Tina had insisted on coming to the hospital with her.
    Rin wasn’t surprised her mom immediately figured out Roman was the man she’d been hoping to find for Tina her entire life. She was a woman who’d grown up hearing stories about instant loves through the ages, so hearing Rin say she loved a man she’d met for the first time that night wasn’t even a blip on her weird-o-meter. It was almost as if she wasn’t surprised at all, but Rin knew her mom’s head had to be reeling, learning that it wasn’t Tina who was the key to breaking the curse, but Rin.
    They’d raced to the hospital, only to find out that Roman’s family had already been called. None of the staff would talk to Rin, since she wasn’t a relative. She had to wait until his family got there, and since they had to drive over from Pennsylvania, it would be a few hours.
    Roman’s brothers arrived first, surprisingly quickly considering where they’d had to travel from. Rin would’ve been able to point them out as