Sam closed his eyes at her words, and Rory lost the battle with her emotions. Tears streaked through the crusted blood on her face.
“Dear girl, I am truly sorry,” Aemas apologized, looking genuinely upset. “You will not remember us, even within The Capital walls.”
The look on Stassi’s face would break the heart of the blackest soul. Her panicked eyes pleaded with the twoSeraphim. “No. Please, don’t do this. Don’t make me forget him. I won’t say anything; I swear it!”
Rory stepped forward and gently curled her arm around Stassi, pulling her to her chest.
Aemas brought his fist to his mouth, giving himself a minute before speaking again. “It is not my decision. But fear not because when your memories are gone, so will be your hurt.”
Rory watched Sam flinch and look away when Stassi’s legs gave out while she begged Aemas to change his mind.
She leaned into Rory, and they cried together, but where Stassi’s pain would soon be gone, Rory’s would stay, remembering this day for the rest of her immortal life.
Caius moved to stand beside them, drawing Sam’s attention. “We’ll meet you in the aether one day,” he promised him, and Rory’s heart broke more as she watched her mate lose his best friend.
With a final nod, Sam and his father disappeared, leaving the others to pick up the pieces.
56
Rory glanceddown at the dazed woman in her arms. “Stassi?”
She looked up, breathing hard and shielding her eyes against the bright sunlight streaming in through the tall windows. When Sam and Aemas left, they cleared the darkness Caius released upon the realms. It turned out that he didn’t destroy the suns; he covered them.
“What happened?” the maid croaked.
Rory looked nervously at Lauren. Did Aemas wipe all her memories from today, or did they only erase Sam? “What do you remember?”
Stassi clamored out of Rory’s lap, and her hand went to her chest. She cried out, ripping at her dress. “He stabbed me.” Her hand moved across her skin, and she looked at Rory, bewildered. “I remember him stabbing me. I died!” she shrieked.
They only erased Sam.Got it. “You didn’t die,” she lied. “We gave you a potion to close your wound before you lost too much blood.”
Stassi’s wide eyes landed on Gedeon’s lifeless body, and shescreamed before puking on the floor. “Normal people don’t wake up to dead bodies lying around like piles of laundry,” she cried.
Rory glared at Caius when he smothered a laugh. “Stassi,” he said gently, avoiding the vomit on the floor. “We’re taking you to the infirmary.”
They helped her stand on shaky legs, but she stopped dead when Dume asked Lauren where Keith and Patrick were.
Rory dropped Stassi’s arm and looked back at Dume. “My dad and Keith came with you?”
“We split up,” he explained. “Keith’s job was to shift and try to find your scent. Your dad went with him.”
“What?” she yelled. “They’re missing, and you’re just now saying something? What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“They’re probably lost,” Lauren said. “If they were caught, we’d know by now because someone would have to alert Gedeon.”
Stassi started sobbing, and Caius tried to calm her down, but she pushed him away, shaking her head frantically. “A guard shot Keith.” Her sobs came harder, and Rory’s world tilted on its axis. “H-he died. His chest s-stopped moving, and his eyes…” Stassi stopped, unable to finish her sentence as she buried her head in her hands.
Dume took Stassi from Caius, and Rory felt her husband’s arms wrap around her as she slid to the ground.
Keith was dead?
“Are you sure?” Lauren asked. “Did you see Patrick?”
Stassi nodded. “I had my hand pressed to Keith’s chest to stop the bleeding, and he stopped breathing,” she cried. “He died right in front of me. Patrick said he needed to get Keith’s body out of here so they wouldn’t find it and hurt his family.” Her arm swiped across her nose. “Patrick wasn’t hurt, but the guards,” she whimpered, and her eyes trailed to a dead body lying near Gedeon’s desk, making her skin turn a paler shade of green. “They were dead when he left.”
Rory’s eyes were unseeing as the room closed in on her.
Her father was safe.
