I pressed my lips together. “You’re right. There is no excuse. I killed him and I have to live with that guilt for the rest of my life.”
“But that’s just it, sweetheart, you don’t. You don’t have to live with any guilt. We are apex predators, powerful and untouchable. There is no room for guilt in our hearts. Once you accept that, you can be free.” She shrugged. “Humans are lesser. Cattle to be culled. Would you feel guilt over wringing a chicken’s neck?”
“Humans aren’t chickens.”
“Aren’t they?” She arched a brow. “Humans are nothing compared to you and me. We are more. Evolved. Superior.”
“Killers.” The word was bitter on my tongue. “You’re a killer. A murderer. I’m nothing like you.”
“You are everything like me. You’re made from me. You belong to me, and nothing you do will change that.”
Rage born of frustration ignited in my chest. “What do you fucking want from me?”
She blinked sharply. “I want…”
I curled my hands into fists, nails biting into my palms. “What? What do you want?”
“I want you to stop fighting and accept the inevitable. I want you to be who you were meant to be.”
“And what is that, exactly?”
Once again that strange look came over her face, one that on anyone else I’d have labeled confusion. “My daughter…” She frowned. “Mine. I’m the only one who’ll accept you for who you truly are.”
Panic heated my chest because there was way too much sincerity in her tone and there was no denying the tug of twisted longing in my chest.
I staunched it, gritting my teeth and shaking my head. “Bullshit. My mates accept me. Tate accepts me.”
Her lips curved in a knowing smile. “For now. But things change. You’ll change. That part, my child, is inevitable, and when it happens, you’ll see that their love isn’t as unconditional as you believe it to be. When that time comes, I’ll be there just as I’ve always been. But for now, it’s time to wake up. Time to take another step toward your fate.”
The room melted away, taking her with it, and I sat up gasping for air, back in my bed, in my room. I reached for the other side of the bed, searching for Tate, and found it empty. The bedside clock showed it to be almost three in the morning. Maybe Tate had gone for one of his walks.
I shoved the sheets off my legs and scrambled out of bed. There would be no more sleep for me tonight. Time to put on some coffee and wait for Tate to come home.
BRYCE
Tate stands by the fire pit, his face in shadow. The fact that he’s here, at this unsociable time, tells me that something else has gone wrong. I shift into my human skin as I approach.
Emmit appears from his den, already shifted, joggers hugging his hips. And Jax joins us, fully dressed except for shoes.
A few weeks ago we wouldn’t have shifted into human skin, let alone donned any clothes, but being with Quinn, loving her and mingling with the people she cares about, is changing us.
“Quinn?” Emmit asks.
Tate shakes his head. “She’s asleep. Safe, for now.”
“For now?” I narrow my eyes at him. “What’s happened?”
He takes a deep breath, the kind of breath that precedes an epic tale, but what he delivers falls short. “Fuck, where to start.”
“At the beginning,” Jax says.
“Right.” Tate drags a hand down his face. “Let’s sit.” He parks his ass on the nearest rock and waits for us to do the same.
I don’t want to sit. I want to know what’s wrong and why my mate is still in danger, but I sense that Tate needs a moment, so I lower myself onto one of the benches reserved for the fae females.
“Tell us,” Emmit growls, unconcerned about showing his impatience.
Tate nods curtly. “When I was with Lorenzo, my Mageri father, I told him about Quinn, about who she was to the taint, and he had a theory. One I didn’t want to entertain, but one I believe is coming to pass.”
“What theory?” Jax asks.
“Lorenzo believes that the taint wants to corrupt Quinn, to activate her taint genes and unleash her dark side. He believes that if it succeeds in this, the relic will shatter, completely freeing the taint.”
“I don’t understand,” Jax says. “Quinn can’t go dark. It isn’t in her.”
But he’s wrong, and I see where Tate is going with this. “She’s the taint’s progeny. The potential must be there. Her touch fractured the relic; it makes sense that embracing the darkness inside her might shatter it completely.”
“Fuck.” Jax shakes his head. “The guy she accidentally killed…”
“Yes,” Tate says. “It’s begun. That kill has tainted her. I saw her eyes bleed to black, just for a moment, but it happened. Those genes have been activated, and I have no idea what that means aside from the fact that if the Mageri find out, they will kill her.”
“What?” I’m on my feet before I can check myself. “Who told you that?”
“Lorenzo. You’re the first line of defense against the taint, and the Mageri are the second. They monitor the town for the taint’s power signature. If Quinn’s taint side gets any stronger, they will pick up on it and they’ll come for her. They’ll kill her even if she hasn’t embraced the darkness inside her. It won’t matter to them that she intends to fight it. As far as they’re concerned, the risk is too high.”
“They’ll have to go through us first,” Jax says.
“No one touches her,” Emmit adds.
I want to join them in this assertion, to agree that we’ll protect her, but if what Tate says is true, if Quinn can cause the relic to shatter, then saving her means condemning the world.
Tate watches me, waiting, and I sense his turmoil as if it’s my own. This shocks me, tearing an exhalation from my chest.
“Bryce?” Jax watches me, waiting for me to add my words of confidence to theirs.
“We protect her and support her, but if despite her best efforts she begins to slip, if she begins to lose herself, then we have to be the ones to end her.”
Emmit stands, towering over me, a low rumble lighting up his chest.
“Are you crazy?” Jax says.
“He’s right,” Tate says softly.
“For us to kill her?” Jax asks, incredulous.
Tate’s throat bobs. “If she couldn’t stop the darkness inside her, if she felt that it was taking over, then yes, she’d want us to end her.”
Jax covers his face with his hands.
He sees it too. The awful choice before us. The possibility none of us want to consider because, fuck, it hurts to even think it. “I’d rather it be me than a stranger. Rather us than the Mageri. If it comes to that point, then she deserves not to make the journey into True death alone.”
Emmit curses softly and turns away.
“If it comes to that,” Tate says, “if we can’t stop the darkness inside her from rising, then I’ll do it…I’ll end us all. Together.”
Jax shakes his head. “It won’t come to that. We won’t let it. Quinn won’t let it.”