Caressing the glass, he murmured, “Hello, darling.”
The day he met hisAeternumwas burned into his mind, and the feel of her blood coating his hand squeezed his chest. He hadn’t wanted to do it; she’d been so young.
A teenage girl with dark hair and bright grey eyes stared at him across the busy cafe. Her eyes were wide and curious, and Gedeon felt compelled to ask her why but refrained.
He ignored her and pulled out his cell phone to text one of his regular fucks. It was the reason he ventured into Erdikoa today. There wasn’t enough selection in The Capital.
“Excuse me,” a melodic voice said beside him, making him turn to see the pretty teenager he’d caught staring at him.
Something pulled him toward her, and he moved away. She was a child, and while he obviously didn’t feel sexual desire for her, he felt something odd.
“I—you…,” she started, fumbling over her words.
He quirked a brow. “Yes?”
Gedeon bit back a smile when she stood tall and lifted her chin. “You are in color, and I want to know why.”
Their surroundings ceased to exist when her words sunk in, and he was unsure if he was breathing as he stared at her. Asking her was pointless because he knew what it meant.
She huffed when he said nothing. “I have grey-scale sight. I see everything in—”
“I know what grey-scale sight is, darling. Most unfortunate for you, but I’m afraid I must be going.”
“No,” she rushed, grabbing his arm. He was glad he wore long sleeves that day because if she touched his skin, he was fucked. “I see you in color.” She waved her hands, motioning to his face. “Your eyes are gold. I don’t know how I even know what gold looks like, but I do.”
Fuck. This wouldn’t do. He didn’t kill his sister and frame his brother just to lose his position. After hundreds of years, he thought theSeraphimdeemed him unfit for anAeternum. MostRoyalsmet their mates within the first one hundred years or so of their reign. It’d been almost five-hundred years for Gedeon, and much to his dismay, here his mate stood with wide eyes and a curious expression.
No. He wouldn’t give up everything he’d worked for. “I don’t have time to sit and chat. Let’s meet for lunch later this week and try to figure it out. Say, Friday?”
She swallowed. “You’re old. I’m not going anywhere alone with you.”
The smile he fought to conceal broke free. “And you’re young. Too young for me, but I’d like to find out why you claim to have grey-scale sight yet see me in color.”
She bristled. “I’m not lying.”
“So you say,” he replied wryly. “While I have no interest in you outside of finding out your little game, I’d rather you not speak of this to anyone until we find out what’s going on, assuming you are telling the truth. I’d hate for us to become an experiment.” Noticingher backpack, he asked, “Do you have a pen and paper?” Without answering, she pulled a notebook and pencil from her bag. “Write down your address, and I will pick you up.”
She chewed on her lip, considering his offer. If she was as smart as he expected, she’d say no.
“No,” she said finally, making his smile widen. “I’ll meet you here after school.”
“Very well, darling. What was your name?”
She stuck out her hand, but he ignored it, causing her to drop her arm with a frown. “Cora Raven. And you are?”
“Cora Raven,” he murmured, testing out her name. “You can call me Bane.”
After she left the cafe, he went back to the palace and investigated her. She was fifteen. Her parents were divorced, and she lived with her mother and twin sister, Aurora.
He cursed when he saw her mother was aSibyl.Sibylswere written off as insane, but what they spouted was true. Thankfully, no one listened.
He pulled himself from the memory. The day he killed her was one of the hardest days of his life. Killing the other half of oneself wasn’t easy, but it had to be done. Something within him burned at the memory.
When he'd held the dagger to her chest, he'd had a vision of himself through Cora’s eyes andfelther fear. It had been a miracle he’d pierced her heart on the first try because the vision had rendered him blind, and when she died, it'd been excruciating. Even though he'd wanted to fall to his knees from the pain, he couldn't. TheMerrowhe'd paid off had to drag him away.
The recent news about Cora’s sister took him by surprise. He hadn’t thought about her family since killing her. When Adila sentenced Aurora to Vincula, he wondered if her power wasn’t as all-knowing as everyone thought because Aurora was a fucking serial killer for aether’s sake.
It’s not the first time he questioned the validity of Adila’s abilities. When he killed Atarah, he was young and impulsive. She’d toldhim the day before that he could no longer live in The Capital. She thought he needed to live amongst the regular mystics to lead a normal life. Gedeon wasn’t immortal, or at least he didn’t possess the healing power of his siblings.
