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“Your memory of our meeting wasn’t the first time we met. We had your mind wiped of the memory and next time, we met under different circumstances.”

I held up my hand and stopped her.

“Yeah, yeah, I get it… what next?” Clearly, I had no desire whatsoever to take a trip down that backstabbing memory lane.

“We comprised a plan that would get you to become one with your HellBeast without fighting against it. But the only way to get you to accept each other was with rage. To get you to embrace your true self and your destiny, you needed to feel ferociousness that matched that of your HellBeast. One who was living in agony without his Fated.”

“Yes, well I would say you achieved that,” I said dryly.

“It had to be enough that he would recognize you, knowing you were also a tortured soul, and given my connection to Ella, it was strong enough to work. I had you believe we had been married and far longer than what we had.”

At this I tensed, my jaw hating the idea that I had been played and manipulated into this. But how could I lash out now? Especially knowing why they needed me to become who I was always preordained to become in the eyes of the Gods. I may not have been able to argue their reasons, but I could certainly argue another point, one that would have saved me three hundred years of grief and self-loathing!

“Why didn’t you find me after…? Why didn’t you tell me all of this? Why did you just let me believe…” I asked but she was quick to interrupt.

“Because I had been gone too long. I needed to get back to where Garmr couldn’t reach me, and Koro couldn’t be suspected, or his cover would have crumbled. He took an oath to the Bloodstone Covenant, and he couldn’t break it.”

“And what of Ella?” I gritted out.

“We freed her from Garmr’s control, but there was only one way to hide her,” she replied, looking pained.

“In the mortal realm as a human,” Marcus guessed, causing her to nod before adding,

“Yes, but we had a problem.”

“Which was?” I asked in a hard tone, but nothing could have prepared me for what was coming next.

“Only death would bring life,” she replied, her tone close to breaking. The reason for which soon came to light when I pressed for more.

“Meaning what exactly?”

I wanted to know and at this, tears formed in her eyes as she told me,

“I had to kill her.”

3

WHEN DEATH CALLS

Ishook my head at this, not understanding what she meant. Because surely, I didn’t just hear those words come out of her mouth. Hence why I uttered in sheer disbelief,

“Come again?”

“Yeah, what the hell does that mean, you had to kill her!?” my brother shouted, as he too was suffering the same bewilderment as I was.

“We didn’t understand it at the time, but this was the only way to bring her back from what he had done to her.”

I gritted my teeth but didn’t speak, for I needed to hear what else she had to say.

“His control… he…” she paused as if it was too much, forcing me to press her for more.

“He what, Lerna?What did he do?”The venom in my tone was easy to hear, as I was once again close to losing it.

“He locked her soul to his own.”

A hiss of air whistled through my brother’s teeth, whereas I outrightly growled.

“Meaning what exactly?”I forced myself to ask.