Page 48 of The Never List (Never List #1)

Jax

“You know, son, I have always loved your flair for drama.” I hear my mother’s voice, and suddenly I’m conscious again.

I stand in an intensely bright space that goes on forever in all directions.

I try to hold my hand up to block the blaze from my eyes, squinting against it, but there’s no escaping it.

“Mother?” I step toward the sound of her voice, and then she’s there, standing among my friends’ mothers, three of whom are looking down at something lying on a marble slab in front of them.

“Rylee,” I say when I notice the body on the slab.

It’s only then that I realize I’m not the only one who said her name.

I race toward her alongside Axl, Pierce, and Kal. All four of us running toward our mate, who lies at the feet of our mothers.

“Axl,” Axl’s mother says as he reaches the marble slab first, then Kal, then Pierce, and then me, skidding to a stop. My grief overtakes me once more as I see her lying there…not breathing…not moving.

“She’s strong enough. She loved us for us . And you denied her immortality?” I ask, anger drenching my tone as I look at my mother, who’s every bit as devastatingly beautiful as she is in my memory. I point to Rylee. “You give her back to us,” I demand.

My mother gives me a chiding look, and one tilt of her head has me dropping to my knees, her power so all-encompassing, I feel like I’m being stretched in every direction at once.

“ We did not do this,” she says in a tone I’ve never heard before.

She’s angry. So fucking angry.

Her power recedes, and she sighs as I drag myself back to standing.

“If you didn’t do this, then who did?” Kal’s eyes are on his mother, who’s looking at him with nothing but pure adoration and love. She radiates every bit of goodness that’s in Kal’s heart.

“We’re not allowed to say certain things,” the goddess Neph says, looking at each of us pitifully. “There’s a delicate balance that we must not upset.”

“Fuck your balance,” I snap, and my mother’s eyes go bright as starlight. “Give her back to me.”

“As I told you, son,” my mother says, “ we did not take her from you.”

“Was there some flaw in us?” Axl asks, his brow furrowed, tears in his eyes. “Something the elixir revealed to her that made her realize she didn’t want an eternity with us?”

“We mustn’t say,” Eirdis, Pierce’s mother, says.

I roll my eyes.

“Give her back to me,” I demand again.

“Please,” Kal says with an air of desperation that makes me flinch. “Mother,” he continues, eyes pleading as he looks at his mother. “She’s the one. I know it. Tell me there’s something I can do.”

“There is a way.” Neph shifts on her bare feet, her gold-and-red gown swaying. “But it will come at great cost.”

“Name it,” I say. The others nod avidly.

My mother tilts her head again, placing the tips of her fingers together in front of her. “Are you so eager to agree to a price you don’t yet understand? I thought I raised you better than that.”

“That is my mate.” I point to Rylee. “There is no cost too great to bring her back to me.”

Surprise flits across my mother’s face, but she dips her head toward Neph.

“The cost will be great,” Neph says again, looking at all of us, but her eyes linger on her son with a sense of longing that makes even me hurt. “You must give her all of your powers,” she explains.

“Won’t that…kill her?” Kal asks.

Neph gives him the slightest shake of her head. “You must willingly give her all of your power,” she says. “Your fully unlocked, unweighted powers. With no guarantee of her ever returning them.”

I tilt my head, looking at my mother.

“She speaks the truth,” my mother says. “If you truly want her back, then your power, in all its entirety, is the price. Grant it to your mate, and she’ll have the ability to give it back or take it all at will. She could keep it for herself and rule as queen of Lumathyst for the rest of forever without you. Your very immortality will be linked to her will. Do you trust her enough for the sacrifice?”

I look to my friends. Not one of us knows what it’s like to live without our powers, not to mention surrendering our chance of ever ruling over Lumathyst and making change for our people.

Neph draws a dagger of purest white from her gown, unsheathing it. The sharp blade glimmers in the unflinching light around us. “Spill your blood atop her,” Neph explains, “as she did when she chose you, and it will be done. Your powers will cease to be yours. She may not even choose to come back, because the choice will still lie with her. She’s in that restful in-between now, and I can tell you from experience that it will be hard to leave behind and return to the harsh realities of the world.”

There’s a beat of silence.

“Is she worth this to you?” my mother asks, flicking her fingers, and a wooden box identical to the one my father held appears in her hands. She cracks the lid, revealing four more vials of Athanry elixir. “You could take this back with you, my son. Take it back and try for a mate again.”

I curl my lip, rolling up my sleeve to expose my wrist over Rylee’s body.

Pierce, Axl, and Kal follow.

“Suit yourself, son,” my mother says, the wooden box disappearing. “I do miss you.” She takes a step back. “I hope you don’t regret this choice.”

I notice that the gazes of the other goddesses are on their sons, but there’s only an instant before Neph speedily slices that dagger across our wrists and our blood spills upon our mate.

Seconds pass before I feel my power leaking out of that small wound, as if my entire life force is being dragged out of me, a magnet pulling everything else to another location.

It’s so powerful, I drop to my knees. My breathing is shallow, my body trembling as I fall to the ground.

My friends soon follow, and I blink heavily, seeing my mother give me a wry smile before everything goes black again.