“Mom,” says my father with a sigh, “she just got here. Give her some space.”
Mom? Is this my grandmother?
“I tried to slow her down,” says the light brown-haired woman, ambling to my mother’s side. “But she was steadfast on coming as soon as we heard.”
“Mom, let her go.” My father approaches,and he pries my grandmother’s arms from around me. He sighs in mock annoyance, not hiding the smile on his face. “This is your paternal grandmother, Cassie. Helen.”
“And this is your maternal grandmother,” Mom says, pointing at the lady next to her. “Nancy.”
Oh my God. I went fromhavingno relatives to a bunch of them. My cheeks grow warm. “It’s a pleasure.”
“She looks so pretty, dear,” says Nancy in a mock whisper to my mother.
“I think she got our side of the family,” Helen tells my father. “The nose and the eyes. The beauty, of course.”
I can’t help but chuckle. This is everything I’ve ever wanted. But something is missing. The biggest part of my soul is not here, but out there, in the human world. Alive and in danger.
Dad reaches out, cupping the back of my head. “You alright?”
I nod, but there’s no way I can keep this from them. “My mates. They were with me when it happened. And we were being hunted down. I’m afraid they might get hurt.”
“Mates?” Helen says, hissing for a moment at the S. “As in more than one? Good gods, I could barely stand Arthur.”
If my cheeks were warm before, they don’t compare to how hot they feel now. I didn’t think this through. How am I going to tell my parents I have more than one mate? What will they think?
“I think she needs a nice breakfast,” says Nancy, urging my mother toward the corridor. “Come now. Let’s sit at the table and she can tell us all about her mates while we eat.”
Nancy takes over the kitchen, and the smell of pancakes and muffins makes me think of Donatello. It’s a pang in my heart I can’t conceal. So I tell them. About the Collector and Kayn, and how I became hunted from the moment my powers awoke. How Donatello joined, then Apollo. I tell them about Ren and how he and Apollo soon recognized me as their intended mate. Tristan joined, claiming the same, and vampires have something similar. I tell them how much I love each of these men and how it doesn’t feel natural to choose. And I tell them how I bled, and how the last memory I have before blacking out is of tears in Donatello’s eyes.
My parents look at each other, pain on their faces. They feel the pain for me. Dad gazes back at me, reaching out to take my hand. “I’m so sorry, Cassie. I wish none of this had happened to you.”
“The powers of the Shadow Mage are still a curse, aren’t they?” says Helen, twisting her lips. “No one lives long with them.”
I shake my head. “The powers have helped me this far. They healed me, and they kept my mates safe. I can’t blame the powers.”
“We blame the Collector,” says Nancy, nodding as her fingers curl around a cup of coffee. “That monster had been hurting people for way too long. You did good, child. You did very well.”
“Thanks.” I smile at her, then sigh at my empty plate, having finished mypancakes. “I’m so glad to have you here. To see you. To finally have a family, a blood family.” I swallow, looking at my father and then my mother. “But I can’t stay. These men would have given their lives for me. They are the family I created, and I love them more than everything. I can’t stay here.”
Dad squeezes my fingers. “Cassie. People don’t just come back from the dead.”
“But...” I knew they’d say that. I had never heard of people coming back from the dead. “But I would do anything.”
He presses his brows together, about to tell me it can’t be done, when Nancy raises a hand. We all turn to face her.
She clears her throat, looking at my mother. “There is a way.”
Helen scoffs. “Not a necromancer, surely? She would come back to life, but only her body. We don’t want her to become a zombie.”
That won’t do. I have to be there, in control of my thoughts and powers. It has to be me.
Nancy shakes her head, and the sight of it makes my heart skip a beat. There’s a way? Another way? She looks straight at me, almost into me. Nancy takes a beat, organizing her thoughts, then licks at her lips.
“There is a myth.”
CHAPTER3
REN