Page 124 of Worse Fates
Feeling too exposed, but smiling nonetheless, I glance away.
Lucero holds me close. Ramy moves to sit on the coffee table across from me, and I realise I’m surrounded by my…my family.
Lucero cups my chin and tilts me up so I can watch Vidar bite into his thumb. The cut heals quickly, but a drop of blood shines like a ruby against his pale gold skin.
“Offspring of my offspring, accept my blood and become my family in every sense.” Vidar offers that shining jewel to me. My body locks up, unsure if I’m worth what he’s offering.
Lucero’s fingers stroke my jaw, gentle and reassuring. Telling me how much I’m valued and loved and cherished, and all the words that keep my lashes wet.
Slowly I open wide, accepting the gift that’s offered.
Vidar’s blood is strong, not like Lucero’s deep red. But…old. Not bad, but something heavy with history and time itself pressed into a single drop.
“Now that I’m officially the head of your family.” Vidar leans back, arm thrown over the head rest and legs spread wide. “You need to feed more.”
My eyes roll back, and I slump into Lucero’s hard chest. “Not you, too…”
“Yes.” Vidar’s smirk is small, but cuts as sharply as a fang. “Me too.”
The doorbell rings and Ramy pulls himself up, mumbling, “I should really get a key cut for Kai.” And rushes out.
“So Kai is really visiting?” I grin.
“Golden drank more blood today than any other.” Lucero defends me to Vidar. “He’s been through a lot, just give him time.”
Vidar levels Lucero with the look of a disappointed father. “Doesn’t help that you keep letting him take your blood, offspring.”
“C’mon, don’t say that,” I complain. “How do you even know about it?”
Vidar raises an eyebrow, as if to say it’s the most obvious thing in the world.
Lucero chuckles, his lips on my crown as I cross my arms.
Ramy leads Kai into the room, and I can’t stop my goofy grin, one that Kai returns. But as he comes deeper inside, he slows.
His smile falls away into a deep frown, gaze locked on Vidar whose frown mirrors Kai’s.
“Have we met before?” Kai asks, sounding like he’s waking from a dream.
Lucero stills. Ramy sucks in a breath. Vidar rises slowly, tension straightening his spine.
Kai steps forward. “I know you…”
Vidar moves closer to Kai—chest unmoving. Not even blinking.
They’ve never met, I’m sure of it. But they stare at each other as if long ago they were torn apart, and finally—after years, decades, centuries of waiting—they’re reunited.
“Soulmate.” The word leaves Vidar on an exhale, but the emotion that shakes him is anything but light.
I gasp, grabbing hold of Lucero’s arm, Kai always said he had a one true love, even with Lucero I didn’t believe it. But my best friend’s slow smile, the crinkle at the edges of his eyes, tells me he never once doubted he’d find the one person who’ll love him forever.
“Impossible,” Vidar bites out.
Kai’s smile drops. “I-impossible?”
“I refuse to have a mate who looks like you.”
The room freezes. Even the fire becomes cold and Kai’s face drops, crashing to the ground. He staggers, hand flying to his chest—the same position when Vidar called me his family. But Kai isn’t being welcomed, he’s being rejected.
