Page 32 of The Eternal Choice

There are a few bodies scattered all over the ground from the surprise attack earlier. I’m not comfortable with walking into the mine while there were explosions earlier. Part of one wall collapsed and fell into the canyon beside the mine. It’s not safe to go in yet. Other parts might collapse. Yes, we are immortal, but that doesn’t mean we can’t die or be entombed.

“Lilliana wait,” I bellow.

She doesn’t wait and disappears inside. A string of curses flows from my mouth when I enter the mine behind her.

“She’s ran into things headfirst all her life,” her father states. “No matter how many heart attacks it gave me at any age as she grew up. Her abilities give her a unique strength, but she never takes them for granted or uses them for that matter. It’s why she trained herself with every skill she could teach herself. Combat, knife skills, weapon knowledge, spells and magic…she’s read every book she could find on different supernaturals. Her knowledge and brain capacity work at lightning speed when she’s in crucial situations. Hell, I’m pretty sure she can slow time down to think before she acts if she puts her mind to it. Angels have unlimited capabilities and she’s a unique one.”

“Thanks for the pep talk, but it doesn’t do shit until I have her safely in my arms again,” I snap.

I don’t care if my brother is close to self-detonation…I’ll kill him myself if he hurts my mate in any way. We all come to a stop when we see Lilliana standing in front of a wall of rubble.

She glances over her shoulder at me. “He’s trapped underneath.”

Frowning, I glance at the wall of boulders and shit that’s piled up from the explosion and blocked a tunnel. “What the hell was he doing here? Did he place the explosives?”

“I think we need to give him more credit. His ego is too big to sacrifice himself by blowing up the tunnel and dying along with it,” Lilliana dryly states. “We need to carefully get rid of this rubble and free him to save, and ask him.”

We all start to carefully remove some of the large boulders. It takes time, time we don’t have, to clear this shit and not have the tunnel cave in above us.

“Can’t you use magic?” the words fall right out of my mouth when frustration hits me full force.

Lilliana shoots me a glare. “No, it doesn’t work like that. I can do some magic, but I can’t simply wave my hand, or snap my fingers, and turn these boulders to dust. We could all be buried underneath shit if I do that.”

“There, look,” Sisley shouts, dragging our attention to a boot.

Finally. We start to clear the body and quickly drag an unconscious Nario from the rocks. Lilliana places a hand on each side of his face. A glow of light illuminates their faces until Nario’s eyes flash open.

“Lilliana,” he whispers, and his eyes find mine. “How did you find me?”

“Stop with the questions. You need to explain yourself,” I demand.

He scrambles to his feet and stares at me with wide eyes. “I’m so sorry, brother.”

“Sorry?” I snarl. “Sorry about what? Betraying your own clan? Me? Our father? Pick something and start explaining before I make you face your sins.”

His lips part, eyes still wide, and he starts to slowly shake his head. “I didn’t…Why would I…fuck.”

To my surprise he throws another question at me. One I didn’t expect and also have no clue why it would matter.

“Where’s Leandro?”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

– LILLIANA –

My body still hums with a power surge from helping Nario. Over the years I never used the ability to heal. Not only due to the outer visual of me using this ability, but more of the reminder of the butterfly incident. Especially when it comes to the words the boy screamed at me.

He was right. The balance of life and death is not up to me. Seeing Nario buried under all the rubble of a caved in tunnel? There was an urge to save him, and it’s strange with the things we previously discussed; coming to the conclusion he must have been Sienna’s mate which caused the death of his father, and the war.

“Where’s Leandro?” Nario grunts and glances around.

Ernestino’s about to answer, but there’s a question I need Nario to answer first.

It’s why I grab Nario’s shirt to make him face me. “Were you Sienna’s mate?”

Nario rears his head back. “Me? No.” He glances around. “You think I was Sienna’s mate and wanted her to kill father? What the fuck, Ernestino?”

I taste no lie in his words; he wasn’t Sienna’s mate.

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