"He'll come for her," Stephanie whispered, her eyes flickering to Ethan. "If he takes her—"
"I know," Ethan barked. "Don't you think I'm well aware of our own prophesy?"
"Yet we play right into it… every century," Alex muttered. "I thought… for a second, I thought this one would be different. It felt different, right?"
The room fell silent again.
"What…" My voice was hoarse. "…what am I really doing with you? Why was my number called?"
"Oh dear…" Stephanie plopped down into a seat. "Ethan didn't explain that?"
"Again, fifteen minutes," Ethan muttered under his breath. "And she's human. It's not like her capacity for learning new information has evolved."
I glared at him.
Mason chuckled.
"Honey…" Stephanie reached her hand across the table and placed it on mine. "Whatever your family has taught you is a lie. You aren't here to teach us or do anything of the sort. You're… you're a breeder."
"A breeder," I repeated. "Like a horse?"
Mason laughed harder. Well, at least I knew werewolves weren't out to kill me.
Ethan swore and sat down on the other side of me.
"We call numbers every fifty years to breed. Immortals cannot procreate with other immortals," he explained. "Humans are chosen based on their scent, strength…" He coughed and looked away. "Physical appeal."
"But I'm ugly," I blurted. "To you I'm ugly. We're ugly, we're nothing, we're—"
Ethan shook his head slowly. "And that's the greatest deception of all." His hands moved to my chin. "To us you're not ugly. You are absolute perfection."
"To a Dark One," Mason continued, "you're life itself."
Genesis
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 am 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.
"I love you so much." The woman danced in the field, throwing her hands up into the air in excitement. "Say you love me."
"I love you." Ethan grinned. "Always, you know this."
"Say it again!" She laughed and threw herself into his arms.
I felt everything he felt, like it was me. He wasn't just elated, he was… perfect. Life was perfect. The universe was at one with him and his mate.
"The hour grows late," he whispered against her temple. "Shall we go back to the castle?"
She pulled away and pouted. Her dark hair fell in loose waves all the way down to her waist. "Catch me first."
"Too easy."
"Do it!" She laughed than took off ridiculously fast.
Laughing, Ethan chased her into the forest.
It was impossible not to laugh with them, not to experience the love firsthand. It was so beautiful I wanted to weep, but I couldn't feel my face or any part of my body. Maybe I was dead. But at least I'd seen true love once. It was something I'd never forget — the way he held her, the way their hearts beat the same rhythm.
The scene changed.