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“She will open another seal before long. The beast will be freed, and she will die.”
The Seer’s voice was soft and eerie. She only spoke when having a vision. She was the reason we were all here. She’d come to us individually and told us we’d been called upon by fate. Lucky us.
“She will die?” Fin, one of the fae princes of the Shadow Court frowned as he repeated the most important part of her statement. “Doesn’t that negate the issue then?”
“I say kill her now and get it over with. Rather solves the issue of the seals, doesn’t it?”
I glared at Blaire Belladonna. The old woman might be the head of the most powerful coven of witches since Salem, but I would slit her throat where she sat if she thought to act on her impulsive words.
“If she dies this will all be for naught. She has to stay alive, or the seals will all open at once.” Antoinette’s voice was clear and strong. “My research has confirmed this to be true.”
“What we need to do is ensure the seals remain closed.” Ronin spoke with the authority of an Alpha, sitting back in his chair with the same cocky assurance as his son.
“That’s a lot easier said than done when we don’t know what the fucking seals are.” The fae’s frustration matched my own. It was the same issue I’d been running into.
“Isolate her. Put her in the well until we figure this out,” Blaire offered.
“That won’t work. Noah will free her the moment he realizes what’s been done to her. They’re bonded mates.” Cashel ran a hand through his hair and sighed.
Knowing I would likely be right there beside the Blackthorne heir, I couldn’t resist adding, “Besides, Niall already tried that, and look where we are now. You can’t just lock her up and throw away the key. We can’t just sit around with our heads buried in the sand and pretend this isn’t happening.”
“Oh, I don’t know, I kept her locked up for the better part of twenty-three years and managed to keep any seals from opening aside from the first one when she was born. Now that she’s under your care, we have three of seven open. Two in a matter of months.” Niall stared daggers at me, his disdain dripping from each word.
“I still can’t believe you tried to mate her with Kingston knowing she was the Harbinger of the Apocalypse,” Ronin spat.
“I thought we could stop it if she found her wolf. Why the hell do you think I’ve been trying so damn hard? Why do you think I finally gave in and sent her here?”
“Fate always finds a way. Such is the way of destiny.”
The Seer’s words had a shiver of premonition racing down my spine.
“Excuse me,” Quinn said, raising her hand as if she was a student in one of my classes. “I know I'm new here, but what’s the point of doing anything if this is already fated? You just said it yourself—fate always finds a way. So what can any of us do to stop the inevitable? We could just tell the poor girl what’s happening. Maybe that will help?”
“We can’t tell her. If she knows, she’ll go mad trying to stop herself from making a misstep.” I hated the idea of Sunday suffering with the guilt of who—and what—she was.
“What gives us the right to make that decision for her? She might surprise you. It’s amazing what a woman can do when her back is up against the wall and the fate of the world rests in her hands. Trust me, I know a couple who came back swinging.”
“This is different, Satori. She’s a bomb with an unpredictable fuse,” Ronin said. “I can’t believe my son is tied up in this.”
“They’ll take her on the path to her destiny. There’s no way to stop it. The world will end in fire and flames, with screams and blood and pain.” The Seer’s interjection silenced everyone, and we all turned our attention to her hooded form.
“Well,” Gabriel said, clapping his hands together. “Lovely. This is where free will gets us. I’ll never understand why you Earth dwellers are His favorites.”
“I do.” Lilith’s voice was tinged with amusement. “Mortals burn so brightly because their lives are finite. They feel everything so deeply. It’s irresistible. We are burdened with eternity. It’s rare any of us feel anything. There’s such beauty in mortality. Don’t you agree?”
“Why are you looking at me?” I snapped.
“You were once a human man, with human... needs. Surely you can appreciate how fleeting life is.”
“But what is the fecking point of all this then?” I turned my attention away from the succubus and back to the soothsayer in our midst. “Why are we here, Seer? Give us something useful for once.”
The room was suspended in silence. All of us waited for her answer.
“One of her mates must die so the world as we know it survives.”
Blaire laughed, wicked and cruel. “So choose one and kill him. Boys, you can draw straws to determine which of your sons will be sacrificed for the cause.”
Cashel and Ronin both got to their feet, rage etched in each of their faces. “You will not touch my son,” Cashel snarled. “I’ll burn the world down myself if anything happens to him.”
“The same goes for me,” Ronin added.
Quinn stood, surprising me with the furious cast of her expression. I didn’t understand why she was here until that moment. She practically vibrated with the depth of her anger. “If you try to murder my godson for your silly games, you will call down the wrath of the Old Gods. Trust me when I say this, you will stop your apocalypse only to find yourselves on the brink of a war you will never win. And you should pray for that option, because otherwise you’ll be answering tome.”
“One of them will die,” Gabriel said, resignation in his voice. “It won’t be at our hands. I can promise you that much.” He glanced from Quinn to Cashel, then to Ronin, before his gaze landed on me. “I am so sorry.”
The air in the room shifted, and my ears popped as the angel vanished. The sensation was unsettling for all of us if the way the rest of the group tensed was any indication. With a soft rustle of fabric, the Seer walked away from us, not headed for the stairs but straight into the wall, where a portal opened for her alone. She was gone in an instant, and I finally relaxed my shoulders a fraction.
The fae prince leveled his gaze on me. Eyes that should be kind were now hard and calculating. “As the only person remaining without a vested interest in this girl or her mates, what do you plan to do? My children’s lives hang in the balance, and I will not take risks with them.”
“Whatever I have to.”
