“I’ve said all I may say. Fight your urges and keep your distance. It will make it easier when the time comes. He is not for you.”
The words trigger a distant memory. They’re the same ones Furi spoke to me after Ilsa was killed.
He is not for you, Blackblood.
She had been talking aboutJace.
My gut twists as the idea infests my mind. Because if that’s the case, then…
Oh god.
She could be lying. Though I don’t know what she would stand to gain from this, I do know my mother, and rest assured there is always a motive. I’m willing to bet her doppelgänger is no different.
“Why should I believe you?”
“I suppose whether you believe is up to you. I’ve done my part in warning you.”
“Warning me?” I let out a bitter laugh. “With your vague little riddles and shady bullshit?Somethingis coming? I’d hardly call that helpful. Do you know who my mates are?”
She just looks at me, her silence confirmation enough.
“You know.”
The pieces of the puzzle start to slowly click into place. The things I’ve been told, the warnings I’ve tried to ignore, the outside forces that always seem to be pushing and pulling me with no regard or respect for my free will.
“You know, don’t you? Tell me who they are. Now.”
“Oh, you know who they are. Deep down. You just refuse to accept it.”
“I need to hear you say it. Out loud. Or I won’t believe it.”
“I cannot.”
“If what you’re saying is true, people’s lives are at stake here!” I draw a deep breath, fumbling to reel back my frustration. “Please. I know you don’t owe me anything, but I am begging you. Tell me who they are and how to fix this.”
She hesitates, her gaze bordering on sympathetic. “There is no fixing this. You must accept that some things that are meant to be justaren’tmeant to be.”
It’s never been up to me, has it? It was all just decided upon by those who think they have the right. They don’t.
She begins to gather the cards on the table, and I get the sense that we’re done here. But I have way too many questions to pack it up and be on my merry fucking way.
“Just tell me something—anything. What is coming that we should be so afraid of? Tell me what I’m supposed to do?—”
“Would that it were so simple. There are things I cannot reveal. Doing so would alter nature’s course. There would be consequences.”
“There already have been! I’ve already lost people I love. I can’t lose any?—”
“That is outside my realm of jurisdiction.”
I bristle at the finality of her tone. “So that’s it? You bring me here to drop a major bombshell, and then just shut the hell up?”
She draws up her spine. “I brought you here to keep you from making the biggest mistake of your life.”
“How can you keep me from making it when I don’t even know what it is?!” I hiss. “And since when has any version of you ever giventwo shits about my life and my mistakes?” I shout, my eyes stinging with hot tears.
She sits there shaking her head, a coldness creeping onto her lovely face. “Ungrateful.”
I laugh in disbelief.
