Page 44 of Mated Exile

But within that moment, I feel it again: the desire to kill me. To rip the flesh from my bones. To watch me bleed out onto the ground.

Wincing, I pull back—but the awareness ripples out and out, further and further, until every soul within it is a tiny dot, like a single star. Far out from the bar, at a distance I can't even tell, a new, shining emotion comes to me. One I brush up against curiously, drawing in a sharp breath.

Just for a moment, I sense something sinister and old, too old to still be alive. Impossibly aged, incredibly powerful, somehow sharp and cold like the point of an icicle. Its emotions feel sluggish, its thoughts slow, but it wakes at my touch.

And it senses me back.

Nineteen

Delilah

Iwake up early to the blare of my alarm, and roll out of bed with determination. It's a new day, a fresh start, and there are too many items on my to-do list to spend a lazy morning lolling around. The journal my father found lies on my nightstand, its pages recently thumbed through. Grabbing it, I slide it inside the drawer of the stand and away from sight.

I've already read it once, late last night after Finn dropped me off at home. Its words twisted inside me, full of hatred for what I am and rage for what an entirely different hybrid did centuries ago. Reading the journal, and dwelling on my father's actions, hurt.

But as I got some distance from its words, knowledge sunk in. There are things in its pages that I can use to fix everything. So, I get up with a spring in my step and race through my morning routine, eager to share what I've learned.

Surprisingly, I'm the first one in the kitchen, dressed and fresh from my shower. Cat is usually an early to rise, early to cook kind of mom. I've always been the opposite—there's a reason why I worked at bars and restaurants instead of bakeries. When Cat waltzes into the kitchen and spots me pouring a fresh mug of coffee from the already-brewed pot, she stops and stares, mouth half-ajar.

I tell her, "You know what they say about open mouths and flies."

She shuts her lips, blinking at me several times. "Didn't you go out on a date last night?"

"It was more of anouting."

"With Finn."

"Yes." I feel the blush hit my cheeks and cover it up by turning my back to her and opening the fridge. "Before you say something perverted, we only kissed."

A few times. In the bar, and in the back of the cab on the way home, as well as on the front porch, his lips skimming my mouth hungrily and his hands dropping to cup my ass. Things would've gotten a little more heated, I think, if I hadn't felt that strange presence in the back of my mind again. The sensation of being watched—by something foreign and malevolent, no less—put a dampener on the idea of fooling around.

"I wasn't going to say something perverted," Cat lies, like aliar."I'm just surprised you're up early, is all. And walking straight."

"We can't risk doing anything that might form a mating bond," I point out. "Not until we're sure I'll survive the curse, or we've broken it. Just because everyone seems tothinka hybrid lived through it doesn't mean I want to take the chance."

"You could dootherthings, though, couldn't you?"

Done, and nearly done again last night, but I don't want to tell her about the presence I sensed. She would just worry, and besides, I don't even know what it was or if it's gone away.

I dodge her by saying, "We all know spooning leads to forking, and hand stuff leads to other stuff. Unlike you, I can keep it in my pants."

Cat grumbles, grabbing some frozen bagels and laying them out on a baking sheet while she preheats the oven. "How heteronormative of magic to decide doing the horizontal tango is the one thing that counts the most."

"You're so ridiculous."

"I'm just concerned for you." Her eyes dance as she takes a sip of coffee from her mug and raises her brows at me over its rim. "You're spending all this time with such hot hunks. And now we know you probablycouldhave one, or even all four to five of them. Denying yourself can't be healthy for your growing body."

I chortle at her, nearly spitting out my morning brew, and glance down the hallway to make sure Bastian hasn't stirred yet and come down the stairs. "You're an absolute menace to society."

"As I strive to be." Cat hums as she slips the bagels into the oven, and I notice she's prepared extra portions for Bastian. Once she's done with that, she eyes me and asks, "Youaregoing to figure out how to break that curse, though, aren't you? Because it'd be cruel to keep those boys of yours waiting around with no end in sight. Someone needs to give them some relief."

Grabbing my phone, I stare down at its screens and consider Cat's words. In a low voice, I confess, "Ihavedecided on that front."

"Oh?" To say she perks up is an understatement; she practically bounces on her feet she's so excited. "Please tell me at least that you're dating Finn. I'm on his team, if we're having teams. Though that Lance sure does—"

"I'm going to let them all date me, if they're into it," I tell her, heat stroking my cheeks at just the thought. "I mean, we both know they're interested. They've made that pretty clear." Though I still struggle to understand Roarke's feelings, even when he seems to be on the verge of spilling them. "Since they're coming over today to start work back up on the house and patrol the land for bloodsuckers, I want to make sure they've talked to each other about me, and I've talked to them as well, before things get… complicated."

Cat practically snorts her coffee up her nose. "Complicated. As if they aren't already."

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