Epilogue
SAINT
“Tell me you’ve got something,” I ask the second I step into the war room.
Ransom is behind the keys, checking several monitors and typing at rapid speeds. “Nothing yet,” he says, but he sounds hopeful, because of course he does. His mate and child are safe and he doesn’t have a mad twin with an agenda dead set on killing everything that matters to him.
I suck in a sharp breath. Fuck, this is not Ransom’s fault.
It’s mine.
It’s always been mine.
The reason we went into stasis, the reason Samuel is out now.
I thought it would help cure him. I thought stasis would change him into the brother I grew up with.
But I’ve been lying to myself for centuries.
Samuel was always malicious and spiteful, even if there were periods when he wasn’t.
The brother I thought I knew has been dead for a very long time.
Now I need to kill the one I do know.
The one who got to her.
The one who almost killed her. Again.
I rake my fingers through my hair, hating the itch in the back of my mind I can’t scratch.
“Saint.” Alek says my name like he’s approaching a wild animal as he comes into the room. I get it. I’m used to it. I’ll be the first to admit I’m not the most stable of creatures. Especially in times like this.
I need to carve into something. Preferably my twin brother’s heart. Then I’ll yank it right out of his chest.
“I’m sorry,” I manage to force the words out.
“For what?” Alek asks.
“I didn’t go after him.” I couldn’t go after him. I saw Aurora drop and…that was it.
“Saint,” Alek chides me. “You saved Aurora. You never need to apologize for making those kinds of choices.”
I study the king. He means it. He’s a good ruler.
I’ve met enough to know that most would’ve rather I captured the threat that’s been evading us for months.
One that broke onto our grounds by convincing the Greenbriars to sacrifice half of their coven to bring down our wards.
He thought the casualties would be higher.
He thought he’d claim the throne. He hadn’t counted on so many mates of the assassins and hunters joining the fight.
Hadn’t counted on their strength in duos.
A mistake I know he won’t make again.
“We’ll find him,” Alek assures me. “I know we’re getting close. He’s losing key players with every attack. It’s only a matter of time before he has no one left.”
I nod. “Samuel has always had a way of recruiting people to his way of thinking. He’s never alone for long.”
“We’ll catch him,” Alek says, almost like he needs to convince himself.
I’ll kill him, I silently correct him. There’s no catching him. No imprisoning him. He has to die. By my hand.
After a quick debriefing with all the hunters and assassins, the war room breaks, and I head up the stairs toward Aurora’s chambers. It’s a nightly habit of mine, to see if she needs me to help her eat or sleep or offer anything else I can do to make up for what my brother did to her—
Her scream rips through the space above me, and I’m speeding into her room before I can draw my next breath.
I skid to a halt at the sight of Annika there, standing just outside Aurora’s bathing chamber.
“What’s wrong?” I snap. “Is she hurt?”
“I just got here,” Annika says, eyes wide with worry.
“Aurora,” I plea. “Open the door.”
The door swings open.
Aurora wears panic all over her face, a hand over a spot on her neck.
“Are you hurt?” I’m instantly reaching for her, tugging at her hand.
“I don’t know,” she says, letting her hand fall.
I stumble back a few steps, barely hearing Annika’s gasp as my mind empties. I blink, as if that will clear my eyes and I will stop seeing what I’m seeing on Aurora’s neck.
Ink spreads and swirls in the exact shape of a mating mark—
“Is this your mark or his?” Aurora asks, tears lining her eyes.
I keep backing away, unable to make sense of anything.
“Saint,” she begs, following after me. “Please,” she says. “Please, tell me this is your mark.”
I open and close my mouth a few times. I would feel it, wouldn’t I? I search inward, finding only the ice I’ve encased my heart in since before we went into stasis.
“Saint,” Aurora begs.
“For fuck’s sake, Saint,” Annika says. “Say something.” She wraps her arms around a now trembling Aurora.
I lock onto her, trying to get an answer. She’s begging me to tell her it’s mine, but Samuel and I are identical twins in every way, right down to that mark.
“I…” I reach her opened door, shaking my head. “I don’t know.”
Aurora folds into Annika’s arms, a sob wrenching from her lips that rips me to shreds. I turn my back on her, her panicked cries following me as I try to outrun this new fate.
Either Aurora is my brother’s mate…
Or she’s mine.
And neither of those outcomes is good enough for her.
The End
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