Page 234 of Caelum

“I doubt they’re capable of procuring a mate,” Reed said eventually, his gaze on the OJ he’d poured himself. “I mean, how could they? Everyone knows what it’s like when the souls start fighting. Imagine that on a constant basis. It’s enough to drive anyone insane on a regular day. For them, it’s no wonder they look for anything to dull the pain.”

At the heart of every creature was the ingrained mixture of pity and revulsion for a Ghoul. We could so easily have been them, and that stirred our revulsion. But our pity was born from understanding the torment they’d had to endure.

“Eve isn’t like us,” Dre added eventually, his tone as heavy as lead. “She has that eighth soul, and we had front-row seats to what she did today. She’s morphing the powers of all our souls.”

“What was that shit with Samuel about?” Reed rasped, evidently preferring the direction of this conversation to the one mine had taken—none of us wanted to think about losing our mate.

Eve had wandered into our world and like Little Bo Peep, we were her sheep, and no way in fuck was she getting rid of us.

Just thinking about losing her made my soul rebel. Thegouillehad been calm ever since she’d Chosen him, ever since she’d made him hers that day on the stairs as she’d pushed me out of the sickbay in a wheelchair. And when, on the yacht, during our first lesson together, she’d made me a true Gargoyle? Both man and soul were beyond grateful for her.

But more than that, we needed her.

Each of Eve’s seven Chosen did.

“The blood stuff?” Frazer nodded. “That was weird. She had to get blood on her. No way she couldn’t with that shit she pulled with the leg.”

My nose crumpled. “That was gross.”

“Cool though,” Dre pointed out with a wicked grin.

“Only you’d think that,” I retorted, but I smirked back at him because it was beyond badass. Like something from a zombie movie or some shit. “But yeah, she should have been covered with the way she was fighting the fuckers.”

“So, what? She transferred the blood to Samuel by diffusion?” Frazer questioned skeptically.

Dre snorted. “I can’t believe that. Shit doesn’t work that way.”

“Aren’t we learning that nothing works how it should where she’s concerned? Maybe the eighth soul was behind it,” I reasoned uneasily.None of us liked calling the eighth soul the djinn, even though, with the whole wishing shit, that was pretty much an apt name for it.

“Could be. All it makes me grateful for is the fact that Professor Anheim can see us tomorrow,” Reed murmured and blew out a sharp breath. “We need help. We need to understand what’s going on with her arms, and we need to know what to do next.”

“I can’t help but feel like we’ve crash landed in a movie with a treasure map or something. Those marks have to be a clue,” I muttered, shaking my head.

“X marks the spot?” Frazer quipped with a faint smile.

“Maybe,” Reed retorted, his eyes narrowing at Frazer’s mocking tone.

“I think we should get some sleep too,” I suggested, glancing between the pair of them. The last thing we needed was for them to get into a fistfight while Eren and Sam were helping Eve get ready for bed.

My words were the key we all needed to break the tension, because I knew everyone else was just as exhausted as me and tempers could easily run high.

“Should we leave the food out for Eren and Sam?” Frazer asked, running a hand through his hair.

“No. They’ll crash with Eve, and if they’re starving, they can raid the fridge. No need to let food go to waste,” Stefan replied.

My lips curved at his predictable reply, and I began gathering the stuff we’d eaten and, with the others, began to store it away.

Within five minutes, we were all heading upstairs, and though the cottage was small, there were five bedrooms, each with twin beds.

I’d have preferred cozying up to my mate for the night, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. And, where Eve’s well-being was concerned, I was glad she had Eren and Sam by her side. Eren, because it was unlikely he’d sleep and could watch over her, and if she had a nightmare, he’d wake her up. And Sam, because there was something so solid about him, so rational, and after what Eve had done and seen, she’d need a dose of both if the memories plagued her nightmares.

NINE

EVE

There was a light outside my window.

It was amber and gleamed straight into the bedroom. My bed was puddled in the light, which revealed the entwined legs of my mates and me. I didn’t even have to turn my head to know who was there with me. I just knew it was Eren and Sam.

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