Page 77 of Premonition of Peace

Kat stood up, blocking her sister’s body. As if she could protect her from The Harvester. “I am.”

Ronan’s gaze shifted between them, then to me. “You know why I’m here.”

I sighed, feeling my insides clench. “She made a deal with you, didn’t she?”

He nodded, the muscle in his jaw clenched.

“No.” Marcel stepped forward, and August grabbed him by the collar, pulling him back.

“While I don’t share his idiotic approach,” I said, kneeling down by Nat, stroking her hair, “he’s right. No.”

“The Morrigan is in here, is she not?” he asked.

“She is, but Kat is alive. I’m assuming the deal you made included Katherine’s death first?”

“It did.”

“Then wait.”

His brows lowered. “Until when?”

August stepped around Marcel, also blocking him from Nathalie. “We’ll know if it’s her when she wakes up. Lucifer is her familiar. He’ll know. The aurae bond is almost solidified between us. There’s a strong semblance of a bond connected between us already. I’ll know.”

“And you know what I have to do if it’s not her.” Ronan looked down at Nat, then back to me. “And anyone that tries to stop me.”

“Where’s Piper?” I asked.

“Don’t make me kill you now,” he growled.

August stepped between us slowly, turning to face Ronan. “Why did she make a deal with you?” My brother glared at August. “She came to you about this. And if you’re here, she called out to you somehow when The Morrigan took her. So tell me what she said.”

“I don’t owe you any answers,” he said.

“No, but you will have to answer to me,” Piper said, appearing behind him. A part of me smirked, but I schooled my features. Piper was pissed, and I was not stepping into that marital trap.

Ronan’s eyes closed in frustration as his mate came around, kneeling beside her best friend. “Spit it out, Ronan. Tell me why you’re here. Tell me why I didn’t know about it.”

He sighed, crossing his arms. “We agreed that if The Morrigan took her, I’d end it. She didn’t want you to know because you’d try to stop it.”

“You would kill my best friend to save me and the kids,” Piper surmised. Her tone was resigned, but there was a pain behind it she couldn’t hide.

“That’s why I would do it, yes. Without question.”

“And what was Nathalie’s reason?” August prompted.

Ronan looked at each of us there—Piper, August, Marcel, Katherine, and me—“To save everyone she loves.”

A piece of my heart began to fracture. I didn’t know something could hurt like this. Nathalie kept this from me. Always trying to fight battles on her own. Always one foot in the door and one foot out. If she made it through this, we’d have to work on that communication thing August was going on about.

“I won’t let you take her soul,” I said, looking at my brother and knowing full well how this would all end if I got in his way.

“You know what will happen if you try to stop me.”

I inclined my chin. “I do.”

He shrugged. “So be it.”

The physical pain I’d endured, the sacrificial exsanguination, losing my atma—none of it compared to the mere thought of her not existing in this world.

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