My breath hitched in my chest as I stared at the strangers around me. What did that even mean? Life itself? I was nothing.
Why would I be taught humility and self-hate my whole life only to be told by the very ones I was supposed to fear that I was life itself?
“Jealousy,” Ethan said softly, “quickly turns to envy. Envy is a dangerous thing because you end up wanting so desperately what you'd never been given in the first place.
“The greatest sin an immortal can commit is to laugh in the face of what we are… and want.” His eyes were sad. “He wants you.”
“To kill me?” I whispered hoarsely.
“No.” Ethan cupped my chin with his smooth fingers. “He wants to possess you, and believe me when I say you'll like every part of that possession — until he leaves you.
“Dark Ones always leave, and you'll die.”
“Maybe she's different,” Stephanie said in a quiet voice.
“You'd be willing to sacrifice another?” Mason roared, slamming his fists onto the table. It split down the middle right in front of me.
Gasping, I slid my chair back and nearly fell out of it.
“How many times have we said we’d stop testing the prophecy?”
Stephanie looked down at her hands. “It’s the only hope we have.”
“Hope,” Alex muttered. “What a sad, pathetic little word.”
“We aren’t letting Cassius have her.” Ethan’s green eyes flashed as he released my chin. “We won’t repeat what happened last time.”
“What happened last time?” I asked, knowing I’d probably regret the answer.
Mason’s entire face crumpled with pain as he let out a howl and ran out of the room.
“Shit.” Alex stared after him. “It’s going to take hours to get him to come out of his state now.”
“I’m so sorry.” I held up my hands. “I had no idea—”
“Of course you don’t,” Ethan snapped. “You know nothing.”
I hung my head.
“Be easy on her,” Stephanie said in a calm voice. “She’s been brainwashed for quite a while.”
“Will he be okay?” I asked in a small voice. “The wer—” I was about to say werewolf and had to stop myself. “Mason? Will he be okay?”
“After he runs.” Ethan hung his head. “Maybe if he eats something other than berries and the damn pinecones I keep finding in the upstairs bedroom.”
Stephanie’s lips pressed together in a small smile. “He finds comfort in the outside.”
“Yeah, well, he’s ruining my wood floors,” Ethan grumbled.
“You live together?” I blurted.
All eyes fell to me. “All immortals live together in one sense or another.” It was Ethan who kept answering my questions.
“And you didn’t offend Mason as much as remind him of what should have been… what could have been.”
“Oh.” I swallowed against the dryness in my throat. Shock must have been wearing off as I could at least feel my body again, though what I felt was shaky and weak.
“Ethan…” Stephanie glanced between us. “I know you don’t like the idea, but it’s really the only way.”
He chewed his lower lip; fangs descended from the top of his mouth. “I know.”
“It’s the only thing we haven’t tried.” Alex put his arm around Stephanie. “It won’t be so bad, will it?”
What were they talking about?
And why was I suddenly feeling rejected all over again?
“It won’t be so bad,” Ethan repeated. “It will be absolute torture… hell rising to earth… and you ask me to do this still? Knowing what you know?”
The two of them hung their heads but said nothing.
It was on the tip of my tongue to ask when the entire temperature in the room dropped.
I saw my own breath.
“He’s close.” Alex cursed. “Do it now!”
Ethan’s green eyes met mine; they flashed then went completely black before he said in a low gravelly voice, “I’m so sorry.”
All I felt was pain.
As black overtook everything.
“Awake!” he screamed.
I jolted up from the bed in a cold sweat and confused, who carried me there? Ethan hovered over me, Stephanie rocked in the corner, and Alex paced the floor.
“It worked.” Alex paused his walking, still not looking at me. “Thank God, it worked.”
“Of course it did,” Stephanie agreed; her eyes held such a deep sadness, my heart clenched in my chest. “Ethan…”
He shoved away from the bedside and walked out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
“He won’t hurt you.” Alex gave me a sympathetic smile. “Just… give him time.”
“Time?”
Stephanie nodded. “To get used to the idea.”
“The idea of what?”
“You’re his new mate.” Stephanie stood, just as the sound of a man screaming in agony pierced my ears. “We’ll leave you now.”
