Page 30 of Facet

“Yeah, that one. Not only did it cloak you from me, but it subdued your true nature for a while. Without it, I would’ve sensed you. You’ve worn it your whole life, haven’t you?” he asked.

Dread settled in the pit of my stomach as I swallowed the massive lump now lodged in my throat. I nodded, knowing for sure there was no doubt of my mother’s duplicitous actions. I’d seen a few pictures from when I was a baby. In them, I’d been wearing it. In fact, it was so a part of my existence that I never took it off and rarely thought about it being around my neck.

“It’s spelled by a witch. That was an intentional move to hide you.”

“But why would she do that?” I took it off and stared at it.

“Maybe she didn’t want anyone to know she had a child. She shouldn’t have been able to get pregnant by me. Despite popular myths, a succubus or an incubus is created by Hades himself, not born. I honestly don’t know how you exist—unless she isn’t your mother,” he said with a heavy sigh.

Shock held my tongue for several heartbeats.

“If either of those scenarios is true, then why didn’t she leave me with my actual mother? Or if she had me, why didn’t she just give me up for adoption? She sure as hell didn’t act like she wanted to be a mom,” I grumbled.

He gave a humorless laugh. “And risk your adoptive parents taking that amulet off you? Because they would’ve. Without that, you’re a beacon to me because you are part of me. Blood of my blood. I do wonder what she planned on telling you when you ceased to age and you didn’t fucking die.”

“But why now? None of this makes sense.”

“Believe me, I intend to find out. According to what your mother told me when you went in the bar to get your woman, you killed someone by ‘breathing them in?’ Right?”

“Yes.” I lifted my chin somewhat defiantly.

“And how did that make you feel?”

My jaw ticked. Though I had a feeling he knew exactly what it had done to me, to voice it to him confirmed that I was something inhuman, and I didn’t know how to process that. “I think you already know the answer.”

“Maybe, but I need you to say it—acknowledge it.”

“Powerful,” I grudgingly whispered.

“Exactly. And without proper guidance, you would become no better than a drug addict. Killing at will for that rush of power, losing a little of your control and sanity with each one. Half of the unsolved murders and serial killers are demons that spiraled into their lust for that feeling—that addiction,” he grimly elaborated.

My insides churned at the thought. Denial burned in my throat.

“I don’t want to be this… thing. I don’t want to have the ability to do what I did. My mother told me not to have sex with Willow. Am I an incubus, then? How am I supposed to have a relationship with….” I couldn’t say anymore. Willow was human, and evidentially, I… wasn’t. How the fuck could things work out for us?

“A mortal?”

I gave my head a quick shake. It was hard enough accepting the fact that I wasn’t what I’d been led to believe my whole life. How did I do this? How was Sabre handling the fact that he was going to outlive Soleil? Now that I had claimed her as mine—maybe not officially, but between us, I had—how did I let her go?

“That’s what she is.” He shrugged as if it was no big deal. “There’s no way to sugarcoat the truth. You, my son, are immortal—son to one of the most powerful demons of all time. She is not. And no, you are not an incubus. From what you did, you take after my lines and my abilities. So it comes down to how bad do you want her and how far are you willing to go to keep her? And are you willing to deal with the fallout once she discovers what you’ve done?”

“But if that’s what we decided together, there’s a way? Or is there a way I can give up my immortality?”

He darkly chuckled. “Give up immortality? No onechoosesto give up immortality.”

“Considering I didn’t know I was an immortal, I’d happily do it,” I snapped.

He sobered.

“The only way to give up immortality is to cease to exist. That would involve separating your head from your body and burning them separately. I don’t recommend it,” he explained as he winced and shuddered.

“What would I have to do to make Willow immortal?” I reluctantly asked.

“It’s not a pretty process.”

It was my turn to shiver because the way he said that sounded incredibly ominous.

Suddenly he froze. His head slowly swiveled and tilted in the most predatory movement I’d ever seen. He silently stared toward the top of the clubhouse. Before I knew what he was doing, he disappeared as he’d arrived—in swirls of black smoke.

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