Page 100 of Origins of Eternity

“Yes,” Zara answered.

“Cassia doesn’t like technology all that much, but she’ll use it if she’s determined to find you. Be smart, Zara.”

When Zara nodded and left the closet, Iro took a deep breath, walked out, and saw Gigi’s dead body on her floor. She would have to figure out what to do withherlater, but for now, she needed to get Arwen out of her car.

CHAPTER 29

Arwen

Arwen’s eyes opened again, and she remembered being in a car, lying in the back seat. Did she remember Iro driving her somewhere? She never drank so much that she blacked out, and she knew she’d been at the café with Zara, drinkingcoffee. Unless that coffee had been spiked with something else, there was no way caffeine alone would black her out like this. Then, it hit her. It hit her all at once, and not like just atonof bricks, butallthe bricks in the world. She bolted upright.

“Hey, it’s okay. Arwen, it’s okay.”

Arwen turned and saw Iro sitting in the chair by the bed, but almost as quickly as Arwen had jumped, Iro was now at her side.

“It’s okay,” she said, cupping her cheek.

Arwen pulled away from her and asked, “Why am I in your bedroom? What happened?”

“What do you remember, love?”

“I was at the café with Zara, sitting outside, and I went to the bathroom. Someone grabbed me.”

“Gigi,” Iro said.

“Who’s Gigi?”

“Shewasa close friend, if you will, of myex-girlfriend.”

Arwen swallowed and looked into Iro’s dark eyes.

“So, it’s all true; what Cassia told me?”

“Oh, I highly doubt that.”

“Wait. Where’s Zara? Did she get–”

“She’s fine. She’s safe.” Iro took her hand, but Arwen didn’t have the strength to pull away again. “Arwen, I have things I need to tell you, and I know Cassia told you things as well, but I need you to trust me.”

“You’re a…”

“Yes,” Iro confirmed.

“Are you going to hurt me?”

“Never,” Iro said confidently. “Never, Arwen.”

“She said you wanted me to be like you.” Arwen’s eyes went wide. “That you wanted her, not me, or something like that. It’s foggy. Everything is so very foggy right now.”

“Arwen, I need you to know something before I tell you anything else, okay?”

“What?”

“I love you,” Iro said.

Arwen hadn’t been expecting that. She felt her heart race inside her chest, but she said nothing. This was not how she had wanted to hear those three words from Iro. Things had progressed so quickly between them, and she knew she felt it, too, but she thought they would wait a while before saying the words out loud to one another.

“I can’t explain it,” Iro added. “We haven’t known one another long, but I’ve never felt so strongly for another woman in my very long life, and I once thought I’d lost the love of it.”