Until the Sun Falls from the Sky (The Three #1)(161)

To his shock, her sagging body slumped deeper.

He gave her time and, as he expected, she again spoke.

“I’m okay with this,” she went on in a whisper. “I couldn’t live without you.”

“I know,” he replied and watched her put extreme effort into lifting her eyes to him.

“Not at all,” she admitted. “Not even for a second.”

“I know,” he repeated.

“You love her?” she asked, the stamp of agony in her face twisting with new pain.

“Yes,” he answered shortly.

She’d endured enough. Now it was time for her pain to end. But just like Rina, she begged for more.

“I wanted you to love me like that,” she told him something he already knew.

Lucien made no reply.

“Why couldn’t you love me like that?” she asked.

“Rina, let Julian take you to the stake,” Lucien replied gently.

“Give me that before I die. Tell me why. Why couldn’t you love me like that?”

Lucien sighed then reminded her, “I’ve told you why.”

She smiled a humorless smile before she whispered, “I’ll listen now.”

He held her eyes.

Then he answered, “Because you wanted it so badly.”

“That’s not good?” she asked, genuinely perplexed.

Lucien shook his head. “The moment I understood Leah’s love for me caused her pain, I knew I had to let her go. Even knowing losing her I would lose everything. I was willing to sacrifice everything to ease her pain. And when I understood I loved her but if we stayed together our time would be short and end in tragedy, I understood this more completely. And I was determined to let her go to prolong her life in hopes, during it, she might find happiness. What you failed to learn is that true love is not selfish, Rina. It’s selfless.”

She gazed at him, even in her state the unhealthy, fevered, obsessive love she had for him burned in her eyes.

Quietly, he finished, “You never understood that.”

“No,” she whispered, “and I still don’t. Today, I die for my love for you, Lucien.”

“If it makes you feel better to believe that, Rina, then I’m pleased you do,” Lucien returned on a whisper.

She continued to gaze at him he knew in order to steal more of his time and attention.

But he was done.

He stepped away and jerked his chin at his son.

Julian moved forward.

Lucien didn’t watch as his son carried his ex-mate over his shoulder out of the room. Instead, he pulled out his phone and made three calls. Two were business. One was to Leah to tell her he’d be home soon.

She told him she was making her fried chicken.

This was something over the past week since they returned that he was growing accustomed to. A new nuance of his soon-to-be bride. She didn’t ask about the unpleasant business, simply waited for him to tell her if he so desired. But she was attuned to him. Now that he’d opened it to her, both of them could sense each other’s moods with an acuity that had nothing to do with body language, facial expressions or tone of voice. They tracked each other easily. So she knew when he had them and she made certain she did something, sometimes large, sometimes small, to make his unpleasant days end well.

He finished his call with Leah and moved outside. Bel was there. Stephanie. Rafe. Duncan. And Cristiano was there to represent The Council.

When Lucien arrived, Julian handed him the torch. Without delay, he threw it at the wood and kindling at Katrina’s feet.

And he gave her one last thing. Lucien held her eyes as she burned.

When she was no longer of this world, he left, leaving Cristiano to gather the ashes and scatter them to the winds.

* * * * *

Lucien sat back and yanked off the white gloves they’d asked him to wear before he handled the ancient parchments.

It was over a month after he’d found Leah. He was in the ancient city of Speranza in a windowless, air-controlled, intensely secured room in the basement The Dominion’s international headquarters.

He lifted his head and looked across the table at Avery, Gregor and Rudolf.

“This does not make me happy,” he muttered his understatement.

He’d just seen The Prophesies or what they would allow him to see. He had no idea what else there was. However, they had shown him some of what referred to Leah and himself.

“That’s understandable,” Rudolf replied.

“Do you now understand why we’ve asked you to refrain from hunting your father?” Avery asked carefully.

“I understand it but I don’t like it,” Lucien answered tightly.

“As you can see from those documents, he is surely the general of the insurrectionists noted in them. If his death is precipitous, it could tip war and we’re not ready,” Rudolf explained.

“I did read that in the parchments, Rudolf,” Lucien muttered with irritation.

“You will have your time,” Avery assured him quietly.

He f**king well would.

Lucien nodded.

“She’s already exhibiting the abilities,” Gregor stated, looking at him closely.

Lucien briefly weighed the wisdom of answering, glanced at Avery who already knew and decided.

“She has exceptional powers of the mind. She can mark me. Track me. Sense my mood and, therefore, when she’s with me, sense danger when I do. She can speak to me with her mind and, as the days go by, this power increases significantly. Indeed, if I wished, I could call to her where she’s sitting at a café across the street and she’d hear me. She could do the same. We also have begun to share dreams, having them separately and, on occasion, simultaneously.” He gestured to the papers on the table before him. “However, she does not demonstrate uncommon speed or strength.”