Page 4

“No, you didn’t. Just like you didn’t know that I spent every one of those years searching for you. Spent every one trying to bring you back. Spent them all feeling guilty, every fucking day of this immortal life!”

“Oh, Jared, I…”

“A guilt that I never once needed to feel…but you did,” I said, nodding at her before carrying on, for there was no stopping me now. “You were the one who should have felt that, but I was the one to carry that pain, Lerna,not you.I was the one who blamed myself every damn day, when the truth is, you were to blame for it all.”Again, I nodded down to her, emphasizing my point, and at the very least she looked pained by it.

“I did feel guilty, Jared,” she told me, and once upon a time I might have believed her. But not now. Fool me once and all that shit.

“Good, then now it’s yours to carry alone, for…I… Am… Done,”I said, stopping long enough to snarl each word venomously. Then I started walking in earnest. But damn it, the stupid girl just wouldn’t fucking quit!

“It is no use, he won’t listen, Lerna,” I heard Koro tell her.

“You’re damn right, listen to your husband, girl, and let his curse console you!” I shouted back, tossing an arm up over my head in an ‘I don’t give a fuck’ gesture. My brother and Marcus caught up with me, but I didn’t miss the way Lerna said,

“You have to get your brother to listen!”

“For you, lady, I don’t have to do shit,” Orth replied before Marcus said,

“No hard feelings, love, we just hate you, is all.”

I scoffed a laugh at that. But then the moment they joined me, this was when Lerna had hit her limit, as she shouted at me,

“And what about my sister!”

“Your sister?” my brother asked.

“We need to find her!” she snapped, making me roll my eyes, because of course there was something she wanted from me. Hence why I was now dealing with this bullshit now. Which was why I said,

“Yeah, good luck with that.”

“Good luck with that?!”

I turned, walking backwards whilst I told her,

“Yeah, but hey, if it isn’t obvious yet, then here it is… I don’t give a shit about your sister.” Then I held up my arms and shrugged in a cocky way she seethed at. Koro strangely smirked as she stomped towards me in angry little strides, showing me a side of her I hadn’t ever seen before. But then again, who the fuck knew who she was, as I sure as shit didn’t… obviously.

“Oh, I doubt that!” she snapped.

I frowned, turning back to face the way of the snowy mountains before I shouted back,

“I don’t even fucking know your sister, so why would I…”

“But that’s not true, is it? Especially seeing as it’s the very reason you’re here now!” she said, this time making all three of us stop dead at the same time.

Then I turned around slowly, feeling as if my HellBeast veins had been doused in ice.

Ice that grew shards the moment she said,

“To save Ella…”

“…My sister.”

2

THE FATE OF SISTERS

“Come again?”I asked dangerously, making her sigh as she continued to close the distance between us.

“Woman, what have you been smoking? Ain’t no way Ella’s your sister,” Orth said disbelievingly,