Page 15 of Obsession

To kill Aris.

To bind myself to Jaegen.

I remind myself of my earlier reservations. I think of standing in a gift shop, watching people look at souvenirs, and the surging determination I felt to live. But that fire was smothered by the weight of Simon’s grief.

His friends deserve justice; I need to do my part. I owe him that.

Am I ready?

“Yes,” I say. “Let’s kill him.”

Chapter five

“We can’t kill him.”

The statement surprises me so much that I actually stand from the settee in objection, and Jaegen raises a brow. So large and magnificent is he that I feel honest embarrassment for questioning him, instincts demanding I duck my head.

“You said that we…” I speak quietly, even apologetically. “You told me that we would end this and—”

“He cannot die,” snaps Jaegen, his stare so heated and heavy that it feels like I’ve been hit in the head. The hot air pushes at me.

I look away. I guess I asked for that; it’s not easy for any man to acknowledge he’s failed, much less a god.

“So, what’s your plan?” I ask wearily.

“If he can’t die, we end him in a different way.”

It sounds like a riddle. I shift my weight between my feet as I consider it, unable to come to a conclusion. “How?” I finally ask.

“We erase him. We make him forget.”

“Forget… what?”

“Everything.”

Forget?

The thought of Aris helpless and confused tugs at a part of me that I need to bury. I shovel some dirt on the image and try to weigh it down. Hide it away.

Think logically, Mary. Ruthlessly. The way that Aris would.

Take Aris’ memory… If it works, if it’s possible, would it be effective? Maybe Aris would forget himself and his current plans, but what would stop him from making a new, perhaps even more deranged, scheme?

“Aris isn’t evil. It’s just what he knows,” says Jaegen. “He is like an injured dog, biting because he’s bewildered and afraid.”

My mouth opens, shuts. Aris? Afraid? I know that Jaegen is this infinitely intelligent and powerful being, but I don’t think he’s… right about that.

I wince and glance at him, waiting to see if he’ll strike out at the careless thought, but his face is clear. He will allow me one oopsy.

“So he would forget, and then what?” I ask. Would we put him in a hospital with the other amnesiacs?

“You would stay with him while I find a new prison to hold him.”

My brows furrow. A new prison? Does he mean a new person?

Jaegen doesn’t answer that thought either.

“He’s with the Following,” I say hesitantly, touching my necklace. “They’ll never let me wipe his mind. And they have magic. They might be able to reverse whatever we—”

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