My hands scrub over my face. “What the hell am I going to do?”
“I’m truly sorry, Rowan,” Archie murmurs. “I never meant for you to find out this way.”
I let out a dry laugh. “You never meant for me to find out at all.”
“No, I didn’t,” he agrees, his voice soft. “But that was your mother’s request. She only wanted to protect you. If you’re sure of nothing else, be sure of that. Jocelyn loved you more than all the stars in the sky.”
I press my lips together, the ache in my chest threatening to split me in half. I don’t respond. I’m not sure how I feel yet about Mom’s secrets. Instead, I leave Archie on the bed and go switch into pajama shorts and a matching black tee from the drawer. I’m tempted toexplore the other clothes, but I can’t handle that right now.
In the bathroom, the lights flick on the moment I step inside—not entirely weird; motion sensors are a thing. But the air smells faintly of warm vanilla and something greener, like moss after rain. All of my toiletries are on the sink and then some, but I focus on my toothbrush, going through the motions like muscle memory.
When I return, Archie curls himself into a ball on my chest, resting his head just over my heart like it’s another normal day.
“Rest, Rowan,” he says. “Tomorrow is the beginning of the rest of your life.”
I think he means it to sound comforting, but my eyes stay wide open, staring at the ornate ceiling tiles that seem to ripple faintly in the dim light, like they might rearrange themselves into a roadmap out of this nightmare. And all I can think is…
If this is just the beginning, what fresh hell does tomorrow have in store for me?
Chapter 6
CADE
Sleep can’t claim me tonight. Iris might be able to make things more difficult by keeping me out of NightShade, but that doesn’t mean I’m leaving. I couldn’t even if I wanted to.
I crouch on a boulder, keeping to the shadows of the forest’s tree line, eyes locked on the window that belongs toher.
Rowan. My mate.
Even now, every fiber of my being pulls me toward her like a live wire. I’m tuned to the rhythm of her breathing, the subtle shifts of her body as she tries to sleep through a nightmare no one prepared her for. Her heartbeat flutters like a hummingbird’s wings. She’s restless.
So am I.
Shadows from the branches and moon above sway around me, though none of it holds my attention as I keep watch. I don’t know what to expect, but I know there’s no lowering my guard.
I came here to end the hybrid Hollowborn. I thought I sensed her existence because that was my destiny. To kill the thing that destroyed my family.
Yet, she ends up being mine to protect.
Twisted fucking fate.
The very creature my father destroyed our family for—chased down every lead, spent years obsessed with unlocking the bloodlines of power, of immortality—is now my mate. My responsibility. My damn undoing.
I should be raging. I should be tearing through the trees, howling at the sky until the world bleeds with me. But instead, I stay still. Silent. Watching her. Protecting her from the edges of the darkness like some feral, exiled knight.
I consider killing Iris a thousand times over until she gets out of my fucking way. Rowan isn’t going to trust me easily with that wench whispering stories into her ears. Sure, most of them might be true, but they’ll be repeated out of context.
They all think I’m a monster. Fine. Let them. But I didn’t ask for this. I only ever wanted to be left the hell alone.
But they wouldn’t let me.
Not since the night my mother died. A memory that carves itself across the backs of my eyelids every time I close my eyes.
She was the one who held everything together. The one who kept the council functioning while my father spiraled into madness, chasing immortality. She tried to warn him. I heard her—heard the tremble in her voice asshe begged him to reclaim his place, to stop playing God and start being the mate she needed.
He told her his research was vital. That this was their legacy.
That was the last time I saw her alive.
