Page 141 of Living Legend

I raised an eyebrow at her, refusing to give in to her stalling. She shook her head, blowing out a breath, pointing to me and Natalia. "You've made a mistake putting yourself in the middle of all this shit."

She wasn't intending on answering me at all. " I'm supposed to believe that youwillinglyplaced yourself in the middle of this shit?"

She lifted up one side of her mouth. "Sure. If that's what you want to think."

I groaned loudly. "Elise, for fucks sake, can you tell me anything worth knowing?"

"Yeah." She walked around me and headed for the door. "You can't be her savior, pretty boy. No matter what you think she should have been, she is what she is now. You can'tfixher. Lilith has plans for her, and you can't undo them, as much as your pathetic little heart would like to try." I know she meant to say the last part in a mean tone, but I could have sworn I caught something else. Her eyes were looking past me, over my shoulder, like she was trying to focus on something other than my face.

Her eyes flicked to mine, and I saw it for just a moment.

Elise cared about Dani. She still lied to her and just like she said, it was hard for me to believe it was for a good reason. Elise was so good at pretending to be cool and uncaring about everyone but herself, with no fucks to give until you pissed her off, but maybe there was something I was missing. I don't know why I thought breaking her down would be an easy task.

"I'm guessing you aren't going to tell me if you know what those plans are?" It was a rhetorical question, we both knew that.

She wrinkled her nose, looking at Natalia and nodding over to me. "He catches on quick."

Natalia pushed her hair over her shoulder. "I can't have a traitor in my lands, so you need to tell us something of merit or I will have you removed." She had so much authority in that light, smooth voice of hers, and it stunned me every time.

Elise didn't even shudder. "Remove me, then. Just know that I've wanted all of you dead at least once since I got to this fucking realm and yet here you all stand…alive. Believe me, I have proved myself." She let out ahmph, turned on her heels, and opened the door. Elise stopped as she crossed the threshold and looked back at me. Her midnight hair made her look so ghostly with her pale skin, like a porcelain doll, if a porcelain doll had anger issues and a knack for evading questions. "I know you'll tell her when you get back, because you don't fucking listen, but try not to tell her how you'll figure shit out and make it all better like I know you want to. You'll be lying to her. I might be a bitch, Nicholas, but even I think that would be downright cruel."

She slammed the door.

I stared at it for what felt like hours, my mouth slightly open and an expression on my face that I knew said the only thing that made sense right now.

"What the fuck just happened?"

Natalia walked over to the closed door and leaned her back against it. "It will hurt terribly but I can always have Zane find her so she’s forced to tell us something."

I shook my head, curious as to how her brand of torture worked. "No, that wouldn't do any good. She would probably enjoy the pain."

Natalia chuckled. "What are you thinking then?"

"I don't know. Talking to her again won't do any good. She seems dead set on keeping her secrets." Unfortunately, I didn't know if that was a good or bad thing at the moment.

"Is she right though? Do you still intend to tell Dani what you know?" Natalia walked over to me and placed her hand on my forearm. She gently grabbed my hand with the broken finger and examined it.

"I have to. Nothing either of you say is going to change that."

She nodded thoughtfully, as if she was expecting that answer. She wrapped her hand around my index finger, and I watched as small sparks of pink light flew around it. The pain I felt subsided quickly and my finger felt brand new in a matter of minutes. She withdrew her hand, and I flexed my fingers, making sure everything was as it should be. "Thanks."

She waved me off. "Did you see anything else while you were in the past?"

I placed both my hands in my pockets and shifted back and forth on my feet. "I saw myself."

"Yourself?"

I nodded. "You know about the Animus Seeking, right?"

"What about it?"

I looked up at the ceiling, almost wanting to laugh with the absurdity of it all. “It was supposed to be me, Natalia."

She lifted her perfect eyebrows at me quizzically. "What do you mean, you?"

"As inIwas the one who was supposed to get to her.Iwas supposed to be there for her.Iwasn't there all because someone fucked with the portal that was meant to take us there."

Natalia placed her hand on my back when I noticed my breathing was becoming ragged and irritated. I told her everything that happened, from start to finish. Natalia inhaled deeply and rubbed her forehead with two of her fingers.

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