“Alaska could only give me so much information before he had to leave,” I explain. “What is going on with me?”
“You met your fated mate, didn’t you?” Lorcan and Kentucky ask at the same time.
My brows pinch together, wondering how they could possibly know that.
“You won’t be able to drink anyone else’s blood now. You’ll reject it, which is what is happening here. It made you sick.”
“Wait a minute. Wait.” Westin stops the conversation with a wave of his hand. “You mean when one of us meets our mates, this will happen? What if our mate isn’t interested? We’re doomed to die?”
“Pretty much,” Lorcan says, leaning back in the chair. “But that never happens.”
“How do you break it? How do I break the bond?” I ask through clenched teeth, my entire body revolting at the words.
Lorcan laughs, a full belly laugh that is so loud. The vibrations rake across my skull.
Without thinking, I slam my fist across his jaw. His head spins in a circle, and he has to resituate it, then pop his neck to get it into place again.
“Okay, I deserved that. I shouldn’t have laughed, but it’s a ridiculous question. You can’t break the mate bond, Oklahoma.Is that your real name, by the way? Sorry, anyway”—he leans forward, his empty eyes glowing orange—“youcouldbreak the bond. If you choose not to mate with who Fate has chosen for you, you and her, or him, they will die.”
I sit up so fast, my head spins. “Nariko could die? Because of me?”
Lorcan nods, sucking his tongue across his teeth and taps his boney fingers on the table. “Sucks, right?”
“Yeah, Lorcan. It does fucking suck. She doesn’t deserve this. Is she okay? Is she feeling it like I am?
“No. She’s human, right?”
I give a curt nod, not wanting him to know too much about her. All of her details are mine. They belong to me even if I know I don’t deserve them.
“She’s feeling your rejection. It’s slower for her, like an ache that won’t go away, but it will get stronger. Eventually, the mating heat will happen, and without you, that alone would kill her. She will become delirious. Why don’t you want to be with her?”
I stare at the blood on my hands. “Of course I want to be with her, but she’s a storm chaser.”
“Ah, right. The damaged heart you must have after your brother dying in that tornado. I’m sure that was hard. Scary that Fate would give you a mate that does the same job you despise.”
My eyes water from his words. “There’s no fucking way you could know that.”
“I’m the Void who reaped his soul. I know all about it.”
I’m out of my chair with my hands around his fucking neck, seconds away from breaking every bone in his body.
My sweaty hair falls across my face. I know I must seem manic, but Lorcan is calm and collected.
“You can’t scare me. I’m from Hell. There’s nothing you can do to beat me.” With one finger, he pokes my chest, and I’mback in my seat, my hands freed from his throat. “Don’t test me again.”
Kentucky’s voice cuts through. “Yeah, don’t let his fun demeanor fool you. He’s very powerful.”
“No, shit.” I rub at the spot on my chest that he poked.
Ow.
“He’s in a good place, Oklahoma. He is at peace. He was worried about you when the truck finally stopped tumbling. He didn’t want to leave your side until he knew you were okay.”
I blink away the tears; emotions I’ve tried to keep under lock and key try to spill free. “So he saw me get turned? I thought he was dead. Alaska said?—”
“—Alaska was right. He was dead. Your brother’s soul was next to me, watching everything unfold. He loved you very much. Do you think he would want this for you?”
“I don’t know if I can wait around for the day a tornado kills my mate. I can’t live through that again.”
