Page 71 of Caelum

“The side that likes to garden,” she stated blandly.

My lips twitched. “Yes. The green-fingered side.”

“That doesn’t make him a nice person,” she retorted. “And the fact he wants to kill someone certainly doesn’t.”

“No. But he’s loyal, and when someone earns his loyalty, there’s nothing he won’t do to protect that person or keep them safe, even if it means doing something that many consider wrong.”

She gnawed on her bottom lip for a second, stared over the plants again, and nodded. “I’ll take that into consideration.”

I barely refrained from laughing at her tone, which was like that of a judge working out whether to sentence someone to death row, but I managed it. Instead, I held out my hand and asked, “Want to go watch TV?”

She wrinkled her nose. “Nothing with blood, guts, or boobs.”

I winked. “You jest, right?”

NINETEEN

EVE

The library was a strange room.

It was large but each wall had a door in it. Even the exterior wall led to French doors that opened onto a beautiful vista of the ocean. From my position at a central table, even though the surface was loaded down with a pile of books I’d been working on steadily, I could see everything from each angle.

North, south, east, and west.

No compass direction was safe from my beady eyes.

I knew why too.

In the morning, I’d always checked in, tried to figure out which mood I was in and had failed. Before, it hadn’t been rational. It had been more of a half-muttered prayer that I would be able to discern my ‘mood.’ But now that I knew what I was looking for, it was still impossible to discern which was in charge until they did something that answered it for me. The others seemed to have an internal monitor, whereas for me? I learned by reaction.

There were two watchful souls.

Thegouilleand the Sin Eater. Both watched, both protected, and both could kill. I’d never killed, of course, but I’d been reading about famous battles where the difference between life and death had been a Sin Eater’s attack.

Thegouillewas more patient than the Sin Eater, but both liked to monitor situations. One would stir into action, leaping to the front of thefray to whoop butt. The other? Well, she’d keep to the shadows, waiting for the right moment to pounce.

As I watched a girl flirt with Stefan, if I’d had any doubt about today’s soul, I had it confirmed then and there.

The Sin Eater was in control, and both the woman and the beast, as it were, were getting pissed off at how the girl, Becky, kept on trying to touch him.

I wasn’t sure why it irritated me, but every laugh he bestowed on her made me want to smack her. Then I felt horrible because they weren’t doing anything wrong, and it wasn’t their fault that I was acting like a crazy person.

As I gnawed on my bottom lip, staring straight ahead into a common room where Stefan was hanging out with Nestor, I shifted in my seat when someone murmured, “You should just leave them alone.”

I frowned, turning around to stare up at the intruder. “Excuse me?”

I’d seen the girl before. She hung around with Becky. Her hair was a rich, vibrant red and her face, though very pretty, was scrunched with disgust as she looked at me. As though I were too gross to behold. “They love each other and you’re just getting in their way.”

My heart dropped to the pit of my stomach. “What?”

“You heard me. They’ve been going out for months, and then you showed up and everything changed.” Her top lip curled in a sneer. “Seriously, just back off. You’re a freak show anyway. What the fuck would Stefan see in you? He’s going to be the Alpha head. Why would he want anything to do with you?”

The hits kept on coming as I tried to understand everything she said and ultimately failed.

“Back off, Louisa.”

The low growl had my eyes widening, and when I saw it was Reed, Frazer’s friend and Stefan’s arch-nemesis, I smiled at him, grateful that he’d interrupted Louisa’s tirade.

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