Cyrus stood up at their entrance. “Eden, you already know Noah-”
“No, I don’t,” she bit out.
The Princeps ignored her. “And this is Noah’s father, Alain.” He motioned to the young guy next to Noah.
Eden blinked. “Excuse me?”
Cyrus arched an eyebrow. “We’re immortal remember. We don’t age very much.”
“How old are you?” Her curiosity peaked.
Cyrus cleared his throat. “I am roughly twenty five hundred years old.”
Her jaw dropped. “Holy…”
Alain straightened, seeming displeased to be imparting the information, but Cyrus’ eyes bored into him with command. “I am roughly thirteen hundred years old.”
Eden blinked, listening to his accent. Now she understood why Noah’s surname was Valois. She thought it was a French Michigan thing. But clearly it was just a French thing.
Noah cleared his throat. “I’m seventy years old.”
Still, Eden wouldn’t look at him. Her eyes fell on the blonde. Why was she so familiar?
“Ah.” Cyrus nodded at the girl. “This is Romany, Noah’s girlfriend, she is Neith.”
It was like a punch to the gut, followed by an uppercut.
Romany. Noah’s girlfriend. Neith.
Eden’s fingers dug into the quilt around her, desperately trying to keep any expression from her face. But the shock reverberated through her body as if she had jumped from too great a height.
She felt betrayed all over again. She literally felt like he had reached inside her chest and crushed her useless excuse for a heart in his lying, scheming fists.
Eden guessed that answered any lingering doubts over whether she had been falling for Noah.
“So she’s mortal?” Eden asked instead, pushing this new heartbreak out of sight, her lip curling as she glared at the girl. “She’s one of those that kept attacking me.”
“No,” Cyrus insisted. “The Neith that fought you and Noah are members of a rebel faction I’m trying to shut down.”
“Rebel faction?” That sounded so ridiculous. And yeah as one of the Unforeseen she was aware of the irony in judging anything else ludicrous.
“Ankh who think you are an abomination,” Romany responded, drawing Eden’s eyes back to her. Eden looked at her for a moment, taking in the big brown eyes and golden hair, the toned physique. Romany appeared to be a year or two older than her but the Neith seemed intimidated by Eden’s gaze and turned away to look at Noah, her ponytail swishing with the movement.
The image of Stellan’s murder flashed before her and this time she saw the face of his murderer.
“Oh my God.” Her eyes burned into Romany. “You!” She growled and lunged from the bed, a blur of movement across the duvet. She had the Neith pinned to the ground, her hands wrapped around the girl’s throat, before the others even processed what was happening. “You killed him!” She snarled and spat in the girl’s face, saliva dripping down her chin as she squeezed tighter, ignoring the bite of Romany’s clawing fingers around her wrists. “You killed Stellan!”
Hands, many hands, hauled her off, and she jerked and slapped at them, screaming and shrieking like a madwoman.
“Let her go,” Cyrus’ voice called out over the racket she made, as Romany coughed and choked. The other hands disappeared and Noah reached for Romany.
With only Cyrus’ arms wrapped around her waist, the madness seemed to dissipate. Eden trembled in his arms, still heaving with hatred and fury.
“Eden.” Noah looked up at her, his face twisted with confusion. “You have to understand, our duty is to kill soul eaters. Stellan was a soul eater. Romany was just doing her job.”
How could he sit there and say that to her when he knew Stellan was the only one in her life who had looked after her, who loved her? In that moment she wanted to kill them both. The hunger roared at her to do it. Cyrus squeezed her arm and the hunger cowered at his touch.
Her grief-fuelled fury did not.
Eden’s pale eyes froze Noah in place. “You,” she spat. “You are dead to me, you hear me? You come anywhere near me again and I’ll rip your throat out. And you,” she warned Romany. “You better run and hide… because I’m going to destroy you for what you’ve taken from me.”
Chapter Eighteen. The End. Maybe the Beginning…
Noah was shaken. In all his life he had never felt out of control of a situation. But he did now. And he didn’t like it. He hated not knowing whether Eden would ever forgive him. He hated seeing her like a rabid animal over the death of her brother. Especially after how brave she’d been at the Ceremony. She had refused to kill him; had fought back a hunger that had bleached her eyes of all colour; a dangerous, powerful hunger, and Eden had conquered it because…
Noah hung his head, leaning a palm against the wall of the sitting room of the house Cyrus had rented in the next town over from Salton.
… because she had cared about him.
In that moment, something had changed. Or maybe it hadn’t changed. Maybe he’d finally accepted that his feelings for Eden were real. And strong. He had never met anyone as courageous as her.
Romany, Alain and Emma stood behind him, waiting on Cyrus returning. The sound of his footsteps echoing down the hall brought Noah around expectantly. His heart pounded. The Princeps entered the room, his face drawn and tired. He looked to Alain first, as he should, Alain being the only member of The Circle in the room. “I had to put her in the basement.”
Noah frowned, uncomfortable with the idea of Eden locked down there behind the heavy metal door that had been the reason for Cyrus renting the place. The basement had once been a cold store. “Why? Is that necessary?”
Cyrus nodded slowly. “I appear to have a calming effect on her but it… considering the circumstances it is not enough. She is determined to leave and will no longer listen to reason.”
“Drug her?” Alain asked softly.
Noah stiffened at the thought. There was a drug the Ankh and Neith used when interrogating soul eaters that helped abate the soul eaters hunger, so they were able to focus on what was being asked of them. Noah didn’t think drugging Eden was a way to incite her trust.
Cyrus apparently agreed. “No. I need her to trust me. It is irrelevant, as the hunger is not what is causing the pain. She is grieving.” He turned his dark, penetrating eyes on Noah and Noah saw the hint of accusation in them.
He bowed his head in respect but insisted, “I told you how she felt about her brother. I told you it would be wise to leave him out of this.”
“And in return I told you he wasn’t to be harmed.”
They all felt Romany stiffen guiltily but Noah refused to feel bad when he turned his eyes on her. “And I relayed those orders to everyone. Including Romany.”
Romany glared at him, a mixture of anger and hurt pooling together in her brown eyes. But Noah was too upset to care. Too furious with her impetuosity and bloodlust. “I’m being admonished for killing a soul eater. I don’t believe this.”
“You’re being admonished for disobeying a direct order and jeopardising the integrity of this assignment,” Noah responded coldly.
She scoffed, “Oh please. You would have happily killed him if he hadn’t been your precious Eden’s brother!”
Her apparent jealousy echoed around the room and they all shifted uncomfortably. Noah shook his head, feeling a twinge of sympathy as her cheeks blushed red. “Stop,” he said quietly.
Her eyes flared with pricked pride. “Stop? I’ll-”
“Enough,” Cyrus commanded softly and strode silently towards Romany. Her eyes widened at his approach. “You forget yourself, warrior.”