Page 55 of Kidnapped Rejected Mate
“You weresolonely,” Tara whispers, drifting toward me. Without thinking, I step closer to the edge, staring at her, my mind trying to catch up with the possibility that this could really be true. “You were so lonely, and you weresopowerful, Aury. It’s like—you did it without even realizing you did.”
“That day, outside Foods Club,” I whisper, staring up at her, eyes wide, breath catching in my throat. “When you appeared in that alcove.”
“I’ve always been a spell you cast,” Tara murmurs, and I watch the tears drip from her chin, falling down to the lake beach far, far below. “And even I didn’t realize it at first.”
The world has gone quiet behind me, nothing but the thick sound of hot wind roaring past me and Tara’s impossibly soft voice, drifting through the space, just reaching my ears. Her eyes are cast downward at the grassy outcropping where I stand.
“I thought—I thought I was real, too. But then the rest of you started getting involved with those boys, and it dawned on me that they didn’tseeme. I tried to talk to them, to mess with their heads so they would leave you alone, and they walked right through me. I realized that everyone elseleftschool at night, but I was always there.”
My eyes are hot. I might as well be the one floating. This can’t be possible.
“You were lonely, and so you created me,” Tara says, raising her chin and meeting my eyes. “And then, on the worst night of my ‘life,’ you left me out here to burn up.”
“I’m sorry,” I say, because it’s true—I didn’t mean to create her, and I definitely didn’t mean to leave her alone. I can’timagine what it must have been like for her when I retreated to the quiet of my family’s house. When I was gone so far, she couldn’t reach me.
I was gone so far, I couldn’t even reach myself.
Tara opens her mouth to say something, but I cut her off, shaking my head, “I’m sorry that you were left alone, Tara. That this is what life has been like for you. But that doesn’t excuse the things you’ve done. You hurt myfriends. You’ve killeddozensof shifters, including children and the elderly. These fires aren’t acceptable, no matter your reason for causing them.”
“But they acceptedyou,” Tara counters, jutting out her chin, eyes skipping somewhere behind me. “And her, andher. And you all started fires, too.”
“No, we didn’t. We tried to stop you.”
I’m in the middle of the sentence when I realize this is all futile. Imadeher when I was in high school, which means I must have created her with even less maturity than I had at the time. She didn’t have a chance to grow up. No family. No parents to raise her or get everything wrong. No siblings to wrestle with in the front yard.
And no chance to develop a conscience before it was too late.
I read somewhere that all children are psychopaths before they grow up and develop empathy. Maybe that’s true, and maybe Tara will never grow up. Maybe she’s trapped in the mentality of a child, only reaching for what she wants, never thinking about how much it can hurt others.
And maybe that’s especially dangerous when it comes to someone with this much power.
“But you gave it to me,” Tara whispers, and I don’t know if I said all that out loud, or if she’s just in my head. She pouts, coming close enough to me that she could reach out and touch me if she wanted to. “You’vealways been giving me the power, Aury. So that makes you just as bad as I am.”
For a second, her words cut through to the core of me, and I start to believe. If I were capable of creating something like this, something that could cause so much harm, then I must be evil.
Then, I feel the tiniest little surge of something through my body, and I lower my hand, placing it on my stomach, where new life waits.
Soren loves me. Lach and Val love me. I trust their judgment, and I know that I didn’t make Tara on purpose. I was a scared, lonely kid, and I did something without even knowing it.
Maybe I could have been stronger, or braver, but there’s nothing I can do to change that now.
The only thing I can do is be strongnow. Be bravenow.
“No,” I say to Tara, shaking my head, lifting my gaze back to hers. We’re both crying now, and I know as long as I live that I’ll never experience something like this again. Having to kill my best friend.
Because if I made her, that means I can unmake her, too.
“No-o-o!” Tara shrieks, flying up into the air and away from me in a blink, blue flames rising up around her body like they did fifteen years ago.
I stare at her in awe and fear, feeling so incredibly small. Impossibly little.
“No,” Tara booms, her voice dropped several octaves. “Youcan’tleave me, Aury! Not again!”
And with a great, shuddering boom, the ground under my feet starts to cleave, fractures racing along through the grass like cracks in glass, allowing blue flames to flare up between them, reaching for the sky.
I stumble backward with the force of the impact and glance backward over my shoulder, seeing Phina and Val still leaning over Maeve. Valerie holds a protective bubble up over them while Phina concentrates, her hands lit with healing magic as she holds them over our friend.
Turning back to face Tara, who hovers in the air, engulfed in flames, I feel the same thing I felt on that night, all those years ago.
