The Beautiful (The Beautiful #1)(107)

“Bastien.” She rushed toward him, catching him before he struck the stone floor. Crouching by his side, Celine pressed her bound hands atop his, trying to stanch the gaping wound at his throat. Blood oozed from between their fingertips, flowing fast and hot, like a river bursting through fissures in a dam.

Several brushes of air gathered on all sides of them. Celine did not have to look to know who was there. The rest of the Court had arrived, not a moment too soon.

Bastien opened his mouth, the light in his gaze fierce. He tried to speak, but a trail of blood streamed from his mouth.

“Don’t talk.” Celine held him close. “You’re going to be fine. Nicodemus will be here soon. Hold on to your strength.” She placed pressure on his wound until the tips of her fingers turned white, but Bastien’s blood only flowed faster, its warmth soaking through to her skin.

A small smile curved his lips. With his other hand, he gripped her fingers tightly.

In his eyes, Celine saw a sky filled with stars.

She saw a boy who would die for her, just as she would kill for him.

“You’re going to be fine,” Celine repeated, her words tremulous, tears trickling from the tip of her nose. “It won’t end like this. I know it won’t. I haven’t even told you I’m falling in love with you.” Someone was weeping softly behind them. “Damn it, don’t cry,” she yelled over her shoulder. “There’s nothing to cry about. He’s going to be fine. We are all going to leave here together. And I will love Bastien until the last star falls from the sky.” Her voice broke. “Where is Nicodemus?” Celine shouted, her words resonating with imperiousness. “Find him at once.”

The goddess within her smiled a sad smile.

And Bastien’s eyes fell shut, his hand coming to rest on the floor beside Celine’s feet.





MANY PATHS TO HAPPINESS




Nicodemus Saint Germain stood over the dying body of his nephew.

The last surviving member of his line. The sole reason for his existence. Everything he’d striven for his entire mortal life—his legacy—was draining onto a church floor before his very eyes.

Fitting. For he’d destroyed hundreds of lives over the centuries. So many deaths. So much loss.

There would always be a reckoning. Time had taught Nicodemus that inescapable truth.

“Please,” Celine begged, tears streaming down her cheeks as she clutched his nephew’s head to her chest, blood pooling in a widening circle around them. “Save him.”

The weight on Nicodemus’ soul had already begun to settle. “No,” he said simply. Brokenly. It had been the same after he’d lost Bastien’s sister, émilie. After their parents had paid for Nicodemus’ greatest mistake.

“I refuse to accept that,” Celine shouted. “Do something. Don’t let him die.”

To his right and left, Nicodemus felt his immortal children stirring. Boone openly wept. Farther away, Jae stared at a point of nothingness, his features wan, his fingers stained by the evidence of Nigel’s final reckoning. A cloud of anger surrounded Hortense, Madeleine swiping a lone tear from beneath her sister’s chin. Along the periphery, Odette inched forward as if to subvert his orders, her sable eyes wide. “Stop,” Nicodemus commanded. They all straightened like soldiers. “I will not be defied in my wishes. Sébastien was always meant to live and die as a mortal. Nothing is worth the price of this curse,” he said, his tone firm. “I swore to myself I would never turn a member of my human family into a bloodthirsty monster.”

“It’s worth any price in the world if Bastien lives,” Celine pleaded.

A hard light shone in Nicodemus’ eyes. “Sébastien has already proven he is too weak for this life. He did not heed my warnings when he fell in love with a mortal girl, and now his life is forfeit. If he were one of us, it would be the same. Our enemies would exploit these weaknesses. And there would always be something left for him to lose.”

“Then protect him. Make him stronger. Just save him,” she cried.

Nicodemus stared down at the cursed girl. The cause of his nephew’s undoing. He knew Celine loved Sébastien. Could see the truth of it in her haunted gaze. And it left him cold. Bleak. Unfeeling. “I stayed away so my enemies would not be drawn to Sébastien. So they would not be tempted. I surrounded him with my immortal children so that they would always protect him. I sacrificed everything I loved to keep him safe.” Nicodemus inhaled, a knot of pain taking shape around the emptiness in his heart. “My family has always been my weakness. And now my enemies have destroyed me with it.” He shook his head. “Love is an affliction to our kind. I will not remake Bastien only to watch him fall prey to it again. I’m sorry.”

“What do you want me to do?” Celine whispered. “What can I say that will make you save him?”

“Nothing. Whatever we are in our human lives becomes magnified by immortality. What Bastien loves now will be an even greater weakness.” Nicodemus studied Celine, watching his words shatter her last hope. “Forget all this, child. Live your life apart from this wretched world.” An approximation of sympathy laced his features. Nicodemus turned toward his immortal children, ready to take leave. To sit with his grief, pondering all he had lost tonight. To flee this cursed city forever.