Page 124 of Secrets & Curses of Fate

Then I turned toward Remy and hesitated for a moment. The heavens will forgive me for saving my mate, but not for disrupting the balance so much. Her soft purple soul illuminated as she began dying. Saving Haden was the only thing I could think of. I reached forward and gripped her soul, ripping it forcefully out of her to keep the balance. Immediately, I let go of her soul, and she disappeared before I could even blink.

“No!” Mikel’s voice suddenly boomed behind me. His voice snapped me out of my panic. What did I do? “Remiah!” He knelt next to her and grabbed her lifeless body. Her soul had already left. She could choose to move on or stay, but I wouldn’t know what her choice would be. I watched my brother’s face contort with devastation and grief—like mine looked when Haden died all those years ago. He was begging and pleading with her to open her eyes.

“I love you, please open your eyes,” he cried to her. Confusion about what I did swarmed my mind so much that I did not see Haden was awake again.

“What did you do?” It was Haden’s voice as he crawled out of my arms and across the ground to Remy. Our two souls twisted together within his chest. My silver soul coiled tightly around his orange as if it was a shield. Haden looked back at me, heartbreak taking over his face. "Storm?" he asked, confused.

"Haden…" I whispered as I watched the love for me in his eyes shatter when he looked at Remiah and back to me.

"Why?" His voice broke, and I shook my head. Mikel was yelling to the heavens, and the roar of the fire was overwhelming as I tried to find the words to tell Haden.

“No, no, no.” Mikel sobbed loudly.

I was paralyzed by the grief in my mating bond with Haden. Then I saw the necklace Remiah wore around her neck and felt my whole world stop. Mikel’s star hung on a chain and lay on her pale throat. Panic gripped me tightly. I couldn’t breathe. I killed her. I took Mikel’s mate.?

What have I done?

I glanced up when I saw movement in the tree line, thinking it was Remiah’s soul, and maybe I could make this right. I was surprised to instead see tall figures standing in the shadows, all with deep hoods pulled down over their faces. The same ones that had been here the first time Haden died. Were they the stars? They disappeared before I could comprehend what or who they were.

“I told you to save Remy, not me!” Haden glared at me as I sobbed, unable to form any words at the realization that I killed Mikel's mate. This made Mikel turn his murderous eyes to me.

“You could have saved her?” he hissed.

I kept shaking my head no because I couldn’t save her. Haden had to be saved. I wasn’t going to live without Haden; he was my mate. It was an impossible choice.

“Haden, please,” I barely managed to choke out. “Forgive me…”

When he looked at me, I saw no emotion in his eyes, deep blue pools of nothingness. I had done that to him. The realization ripped my heart in two.

“Forgive you? I fucking hate you!” Haden yelled at me. “I wish I never met you. I wish you never talked to me. Do you hear me? I fucking hate you!” He was kneeling next to Mikel and Remiah. “I will never forgive you.”

“Please…” I sobbed. Our mating bond floated between us again, but it was partially black now.

Haden turned to me again as he glared, cold hatred radiating from him so much that I could see his and Mikel’s breath as they both cried over Remiah’s body.

“I will never forgive you for taking my family from me. You’re an evil fucking monster. I never want to see your face again. You are dead to me. Do not ever come near me again, or I will kill you.”

“Haden…” I tried to breathe, but it felt like I was dying. “Don’t leave me.”

This pissed him off more.

Haden stood up and came forward. He gripped me hard by the back of my neck and dragged me to Remy’s lifeless body, his fingers flexing so hard I thought he would snap it.

“She deserved to live, not me. Unless you can bring her back right now, then I don’t care how much you cry. I will never forgive you. Bring her back now.” He shoved me close to Remy, and I cried even harder. She looked beautiful, like she was sleeping. But she was dead, and I had killed her. I had killed Mikel’s mate. I had taken her from him, and now, I hated myself for it. He would feel like I did for the past 300 years.

“I can’t,” I cried.

“You mean nothing to me. You’ll leave, and I will never waste another thought on you. You fucking disgust me.”

He let me go, and I fell on my back and sobbed to the stars above. I begged them for her soul to come to me so I could give it back. I wasn’t thinking clearly. A moment later, Mikel’s face overtook my view.

“You took her from me,” he sobbed quietly. “How could you take her from me?” He cried so violently that his starlight lashed out and gripped me tightly, threatening to snap all of my bones.

“I wish to the stars that you had never been created.” His words were like a dagger into my heart. I had lost everyone and everything I loved.

I sat up and saw Haden cradling his dead sister, begging her to open her eyes. He cried about how she was always the stronger one of the two of them, that he was nothing without her. He apologized for ruining their lives and that he had let a monster into their home.

My mate bond was sending waves of pain through it, punishing me because I had hurt him, because I had failed him, and now he was cursed with an existence of suffering alone. My bond was frantic for me to fix it.

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