His hand snapped out and circled my waist, dragging me into him. “It’s okay. Whatever it is, we can face it together.” He tapped his finger on my forehead. “Two heads are better than one.”
“I’m the function.”
“Explain.”
“You know the story of Adam and Eve?”
“I’m down for a little role play if it involves being naked, but I’m not following.”
“How the snake tempted Eve to eat the apple?”
“Yes.”
“So it turns out that she was choosing free will over Eden, lifting the veil for the future generations. Her choice reverberated through history, bringing us to a new fork in the road.”
“The one Eloise is forcing?”
I nodded. “So the new Eve has to make another choice.”
“Okay.”
He wasn’t getting it, and why would he? I’m not sure I even got it.
“This time, it’s whether to fight for the status quo, reversing what my grandmother has started and keeping the factions and humanity firmly separate, or to usher us into a new reality. One where there are no secrets. No hiding.”
“We agreed that would cause a war.”
“The way my grandmother is engineering it, yes. But I think there are better ways. More peaceful and less apocalyptic ways.”
Hudson tilted his head. “What gives Eve the right to decide for the factions?”
“Her blood and her bonds. She links all of them together.”
“And you represent the elementals?”
I shake my head. “No.”
“Then why are you there, Cora?”
I drop my head back and sigh. “Because I am the choice, Hudson. The one who carries the bonds of the factions and the weight of Heaven and Hell.”
He was going to turn away from me now. Run. Abandon me. I wouldn’t blame him, but it would destroy me. Somewhere between a sarcastic remark at a speed dating event and these whispered secrets, he had stolen my heart. I didn’t choose to give it away.
“Stop looking at me like you expect me to leave,” he growled.
I sucked in a breath. “I need you.” The raw words were out with a beat of my heart, and they exposed my soul.
“Then I shall be here always, Cora. You don’t need to question it. Every time you turn around, I will be the one at your back protecting you. Every time you fall, it will be my arms that catch you. Every single time you make a stupid decision for the greater good, I will remind you that your choices might be for theworld, but your heart belongs to me, and no one will ever be able to touch it.”
I pressed my forehead against his chest and relaxed my shoulders while he rubbed my back in a soothing motion. “Don’t you want to know who the representatives are?”
“Do I know any of them?”
I grimaced. “Yes.”
“How many?”
“All.”
