Beneath the hiss, the darkness had a moment of quietness. It too, seemed taken in by the skeleton’s soothing voice.
I think we should touch him, too.
It felt like a good idea.
The darkness thought about it. It moved and eyed him until the thought became an action, and the darkness forced my foot forward.
We shouldn’t.
I could almost feel the unspoken words from the darkness. Although it had no true voice, I felt its emotions—every bit of its turmoil each time the bad one came for me.
It was afraid, of what, I didn’t know.
But, for a fraction of a second, I felt it want him more than the others—a million times more.
Then, the image of Julius flooded my mind, and the darkness screamed, then sighed, and remembered.
And I didn’t get to find what was forgotten because I was never given the chance to remember.
Maybe nothing is all I’ve ever been.
The darkness went silent, and somehow, I knew that was a lie.
But when Julius stepped between the bad one and me, my thoughts dulled, and once more, all that mattered was the last two sins.
Twenty-Nine
Sebastian
"Come to me, Izzie,” I tried coaxing her, and my heart splintered. My patience was leaving me, and in its place, the need to hold her grew ever stronger. Her head tilted toward me, and for a second, the racing, dark lines receded allowing me to see her pale skin. I blinked, and the evil took hold once again.
Her eyes were still white, but that didn’t bother me. Beneath them, I knew Isabella existed, and that was the only thing that mattered.
My bones and essence reached out to her. She didn’t recognize me as Sebastian, and she wouldn’t recognize me as the skeleton I was now, but it wasn’t my appearance that sung to her. My soul reached out and tried to soothe her,bring her back to mebecause there was no doubt in me that Isabella was my other half.
Yeah, I was a hopeless fool when it came to love just like Joy. Call me whatever the fuck you want. I didn’t care. I just knew the blank-slated-eyed-girl staring back at me was the future I’d been waiting on.
I also knew our fate must be tied to this very moment in time. Whatever happened, I wouldn’t let go of her.
And just like that, she stepped forward. Her body swayed back and forth with each small step. Her head tilted and her blank eyes seared mine. Hope coursed through me, but I didn’t dare make a move toward her.
Then the moment slipped away. Harvest jumped between us, followed by August to attack him. “I won’t let you have her,” Harvest hissed at me, barely missing August’s sword as he dipped his head and lunged at me.
I backed away just as Harvest transformed before me. A red-headed female stood in his place, and recognition smacked me in the face. “Remember me?” he sang to me just as he reached out for me in the body of a woman.A woman.Harvest could fucking become a woman.
Dad stepped in, tossing Harvest across the air. He landed on his feet and laughed. “The kids were right,” Payne muttered as he took in Harvest’s new body. “He can become a female.”
I recalled the moment he had grazed my arm in the street and my essence darkened around me. I couldn’t let him get close to me. Unlike Isabella, hecoulddrain me rapidly. Which meant he could take away all the energy I’d received from Isabella lately. His touch didn’t seem to harm me the last time though, but I had to be careful.
A loud gasp led me to whip my head around to see Isabella’s grip on August as she bound a bracelet on his arm. “One more to go.”Her voice was robotic and slow, so unlike the smooth caress it usually placed upon my skin.
She was lost in there, but I would find her and get her back.
“Shit,” Payne hissed, glancing over at Maureen. “Maureen, it’s you she’ll be after now.”
“Sebastian,” it was Dad that spoke. I looked over at him and would have gasped if I weren’t a skeleton. “I think fate’swheels are turning.” I took in the silhouette of his body. He was fucking fading in and out.
“What’s happening?” I asked.
