“Emma,” I breathed, the word barely audible.
TWENTY
JAMES
My stomach churned violently. “You forced the True Bond on Emma when she was a newborn?”
Julian nodded, shame written across his face. That was all it took. My fist connected with his jaw before I even realized I’d moved. He staggered but didn’t retaliate, his gaze fixed to the ground, blood pooling in the corner of his mouth.
He wiped it away with the back of his hand, his movements slow, deliberate, like a man resigned to penance. I flexed my fist, the ache from the impact grounding me, but it wasn’t enough to quell the fire roaring in my chest.
He didn’t defend himself, though it wasn’t guilt that kept him still; it was acceptance. When Julian finally lifted his head, the haunted cast to his features hadn’t faded..
“I killed Gordon that night,” Julian rasped, his voice raw as his hand clutched the side of his jaw where I’d struck him. “It took everything I had—every last shred of strength—but I ended him.”
He paused, swallowing hard. “You might think it was the right thing to do. Maybe it was. But that doesn’t change the fact that he was my friend.”
His voice cracked slightly, barely noticeable unless you were listening for it. “We fought side by side for years. I trusted him. I cared about him—despite what he became.”
“He was broken, James. He’d lost everything. And in the end... I was the one who finished the job.”
“Not a fucking excuse,” I growled, the heat still burning under my skin.
“No,” Julian said quietly. “It’s not. Which is why I did what I had to—and then called the others for help. I thought... I hoped...maybe we could still undo what he’d done.”
Julian’s breath hitched, his body trembling as he relived the night. “But there was no going back,” he rasped. “Three human infants—three—carried my haze, fused permanently with their tiny bodies. We had no idea what it meant, no idea how to fix it. And before we could even decide our next step…”
His voice broke, and for a moment, he just stood there, silent and shaking.
“Gods, James, it was horrific.”
He shuddered violently, like the words scraped their way up from someplace buried. His hands clenched into fists at his sides, knuckles pale.
“By the end of that night, they were gone. Dead. All of them. Except one.”
A chill bled through me, sharp and settling deep. My throat tightened like it had filled with sand.
“Emma,” I said, the name catching on my tongue like a curse.
Julian nodded slowly, heavily.
“Yes. Emma.”
He lowered himself onto the edge of the bench, rubbing a hand down his face.
“I don’t know how or why she survived—but she did. My energy wrapped around her amygdala, exactly like it does with our kind at birth. Her brain scans were identical to ours… only the energy wasn’t hers. It was mine.”
He stood again, restless, and began to pace—tight, fast steps that echoed the spiral in his mind.
“Can you imagine what would happen if people found out?” His voice rose, strained with fear. “We created something even beyond our understanding. She had magic, only she wasn’t born with it, she wasmadeinto a maga.”
"That's why we can't trace her in the Human World," I whispered, the implications beginning to sink in. “Because she’s human.”
Julian halted, then nodded, confirming my dawning realization. "Right. No LiaPrism in the world would be able to find her, because it picks up energy that doesn’t belong to the Human World. But with Emma being human to begin with…”
“It became a human form of translation,” I murmured, finishing his thought.
Julian nodded again. “We debated for hours what to do next, monitoring her closely while we decided whether to bring her into our world or leave her with the humans."
