Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 121324 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121324 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Wynter shook her head. “It doesn’t consider him or his creature a threat to me, which is probably the best I’ll get.”
“His monster sure seemed fond of you,” said Xavier. “It rubbed its nose against yours and nuzzled your neck. Which should have looked sweet, but that thing gives off way too much menace to ever pull off ‘sweet.’”
At the time, she’d thought that the creature had simply been testing her, but . . . “Cain said it wants to keep me.”
“So it cares about you?” asked Anabel.
“I don’t know if I’d go that far.” Wynter couldn’t really speculate much aloud without revealing details that Cain had trusted her to keep to herself. There was something he hadn’t asked her to stay quiet about, though. And it was time she told them. “Listen, there’s something I need to talk to you about. I’ve hesitated because I wasn’t sure what to do, and I worried you’d all take it badly that I was considering it.”
“Okay,” said Xavier, straightening in his seat, all curiosity. “What’s up?”
Wynter bit into the inside of her cheek.
“Come on, you can tell us anything, you know that,” said Delilah.
Wynter puffed out a breath and shifted in her seat. “Cain wants me to give up my mortality so that I won’t only live a normal lifespan.”
Her coven members stared back at her, seemingly unmoved. There were no gasps, no gawks, no uneasy looks.
“Can’t say I’m surprised,” said Xavier.
Delilah nodded. “Yeah, it seemed a no-brainer that he’d want to find a way to keep you with him, Wyn.”
“How would he make you immortal?” Anabel asked.
That was the biggie, wasn’t it? “He can only grant someone eternal life if they pay the price. I’d have to sell him full rights to my soul.”
Anabel’s lips parted. “Whoa.”
Wynter snickered. “Yeah. Whoa. He very much wants me to agree to it, because my soul isn’t tethered to this realm by anything—or so it seems.”
“He wants to be that tether,” Delilah reasoned.
Wynter dipped her chin. “Essentially, yes.”
“What are you going to do?” asked Xavier.
Shrugging, Wynter gave him a helpless look. “I don’t know.”
Anabel leaned forward, bracing her elbows on the table. “What would happen to your soul if you died for real when he fully owned it?”
“Cain said that if I died he’d free it so it could be reborn,” Wynter told her.
“Oh.” Anabel gave a casual shrug. “Well, there’s no issue, then.”
Wynter blinked. “No issue?”
“You’d be paying a big price if you agreed, but the consequences wouldn’t be bad,” said Anabel. “He’d be able to hold you to this realm, he’d make you immortal and therefore stronger, and in no way would the whole thing weaken you. Plus, if he owned your soul when you truly died, nothing different would happen to it than if he didn’t own it. You’d be reborn.”
For long seconds, Wynter merely stared at her. “I really figured you’d do your best to talk me out of it.”
Anabel’s brow furrowed. “Why?”
“You see the prospect of death everywhere.”
“Yes, and you’d be much safer from death if immortal. I’d personally snap up the opportunity.” Anabel’s eyes lit with interest. “Do you think he’d agree to make me immortal, too? I’d be up for it in a major way.”
“You would?”
“Hell yes. I’m tired of living short lives. It’s maddening.”
“I actually wouldn’t mind tossing aside my mortality either,” said Xavier, conjuring his tarot cards.
Wynter felt her brows draw together. “You wouldn’t?”
“No,” he replied, absently shuffling the cards. “I would have gone down the path of vampirism if it wouldn’t mean I’d lose the ability to wield magick. If the Ancients can make me immortal, well, I’d at least want to hear their terms and conditions.”
“You mean that?” Wynter asked him. “You’re not just lying for, well, the sake of lying?”
“Nope, I’m totally serious.” Xavier arched a brow at Delilah. “What about you? Would you choose immortality if you could?”
The Latina considered it for a moment. “Sure, why not?”
“Sure, why not?” Wynter echoed.
Delilah waved a hand at herself. “I’d forever be frozen in this beautiful, wrinkle-free form. I’d heal faster, have enhanced strength and speed, and could only be killed by someone strong enough to take me down. I’m not seeing any negatives here.”
Stunned, Wynter looked from person to person. “I don’t . . . You’ll just . . . Really? You’d really want immortality?”
Anabel heaved a sigh. “You’re making this more complicated than it needs to be, but I think I get why. Many of your decisions are influenced by Kali, She has a very tight hold on you, and it makes you feel mightily restricted at times. Like you can’t be your own person. Cain’s asking for a deeper level of control over you, and it unnerves you some even though you trust him. Am I right?”
Sighing, Wynter gave a curt nod. “Yes.”