“It’s not just my mother. You should read the history books in the library. A lot of terrible tragedies taint the Brotherhood. When it struck my family…” He sits up, dragging a hand through his blond bedroom hair. “Landon and I want to change things, and we’re going to try, but I won’t risk losing you.”
“It’s seven months, Sebastian. I won’t be able to touch you, or kiss you, or—” My voice breaks, and the burn in my eyes erupts, hot on my cheeks.
“Then touch me now.” Blanketing my body, he sinks his hands into my hair, his mouth tempting me to meet him halfway. “Kiss me now and don’t stop until we have to.”
And that’s how we spend our last morning, kissing and touching and getting as much of each other as we can before the clock intrudes with reality. He takes me again in the shower, using his body to spread suds on my backside. When we step onto the plush bath mat, he sets a towel around my shoulders and helps me dry my hair.
Making it through brunch is too torturous, as if we’re facing our last meal before an execution, and an hour before he’s supposed to take me to the library for the exchange, we abandon the idea of consuming food. We’d rather spend our last moments consuming each other. He’s leading me back to his bedroom when someone rings the doorbell. Nerves and devastation race through my blood.
“It’s not time yet!” The panic in my voice is all-too real.
Tightening his fingers around mine, he changes direction and pulls the door open. I expected Miles, or even Liam. I didn’t expect to find my half-sister standing on Sebastian’s floor on the morning I’m supposed to leave.
“What are you doing here?” Sebastian asks, a hard edge to his tone.
Surely, she knows what today is…what this last hour means to us.
“You know why I’m here.” Lilith wrings her hands, eyes cast in dark circles. “I haven’t heard a word from you since the wedding.”
He glowers at her, azure eyes reduced to silver slits. “You shouldn’t have come here.”
She crosses her arms. “You didn’t tell her, did you?”
My attention darts between them, and I feel like an observer cursed with an invisibility spell. “Tell me what?”
“It’s nothing,” he says, stare lethal as he keeps it on our unexpected visitor.
“It’s not nothing,” Lilith says. “She has a right to know.”
“That’s not for you to decide.” He thrusts a finger toward the elevator. “You need to leave.”
Lilith trains her haughty gaze on me. “I told you it wasn’t over. You didn’t want to believe me.”
Her words and the implication behind them roar in my mind. I retreat a step, limbs weak, and almost lose my footing. “You slept with her? Again?” Disbelief raises my voice to a near shout.
Sebastian shakes his head, blue eyes imploring me to listen. “I haven’t touched her since the night of the ball. I swear to you, Novalee.”
I glance at her, expecting to find smug glee on her red lips as she counters his claim. Surprisingly, she doesn’t. “It’s true. We haven’t been together since my birthday.”
“Then what am I missing?”
“It’s not what you’re missing. It’s what I’m missing.” Lilith lets a pregnant pause set the foundation for destruction. “My period, Novalee. Late by two months. You do the math.”
“No.” I take another step back, unwilling to believe what she’s saying, but when I find the courage to search Sebastian’s expression, hoping against hope he’ll deny it, he hangs his head instead.
And that’s when I know it’s true.