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She proceeds to describe the Citadel, telling me about the hodgepodge of buildings, the laboratory, the volcano library, the general lack of adherence to physics.
“Physics is a mostly human concept the witches can’t seem to wrap their minds around.”
“I noticed,” she says smiling, but then her face grows serious. “We found something out about my ancestry. Something important that we think explains why I’m reincarnating.”
“What did you find?” I try not to sound desperate, but if we have an explanation perhaps a cure can be found.
Catching my thoughts, she shakes her head. “We thought the same thing, but none of our research led to any answers.” She grips my hand. “Keenan, I have latent shifter blood in me and so did Delilah. Probably all of your previous mates too, but we only have evidence for me and Delilah.”
“But that’s impossible. People are either shifter or human.”
She shakes her head. “No, that’s not right. People are lots of things. Shifter, human, witch, warlock. Magdalene said she even met a nightwalker, so I guess vampires exist too. It makes sense that our evolutionary paths would have merged at some point.”
“Shifters and humans have been studying anatomy and genetics for years and none of them have been able to uncover any genetic divergence.”
She shrugs. “Maybe it’s rare. Maybe only a few humans are descended from shifters. Shifters and humans evolved close together, and we don’t know who came first.”
I stare at her blankly, then dive into her head, searching, sniffing, trying to find any hint of her shifter. “I got nothing,” I say, shaking my head. “Are you sure the witches are right about this?”
She nods emphatically. “Oracle told me so, and if you met them, you’d believe them too. Mostly because it feels wrong not trusting an Oracle, which you’d understand if you met one.”
“It’s great that you might have shifter blood, but what does that have to do with the reincarnation curse?”
She leans closer. “I found a book in the library called Mating Curses and Their Human Consequences. Well, technically the library found the book for me, and unfortunately it was about the thirtieth book I had to read and I don’t really like reading unless it’s a juicy script – ”
“Vanessa,” I say fondly. “Focus, love. What did the book say?”
“Right!” She takes a big bite out of a cookie, chews and swallows before saying, “I found Delilah’s name in the book under the section called ‘The Unintended Consequences of Lyra Guardian Witch’s Mating Curse’. There was an entire chapter dedicated to your family. The person who wrote it posited that Delilah’s bloodline may have once contained shifter genetics which is why she reincarnated when she died. As shifters are immortal, there was a tiny amount of immortal DNA inside her. Not enough to keep her from dying, but enough to save her essence and move it to another person immediately after her death. I think you were only ever supposed to have one mate, but the curse merged with Delilah’s latent shifter blood and started our reincarnation cycle.”
I’m stunned by her revelation. “Why didn’t we have this information if it was right there in a book for anyone to find? Magdalene has been in the Shadow Realm for months. How did she miss something this big?”
Vanessa explains, “The library doesn’t work that way. It chooses who sees what.” Her eyes light up. “The library was waiting for me so it could reveal the information. Mags couldn’t find it because she’s not Delilah’s reincarnation. I am.”
I frown. “How do you know it was waiting for you?”
“Because the library told me.” She finishes her cookie. The excitement over her discovery gradually falls away and she says in a quiet voice, “The library told me something else.”
My heart is already sinking, her tone telling me I don’t want to hear it. “Tell me.”
Her hand comes down on top of mine. “There’s no known cure to the curse, Keenan. We know why this is happening, but not how to stop it. And Mags discovered something else.”
Her tone tells me I’m not going to like this either.
“What?” I ask grimly.
“You were right in thinking that when you bond with your mates it accelerates their death. The original curse was meant to keep Fallon from his mate, but when it rebounded on all of you brothers, it impacted each of you. The curse hasn’t been broken, so the curse will separate us, fulfilling its purpose by keeping you from your mate.”
Frowning, I shake my head. “Then how do Lock and Rush have their mates? How did they break the curse, but I didn’t?”
She looks at me sadly. “They didn’t so much break the curse as they escaped it. According to Mags, when Lock fought Fallon for Sarina, he won her fairly, which bent the parameters of the curse. And when Mags turned into a Rage Witch, her transformation kept the curse from recognizing her as his original mate.”
I hear her words, understand what she’s saying, but anger and despair are blinding me from accepting the truth. Why does Lock get to live happily ever after in his castle with his shifter mate? Why does Rush get to settle down with his witch wife in a tower in the woods? And why must I watch Vanessa die? The injustice makes me want to howl again, but I can’t because I have to keep my shit together for my mate.
“It doesn’t matter,” I say desperately, gripping her hand. “We live each day to its fullest.”
Her eyes soften as she wraps her sunny essence around mine. “Each day is a gift from the natural order.”
“You’re speaking my language.” I press my lips to hers, filling my mind with thoughts of love so she will always know how I feel about her.
