A Fate Unmoored – Elizabeth Snow

Mari chokes and leans across the table toward me. “That was just a lie he told to get around the one visitor rule and into your hospital room.” “Yes,” I agree reasonably, still unable to meet her eye, “and then he signed my discharge papers. It was a lot easier for Todd to work up a backdated license than it would have been to alter those papers.” “You’re married?” Mari asks, wide eyed and somewhere between shock and disbelief.

“Since the day we met,” Mic says before taking a sip of coffee, “apparently.” I frown at that. I’m not a big fan of coincidence. It makes me nervous. “That’s the date he picked?” Mic shrugs. “You said a couple months. That was a couple months.” “And you’re just going to keep it?” Mari asks, trying to determine whether we’ve lost our minds.

“He can’t stand the thought of me living in my apartment—” Mic starts. “You don’t own a bed!” I interrupt his explanation, my chest seizing at the memory. Panic is so close to the surface it isn’t going to take much to set me off, again. “And,” he continues without missing a beat, “if I’m living here anyway, why not?” She frowns at us both, then she leans toward me.

“I know I was encouraging you to date him,” she practically hisses, “but that was before I knew he worked for Hagan. Now you go straight from ‘it’s nothing like that’ to being fucking married?!” I feel the heat build from my chest and push its way into my head. Mic pushes his coffee cup aside and leans forward before I can get control of my tongue. “I get it,” he says in a tone I’m not sure I’ve heard yet. “He has a bad history, and you don’t really know me from Adam, not yet.

So I’m going to lay this out once: all this shit you’ve just now learned about has kept him mired in a dissociative fugue, more or less, for well over a fucking decade. Because of me, he’s actually starting to face what he’s been through. Because of me, he was fucking able to explain this shit. He isn’t safe, yet.

He’s fragile enough that I’m not comfortable leaving him on his own for longer than it takes to fucking shower.” “He can stay with us—” Mari starts, but Mic cuts across her with a shake of his head. “There are reasons I’m able to help,” he continues, “in ways you and Todd weren’t. Maybe that hurts, but he needs everyone he can get to handle their own damn shit. Or at least to hold it together for a little while longer.

© 2026 Lion’s Tooth Publishing The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, or products is purely coincidental. Book Cover Design by Elizabeth Snow, with use of stock photos in the public domain, sourced from the New York Public Library, Canva, and Picryl. First Edition 2026 ISBN: 979-8-9960694-0-8 Library of Congress Control Number: 2026912178 1kitap1.com/en DEDICATION For my husband, who always supported and encouraged me.

For Jen, the friend who’s always eager to read my words. And for Terry D, for convincing me strangers might actually want to read them, too. THIS WORK CONTAINS: A non-binary main character with chronic pain, mobility issues, mental health challenges, and queer romantic/sexual relationships. Possible triggers include: on page sexual content, anxiety attacks, derealization, hospitalization, emotional abuse including attempted gaslighting, ableism, and violence/death, as well as an adoptive family situation that is positive but non-the-less does confront some of the complexities involved.

1kitap1.com/en Table of Contents The Beginning of the End 4 I Get His Pants Off on the First Night 12 Kangaroo Balls 20 Let Me Show You This Whisper, Careful Now… 29 Tea and Honey 38 Happy Birthday 45 Memories and Moments 53 The End of the Beginning 60 Everything is Changing 71 Between a Whisper and a Voice 83 Pieces 93 Lydia 103 The Chapter Joel Can’t Write 111 Details Composed from Silence 118 Everything Changes 123 The Voice Finds Words 130 A Grown-Ass Man 133 There Are Words 141 Safe 151 It was the Mug 158 At Least 163 I Learn Something 169 Furniture Restoration 175 Lock-picks and Cuff-links 180 Backyard Fires and Cheesy Hallmark Movies 187 The Language of Flowers is Terrifying 192 What Was Broken Can Be Mended 198 Three Gifts 208 It Is All Very Real 219 Donuts and Pancakes 230 The Land of the Midday Sun 244 A Cold Stone Bench 257 Joined Through the Roots 261 Me.

268 It Was a Flat Tire 276 Dreams and Daggers 282 Asking for Help 288 To Trap a Fae Lord 296 The Last Portal 301 Epilogue 302 Acknowledgments Author Biography 1kitap1.com/en The Beginning of the End Joel My name is Joel MacFie, and I am not a good person. I’m not a monster, or even a criminal; I wouldn’t say I’m bad.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 1092eb65eb9ab9ea
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 1,576,467 bytes (1.503 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• ISBN: 9798996069408
• Pages: 372
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 485.79 minutes
• Total Words: 97,157
• Total Characters: 508,972
• Average Words per Page: 261.17
• Average Characters per Page: 1368.2

Most Frequent Words

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