“I don’t understand.”
“Then let me speak plainly.” A muscle twitched in his jaw. “If I kill the Demon. You and Cassius will both die. I wipe out their race, and you will cease to exist, dust to dust. Is that plain enough for you?”
My eyes widened, “But, the war—”
“To keep their numbers down, for they’re a gossiping sort. They horde together, make plans, but up until now they have been silent. They’ve been silent for a thousand years. And now, they are at it again, and it will be your job to squelch the uprising before it is too late.”
My mind finally caught up with what he was saying.
“Why would we die… if the Demon race was annihilated?”
Sariel’s eyes were sad, but he said nothing.
Instead, he reached out and touched my face with his fingertips.
And disappeared.
Was it seconds? Minutes? Or hours? I had no idea how much time I spent staring off into space, wondering what my next course of action should be. All I knew was that I had a suspicion Cassius was in the dark just as much as I was, and that maybe, maybe it was time for someone to do something.
Cassius’s self-deprecating thoughts had always affected me, made me afraid of what I had inside, afraid of the darkness, afraid of what would happen if I lost control. It was a juxtaposition, being told not to be afraid yet seeing what we were capable of if we did fall off that cliff.
How was I supposed to stay strong when every fiber of my being told me I should be leery? When I saw thousands of years of war, when I witnessed firsthand the way he was conceived into this world.
Air brushed past my cheek.
Had my relationship to Cassius come to this? Me keeping secrets while he watched and waited for me to snap?
Waited for me to kill him?
The vision of the knife in his chest while he fell to the ground seared through my memory.
Why would I do that?
Why would I hurt him purposely?
The answer came swifter than I thought.
Because as strong as I was—Cassius would always be stronger. He would eventually hunt me, track me, find me. I couldn’t keep my walls up forever.
But injured?
I shivered.
And knew, as the wind picked up and swirled like madness around me, what I had to do.
Oddly, as I took those first steps toward the house it wasn’t Darkness rejoicing, it wasn’t warmth I felt, but a deep sense of cold, and that was the most comforting thought at all, as I grabbed the knife I knew Ethan kept in the hall closet right along with a few guns—not that he’d ever used them.
I thumbed the blade.
Not the twist I thought our fairy tale would take.
Not at all.
Cassius
THE THOUGHT THAT I didn’t still have my immortality never crossed my mind, and frankly, I didn’t want to take any chances. I would call upon Sariel once Stephanie returned.
If she returned.