Page 71 of Born Chaos

“What do you say, Juliet?” Sigrid asks. She folds one hand over the other, laying them on the table. “Are you willing to fight for this city? For those in it? Are you willing to take on this responsibility?”

I feel all three sets of eyes on me. And my heart is beating very, very fast. No one has ever had much confidence in me. No one has really trusted me not to screw up.

But here, these important people are. Here are these leaders, asking me to take on a mantle that affects the entire city.

My eyes slide over to Jon’s. He stands across the ballroom, watching me with blue eyes that match my own. And there’s this look of pride glowing from him.

“I’m probably going to screw it up,” I say as I look back at Sigrid. “But I’ll give it my best shot.”

She lets out one of her famous, singular laughs, face upturned to the ceiling. “I have every confidence in you, my dear. You’ve been given refiner’s fire training since you stepped foot in this city.”

“Congratulations,” Mason offers, and I can’t help but feel comforted just looking at him. He’s the best person I’ve ever known. Thoughtful. Caring. He saved me in so many ways. He paid off my suffocating medical school debt. Even though it was basically pennies to him, it was crushing to me. He helped me get back on my feet. “You’re everything this city needs.”

I offer him a smile, knowing how overwhelmed I probably look.

“You’ve basically been on the council since you first got here,” Roman points out. “At least now it’s official. Welcome to the team.”

And something… grows inside of me. It swells. It takes root.

I have a place in this world. All my life, I’ve never had a place. But here it is. With these people. Representing a whole bunch of vampires. Head of the medical division.

“We’re all counting on you, Juliet,” Sigrid says. “Somehow, what Sebastian has done must be reversed. But we are all here to support you. No matter what you need.”

This is heavier than my brand-new position on the council. Because this is real. This has a direct cause and effect. We have to find answers.Ihave to find answers. And now I don’t have a backup to fall onto. I don’t have anyone to turn to for counsel, a mentor. I’m it.

“I’m going to figure this out,” I say with a nod. “Anything else?”

“That is all,” Sigrid confirms, glancing at Roman and Mason, who both nod. “Please let us know what we can do to help.” She slides the closed folders back across the table to me.

I stand from my seat and hug the folders into my chest. The weight is heavy, but I’ve never been one to back down from a challenge. “Then I’m going to get on it.”

I turn, heading for the door. Without hesitation, Jon steps to my side, falling into stride beside me as we set down the sidewalk.

“You’re a pretty damn impressive person, Juliet,” he says as we walk through the brilliant sunlight, sunglasses squarely in place.

“If you knew half the things I screwed up, you might not say that,” I say with a huff of a laugh.

Jon shakes his head. “Everyone’s human. Even us vampires. Even those who are gifted.”

I look over at him. “She gave me a gift,” I say. “I might have gotten my immortality from you, but she didn’t just give me a curse.”

Jon arches his brow.

“I want to tell you everything,” I say, fixing my eyes on the sidewalk ahead of us. “I’ve kept too much information to myself in the past, and it’s led to some pretty rocky roads. It might make you look at me a little differently. But… I trust you. Maybe I shouldn’t, because too many people have screwed me over in my life.”

“I would never intentionally hurt you, Juliet,” Jon promises. “I would never betray you.”

I nod. “I think I believe you. So I’m going to tell you everything I’ve been keeping to myself.”

And so, as we walk to the hospital, I do tell him all of my secrets. I tell him about the woman I killed when I first Resurrected, how it made me a target of someone important from the House of Valdez. How he eventually hunted me down and tortured me just to get revenge.

And then I tell him how Pablo staked me.

How I woke up in the back of Roman’s SUV twenty minutes later.

I tell Jon how Roman and I went after Archer King and how Archer used a dark gift to kill every member of the mission. Including me.

I tell my father about the necromancer and how he’s locked up in a warehouse.

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