Page 64 of The Echo of Forever

Not the good ones who didn’t use their faith to condemn, but theothers.

“My presence shouldn’t be a shock,” he said coolly, sitting back. “You left your calling card and I answered.”

Right.

“Ah…” I tsked. “Almost forgot about the doctors.”

He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes; nothing seemed to.

“The families are calling for your removal from this officeandyour life.”

I had nothing to say to that and waited for the true nature of his visit, because it had nothing to do with what the families were calling for.

Had that been important, I’d be dead already.

“I understand your plight,” he went on, not missing a beat. “And so does the person who sent me here with this peace offering.”

He pulled a black envelope from his suit jacket and slid it across the desk.

“An invitation to this year’s ritual,” I said, not needing to open it to understand.

The emblem stamped on the back said a lot, too. I brushed my finger over the fancily written F, wondering what the fuck the Fairchild family wanted with me.

“And a plus one,” he mused, a wistful note to his tone that surprised me a little. “Aspecificplus one.”

Demetrius.

“I had no clue the high priest was in bed with the Fairchilds.”

They were a faction of the Collective that held more power than all the families combined, including mine. They didn’t mix or mingle but once every other year during a ritual to pray over Everwood and its citizens.

To be invited was one thing, but to decline their hospitality without reason was frowned upon. It’d put a target on your back that you’d never be able to get off.

Priest stood and buttoned his jacket.

“There’s a lot you don’t know, Mrs—” He shook his head. “Ms. James. I advise you to accept the invitation and see for yourself. You’ll be pleasantly surprised.”

His purposeful slip of the tongue wasn’t lost on me, but I ignored it altogether and stood to walk him out.

“From this moment on, you’re under my protection,” he said as I pulled the door open. “And so is the one you call Echo.”

The man was halfway up the hall when Carmen emerged from her office. Something intense settled inside of me as our eyes met.

Echo.

The one I called Echo.

Had he been about to address me as Mrs. Cannon?

PART TWO

“Your wants are my needs.”

Demetrius “Echo” Cannon

CHAPTER 16

ECHO