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nd Hank while he was still mortal," he said randomly, souring my moment of happiness in his arms. Couldn't he tell I didn't care? I still hated the girl.
He waited on me to respond, and I waited for him to drop and kiss my forehead some more.
When he realized I wasn't probing, he continued on his own. "She kissed him and it made him feel like he was burning alive."
My eyes widened as those words crawled in and nested in my mind. I was wrong. I did care about this conversation—very, very much.
Tallis gave me a knowing grin as everything started to unfold for me, but I was too scared to get my hopes up that high—Mt. Everest stacked on top of Mt. Kilimanjaro high.
Mylen's voice was startling, mostly because I was stuck in between heaven and hell, the purgatory between the two worlds as the suspense toyed with my emotions.
"I knew Hank was my soul mate, so I did everything I could to figure out a way for us to be together. He received his immortality a year later, and we were finally able to be together," she explained, giving me time to absorb it before moving on.
In that moment, I decided she was the most awesome girl I had ever met. Who could hate such a wonderful person?
"The magic was just too much for his mortal body. The bonding of soul mates is one of the most powerful things in magic. Your friend Amelia is lucky she's an empath, otherwise she would be burning up, too."
The shock turned to ecstasy as I threw my arms around Tallis, my tears falling for a whole new reason. "I knew it! I frigging told you!"
He hugged me almost too tightly as he let out a content sigh close to my ear.
Amelia smiled triumphantly as she exclaimed, "So Henry and I are soul mates?"
Hmm. I didn't even pay any attention to that part, considering I had just found out I wasn't crazy after all.
Mylen smiled at her. "Yes, I believe so, and that's one of my gifts. That was how I knew Hank was my soul mate before his transformation. I just didn't know why my kiss was almost deadly to him. I figured that out later. Your body has had magic coursing through it since you were born, so it's used to how it affects the body."
Amelia threw her arms around Henry, mimicking my reaction, as they dove into a passionate kiss. That made me a little jealous.
Desmond's voice chimed in, pausing my moment of euphoria.
"I was trying to tell you that it wasn't anything bad, but I was in the middle of something."
Ash held up her left hand and a swirling, crazy pattern of different colored stones were set inside a small ring on her petite little ring finger.
I jumped up to hug Ash, whose magical night had been stolen by my madness.
"Oh, Ash, I'm so sorry. I messed up your big night."
I was an even bigger selfish idiot than I thought.
Desmond continued, still defending his actions before Ash could speak. "I thought you would just come back here. I was going to call Tallis and have him come straight home. Tell him the cat was out of the bag. He didn't answer, though. When we got ready to come to explain and share our news, Amelia called to say you were gone, and she was worried.
"Tallis was already on his way by the time I finally got a hold of him. Henry told us what he could do, and we got there as quickly as we could. I'm so sorry, Aria. I was trying to keep the secret, but I didn't mean for it to sound like something bad. I didn't even realize how bad it had sounded. That was why I kept saying it was good news."
A simple misunderstanding turned into a suicide mission. In my sane frame of mind—before magic—I would have never done such a thing. I was starting to think magic was toxic, and I needed to learn how to live with it before it killed me.
I slumped down in the seat and shamefully said, "It's okay, Desmond. It was my stupidity and selfishness that got me into this mess, not you. You risked your life to save mine."
Tallis frowned, but then tilted his head, his hold on me never loosening, and I hoped it never did.
"Why did Yastine even have you?" he asked softly, as though that detail was driving him crazy.
Oh no. They didn't know yet. McKee and his family...
Everyone in the room stopped what they were doing in order to listen to that answer. Most of my family was refraining from speaking to me—probably because they wanted to kill me themselves.
With a heavy breath, I started the explanation that was sure to break their hearts—in so many ways.
