Page 115 of Origins of Eternity

“I’ve made a lot of mistakes, yes, but Arwen, the moment I realized you were really in trouble, I ran. I’m sorry I was too late. I never should’ve agreed to help her in the first place. I should’ve died with dignity instead of what I did.”

“Then, you wouldn’t have been here in a few months, and I’d be without my best friend.”

“I’m still your–”

“Not right now. But as you pointed out, we’re going to live for a long time. I imagine, one day, I’ll forgive you. I’m just not there yet, Zara. I can’t even look atIroright now.”

“What? Why not?”

“I can’t stop thinking about how she did this to me.”

“Butshedidn’t.Cassiadid.Idid.”

“Had we never met…”

“But you love her, Arwen.”

Arwen sighed.

“She loves you,” Zara added.

“I know. She told me. But what am I supposed to do? Pack up and leave?”

“Why would you do that?”

“She said you have to leave every so often because you don’t age.”

“Yeah, but not tomorrow. You’re right in the middle of your thirties. You could pass for late twenties or forties if you had to.”

“I don’t know if that’s a compliment or a dig.”

Zara laughed a little and said, “It’s a good thing, I think. You and Iro can probably stay here for at least another decade and be okay.”

“Ten years? Zara, I never planned on leaving DC.”

“I know. Me neither. Here we are, though, and like it or not, Arwen, you don’t want to lose Iro. You’re upset because of the situation, but you have to know she never wanted this for you. If she had, she would’ve turned you herself, but she hadn’t. She went to get you so that Cassia couldn’t. She was just too late. And that is more my fault than hers.”

“I don’t know what to do,” Arwen said.

“You go back to her. Maybe not tonight, and maybe not tomorrow, but when you’re ready. You go back to her, and you talk. You tell her how you feel, and you two figure this out. Arwen, I don’t fully understand it myself. I know I love you, butI saw you two that night, and there was something else there; another level of love that I don’t suspect everyone gets in their life. And you can have that forever.”

“She and Cassia couldn’t survive three hundred years.”

“Cassia is evil, a narcissist. She might be the most selfish person to ever walk the face of the earth, I suspect. Iro isn’t like that in any way. She pulled away from Cassia because of that. I hate to say this because I know it means I’ll never… Iro is good, Arwen. She’s good for you, and she might be the one you’ve been waiting for, the one you can spend a true eternity with. Cassia doesn’t deserve anything good. Wait… What happened to her, by the way? Iro didn’t tell me.”

“Oh,there’sa story.”

CHAPTER 33

Cassia

Cassia woke up in her bed, still in her favorite robe, with Sarah next to her, sleeping. Sarah was fully clothed, though, which was rather odd because most of the time, the women she bedded didn’t dress themselves after they went to sleep. Cassia also didn’t recall sleeping with Sarah or inviting her to share her room for the night. Only Gigi and Miranda shared her room at times, and she wouldn’t have put her robe back on after sex. She couldn’t remember how she’d gotten here, either.

“Hey,” Alexia said as she walked into her room. “You okay?”

“I am,” she replied and stood up. “But I am positively famished.”

“Want me to get you someone?”