Ascension - Book Eight - Man x Man

Chapter 65

Flicking my gaze over him, I was uncomfortable with this topic. In a move quicker than I could even decipher I grip his throat firmly in my hand, wrinkling my nose as I glower into his eyes. "Do you dare suggest that you go instead."

With a smirk, he raises an eyebrow and I tighten my grip in a challenge. "Fiesty this morning."

"I'm hungry." I snap. "For more than just food."

Rolling his eyes, he unseats my hand with a sigh. "My intuition has always been my guide. Despite how far we've gotten, I feel like the cycle is not meant to be completed in the sense that one holds them all. A destiny not meant to be fulfilled. I feel you should claim Malka, you and I are connected, it could effectively end the cycle without reuniting the celestial being. It's my hope that the spirits will grow dormant, in the absence of chasing the fractured piece. There will be nothing else to pass on. When I... when we... die, the spirits will end with it."

Considering this, I back up to sit on the bed, resting my hands beside my hips as I attempt to wrap my mind around the thought of me holding a piece of a god. What would that mean for me, as a magic user who had been poisoned by dark magic? Would I go mad with power? 

Meanwhile, the parts of me that died with my magic begged to be let out of their cage. I wanted so badly to use again, I was willing to take a drug that could slowly be killing me just to get a taste. Ending the thought with immortality, true eternal life in its only fathomable form, was horrendously tempting. 

"You think Helen would submit to me?"

Verando scoffs, opening the window to light a cigarette. Bringing the cancer stick to his full lips, I can't help but linger on the way he holds it between his teeth, resting on the lower lip so carelessly as he pulls out his lighter. 

The flame illuminates those icy eyes, dancing through them as if reflecting off glass. Wetting my lips, my body calms itself, I was not able to act on these impulses, not with our son in the same room. Smirking at me, he takes a slow draw. "Good self-control."

I scowl at him, glancing over my shoulder to check on Darrius. He tempted me on purpose. Noting my offense, he expertly slips out the window onto the first-story roof to sit just beyond the sill. I nearly leap out of my own skin to stop him, only to note that the roof was plentiful if not horrifying that my husband felt so comfortable out on it. 

"You will probably have to kill her but she might. Helen understands this, she wants out, much as she's trying desperately to fulfill her role. Perhaps it is possible that her role is truly to pass the wolf on to someone else. Gods if I know anymore, mysterious ways and what have you... I'm struggling to see another path forward."

"I'll never understand how you speak about death so casually." I know it hurt him, I know how badly each loss affected him. Yet, speaking to him now, it was as if it was another hurdle to cross. 

Pulling off the cigarette, Verando redirects his gaze back into the openness, drowning out the scent of deer with the smoke. "Everyone dies. The longer we attempt to save everyone, the more people will die because of it. At the end of this, when it comes down to it, my priority is you. More than anything. More than anyone. I hope that it motivates you to not kill her, to encourage her submission."

So it would be up to me? I would just have to not kill her? I think of Kavanza taking Sota's arm to take his position. Could I do that? It seemed possible that my dislike of Helen could be boiling down to this moment. Staring at the floor, I hear him return and glance up to see him standing before me. 

"Brush your teeth. You stink." I sigh, wrinkling my nose as he kisses my cheek. 

"You will have to confront her. It can not be planned. She will attempt to kill you as Malka believes you are not worthy, since you are not of our blood."