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“Lizzy is innocent, I assure you.” Luke placed his hands on the table in front of him. His voice was calm, but he closed his hands in tight fists. “After she was rescued from a terrible ordeal, I tested her myself to make sure she wasn’t possessed. She has done nothing worth suspicion.”
“Until now,” she replied.
“Ariana, please.” Luke held up one hand. “You know that a mere human, or even a possessed human, would not be capable of hijacking that ceremony. Only a Nephilim can be chosen as a partner. She must be one of us.”
I nearly fell out of my chair. A Nephilim? He had to be joking. That wasn’t possible.
“Is that a disappointing revelation, my dear?” the elder across the table asked me. He’d finished cleaning his lenses and put them back on his face.
“Uh…no.” I swallowed, trying to force my throat to work. “Not disappointing. I just…I just don’t know how it could be possible.”
At that moment, the door to the hallway swung open and Gabe stood there. I flinched at the look of rage on his face. He took one look around the room and then strode in, slamming the door behind him.
“I need to be here for this.” His voice was deadly tense. “I should be a part of this conversation.”
Esther stood, blocking the last empty chair. “You may only stay if it’s okay with Lizzy. If she wants you to wait outside, you’ll have to go.”
I blinked at him. The idea that I had any sort of say in this meeting was refreshing. Gabe’s anger was frightening, but he might as well stay. He had as big of a right as anyone. Maybe he could talk some sense into the board and tell them that I’m not a Nephilim. I’m just me. A mistake.
The board all turned to me, expecting an answer. Having seven pairs of eyes on me all at once made me want to hide below the polished surface of the conference table.
“It’s okay. He can stay.” My voice sounded small, even to my ears.
Gabe turned back to Esther, who cleared the way for him to sit. He dropped his hands on the table and looked my way, but I avoided his eyes. I didn’t want to see the disappointment that I knew would be there. After waiting for so long for the perfect partner, he got me. What a joke.
“Gabe, I know you’re worked up about the partnership rite, but first we have to get to the bottom of how this happened.” Luke ran a hand through his graying hair and sighed.
“I know,” he answered. “I just want the board to know that I trust Lizzy completely. She didn’t do anything wrong. As strange as this was, she is innocent of any demon plot. I swear it.”
I couldn’t keep the look of shock off my face. All I wanted to do was jump across the table and kiss him hard on those beautiful lips of his.
“Thank you for your input, Gabe,” Luke said. “I’m sure everyone else here will come to feel the same way. What we need to ask now is how did a Nephilim get misplaced?” He turned to me, his pale blue eyes intense in that moment. “Tell us about your parents, young lady.”
“I’m not sure what I can say.”
There wasn’t much to tell. Granny wasn’t exactly a waterfall of information. She’d kept most of her memories of my mother locked up tight.
“I have no clue who my father was. My mother ran away from our town a couple of years before she had me. When she came back, she was pregnant. She died when I was born.”
That was it, in a nutshell. Everything that Granny had divulged about my family history.
Luke tilted his head. “Who raised you?”
“Granny. My mother’s mother. Her real name is Ethel Redding, but everyone in town has called her Granny for as long as I can remember.”
Ariana pressed her hands on the table and stood. “This is a waste of time, Luke. The Hell Gate has been leaking more demons than ever over the past two decades. We’ve lost more Nephilim than I care to count in that time.” She pointed a perfectly manicured red fingernail at me. “This is just another attempt of theirs to destroy us.”
All the elders broke into an angry discussion once more, while I leaned back into the soft cushion of my chair. I didn’t want to be the source of their problems. I hadn’t come to the manor to break it apart. If they knew about my plans to leave, maybe they’d stop arguing about me.
“I’m leaving, if that makes you feel better,” I shouted above the noise. “With me gone, no one can claim that I was a part of a demonic plot. It’ll be better that way.”
The elders stopped arguing to look at me. Gabe, on the other hand, sprung from his chair and banged his fist on the table.
“You’re not leaving,” he shouted. “That demon is still out there hunting for you and she’ll stop at nothing until you’re found. We can’t protect you out there. You belong here and the ceremony only proved that.”
“But Gabe…” I didn’t want to say what was on the tip of my tongue. If I left, he wouldn’t have to put up with me as a partner. He could find someone stronger and more worthy of him. Someone who’d trained a lifetime to fight alongside him.
His mouth set in a stubborn line. “No. You can’t. Like it or not, we’re partners now, remember?”
