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Unable to form a response, Niko simply stared at her.

Worn raw, he couldn’t drum up any emotion to ward her off.

She’d stated her opinion, and he’d stated his.

If she still couldn’t see past the stalling block of her prime and continued to believe he was nothing but a traumatized child too shaken to remember what he saw, there would be no getting through to her.

“Where did they want to take you?” Lark asked, dismissing their spat.

Jade was at as much of a loss as the rest of them. “I don’t know. The hunter mentioned something about his boss, but it was cryptic.”

The situation had Niko feeling uneasy. As much as he wanted to stay close to her, he couldn’t. Not without giving himself over to a woman who didn’t completely trust him.

“Don’t risk yourself, Jade; you need to be safe. You’ve only a handful of days left in the city, and then you’re safe. Stay close to Quinn.” He forced himself to spit out the last part. “He’ll keep you safe.”

Each word was another dagger to his heart. He’d allow himself to be torn open. It was for Jade’s benefit, not his own.

With a look of frustration, she claimed his wrist and tugged him toward the balcony.

Though he could’ve resisted her efforts, he sighed and followed, leaving the other two immortals behind.

Once they emerged into the cool summer air and she’d shut the sliding glass door behind them, Jade turned on him with a vengeance.

“Offering me up to Quinn on a platter, huh?” she asked, unamused.

Niko scoffed. “You love him, Jade. It’s obvious. I’m not about to step in the way of that.”

“I do love Quinn, Niko. As a friend, as a brother. But Quinn isn’t my mate.” The hard line of her mouth softened. “Will never be my mate.”

Sidestepping the conversation, he rolled his shoulders and looked out beyond her balcony into the Chicago night. “I have to leave; I can’t stay. Plus, your friends are inside, and I’m sure they don’t appreciate being abandoned.”

She waved a dismissive hand. “They’ll keep; they don’t need constant attention.”

“Unlike me?”

Jade’s smile turned tragic at the humor in his voice. “Yeah. Unlike you.”

Reflecting on tonight’s events, Niko’s shoulders dropped, and he admitted something to her he didn’t even want to admit to himself.

“You must’ve mentioned something about going out tonight to Trina, and she let it deliberately slip somewhere in my hearing.

I told myself I wouldn’t interfere with your night—all I wanted to do was to ensure you were safe.

When I saw you being taken by that hunter, I lost the ability to reason. ”

He barely managed to withhold the snarl that built in his throat. “I would’ve loved nothing more than to kill that mortal tonight. Rip him apart, damn the consequences. The only thing that made me stay my hand was that it might’ve implicated you. That somehow, it could’ve hurt you.”

Niko shook his head decisively. “You’re my blind spot, dove.”

When she said nothing, he continued.

Slowly, telegraphing his intentions, he brought up a hand to cup her cheek. “You need to reject the bond, Jade, or I’m going to go insane. I can’t survive in a world where I’m torn between my mate and my past.”

“I’d never ask you to do that, Niko.”

Exhausted by their quarrel, he stared ruefully at her. “You refuse to believe me—on any front related to my past or your prime. Without trust, our relationship was doomed from the start.”

Niko straightened and removed his hand from the woman his soul longed for. “Reject the bond, Jade, so I can live again.”

Fire lit behind her eyes. “Why don’t you reject it, Niko? You’re fully capable. Just as capable as I am.”

It suddenly felt like he was choking, like her words had coiled around his throat and begun to tighten. It was all he could do to regulate his breathing. Speaking—loosening his tongue from where it’d stuck to the roof of his mouth—was even more difficult.

“I—I can’t.”

Suspicion narrowed her eyes. “Why not? Give me one good reason, Nikolas.”

“No, I don’t owe you a reason—I don’t owe you anything.”

“If you want me to break the bond, then you’ll tell me why,” she demanded. “If you’re so adamant about me doing the dirty work, you better have an explanation as to why you can’t.”

Though he opened his mouth to reply, nothing came out.

“Fine. Get out of here, Niko.” She waved her hand dismissively. “I’m not the one who wants the bond broken. You want to reject it, go ahead. I’m done playing these games.”

This was rapidly spiraling out of control. Desperate for her to re-engage, he sputtered, “I can’t, Jade. I won’t.”

The tragic note in his voice made her soften. “Why, Niko?”

“Because it would hurt you!” It took everything in him not to let his voice break. Fighting against the sins in his past, he forced out the words. “Jade, my dad died right in front of me. And then, my best friend killed my mom to protect me.”

He jammed his eyes shut, dredging up memories he loathed. “I’m already the reason she’s dead. I’m the reason my mom had to die. If it wasn’t for me, she could’ve lived.”

“Niko,” Jade breathed, “that’s not what happened.”

“It is what happened.” His eyes watered, but he couldn’t stop the horror of what he’d done—what he’d failed to do. “I should’ve warned my dad about what Julian said, but I just stood there as my mom killed him. And then, when Roman came—”

Cutting off a strangled cry, Niko admitted, “Roman came for me, he tried to save me, but my mom kept stabbing and stabbing. She wouldn’t stop trying to kill me, to hurt me …

and I just stood there. If I had run away, or hid again, if I had let her just kill me like she needed to, she might still be here. ”

“Oh, Niko, that’s—that’s not—”

She sobbed. Jade’s hand wrapped around his wrist, pulling him closer when all he wanted to do was pull away. Her horror at what he’d said bled through the labyrinth between them, staining him with guilt. Now she knew what he’d done—the entirety of it.

Desperate to compose himself, Niko straightened and gently pulled out of her grip. “I can’t reject the bond, Jade. I already killed my parents. I can’t hurt my mate.”