Sai winces, closing one eye.“Shit. Now I feel bad.”
Ezekial pours a glass and passes it to Kane who holds it in his hand, but doesn’t drink.
“She’s stronger than we thought,” Kane murmurs, breaking the quiet,
I frown, waiting for more, but when he doesn’t continue, I look to Ezekial instead.
“I know we’ve briefly discussed her age before.” Ezekial removes his glasses, rubbing his scar with the edge of his palm. “But now Kane is able to feel Jasmine’s power, feel how strong she is… how old it is.”
My gaze snaps to Kane, no longer willing to be patient. He must sense it, maybe due to his new ability to feel, because he looks straight at me and says, “She’s at least a hundred.”
“Fuck.” Sai’s voice echoes in the silence. “Are you sure?”
Kane nods, eyes sweeping back to Jasmine’s face.
One hundred years, and we’ve only just found her.
“Her darkness is powerful enough that it’s stopped her aging, but not enough for immortality?” I glance at both brothers, eager for their thoughts.
Ezekial is the only one that looks back. “Kane thinks it could be the rune. That it could be interfering, maybe reducing her power.”
“Or…” I begin, knowing it will cause a reaction. “Jasmine is immortal, and the rune is hiding it.” Kane’s eyes snap to mine as I clarify for everyone. “The rune is either stopping her becoming immortal, or hiding the fact she already is.”
His dark eyes bore into me until slowly, he nods in agreement.
“Fuck,” Sai mutters. “Well, we have to tell her, and we need to make it damn clear we’ve just found out. I don’t want her to think we’ve kept this from her.”
“I should’ve seen it sooner.” Kane’s voice is quiet and contemplative, but there’s guilt buried there. “Her control of the dark is perfect.”
He doesn’t elaborate with words, instead, he shares a memory.
Kane has never shared memories so easily before, always in fragments, like film with the edges burnt. Now, it’s so clear, it’s like we’re stood inside of it.
The mole, Lucanus, is thrown in the Dark Realm and when Kane follows, he sees Jasmine—towering in shadow. Controlling the rippling veil of darkness with the soft flick of her fingers as if it belonged to her. Then Kane moves closer, we see her burning eyes ruptured with black, we feel the shadows wrapping around him, both of them.
Protecting. Listening. Obeying without words.
“She’s always been able to control it,” he says as the memory softly melts away. “I thought she needed training, but she doesn’t. The rune is affecting her ability to control it. It’s stopping our bond from fully completing. It’s hindering everything.”
I count to three in my head, keep my breath held inside a little longer before slowly letting it out. Ease the rage bubbling inside because there’s no one but ourselves to direct it at.
“But now,” I say, twisting that anger into a burning certainty we all need. “We know how to break it.”
Kane looks up at me, and there are so many emotions in that one look, confirmation, hope, fear. I don’t need to be an empath to know we all feel it.
I look back at Jasmine, and silence descends upon us. Because not one of us is brave enough to admit the truth festering inside our chests.
We’re scared.
Jasmine only knows the life she’s been allowed to remember—five years, beginning outside the Council barrier, surrounded by strangers, then the few months with us.
But soon, when she wakes, she’ll learn the truth we’ve uncovered.
That what Ezekial wiped from her mind wasn’t a few decades, it was lifetimes. That there are pieces of herself she’s never even known to mourn. That the rune hasn’t just bound her power, that it’s either keeping her from becoming immortal, or suppressing the truth that she already is.
We don’t speak again, not for a long time, because fear takes many forms. And in this moment, it is us—four men gathered close, disciples in the light of a star they can’t believe they’ve found.
Chapter 50: Jasmine
