Page 26 of The Immortal's Trick
With a breath, Lome releases my hands and turns to sit on a flat rock. He gestures for me to do the same, and I cross the small distance to sit across from him.
He looks at me with an expression I don’t yet have a name for. Reverent? Cautious? Hopeful?
“As you know,” he says, “I’m not from Alexandria.”
I dip my chin.
“But what you do not know is.. I’m technically not from Greece, either. My brothers and I have a home there now, but we’re not Greek.”
I frown, unsure how this explains anything. “Where did your parents come from?” His hair, his skin—he could easily be Grecian.
He lets out a quiet, strange laugh and lowers his gaze to the earth. “I don’t have any parents.”
Regret floods me. “I’m sorry?—”
“It’s not what you think.” He cuts me off gently. “My parents aren’t dead. I never had any.”
I blink. “You mean... You neverknewthem?”
“I mean,” he says, lifting his eyes again, “they never existed.”
My breath catches.
I’ve heard orphans say things like that. I’ve seen how denial can become protection. But the way he says it without any pain sends a chill through me.
“I feel your sadness on my behalf,” he says softly. “Please don’t. I told you, they were never real. There was no loss. I wasn’t born.”
My heart stops. “What do you mean, you weren’tborn?”
He holds my gaze. “Because I wasn’t. I was... created.”
Lome tells me how he and his brothers simplyappearedone day in a field, fully grown, beside a glistening pond flanked by a cypress forest. None of them knew their identity or location, but each recognized the other as a brother.
I sit frozen, mouth dry, trying not to show how wildly my thoughts spin despite the weird calming magic of his touch.
Lome tells me six others appeared in the same field the following year. The brothers recognized them as kin, but they did not feel a bond like the one they shared with one another.
“We made our home in Greece,” he finishes, “near the fields where we first drew breath in case others showed up. And some did. But it’s been centuries since a new soul has appeared.”
My breath catches again.
“Centuries?” I echo, voice thin. “You said centuries.”
His eyes beg me to stay calm. “Yes. We’ve been alive for a long time. We’re... immortal.”
I stare at the ground. At my sandals. At my trembling fingers.
Immortal.
My thoughts whirl with the old stories—gods, monsters, curses. Is he one of them? Am I speaking to something divine? Somethingdangerous?
I should have realized it the moment he brought me here. Why didn’t I run when I had the chance?
“You have nothing to fear from me,” Lome says gently, as if reading my mind.
My head snaps up. “How do you know I’m afraid?”
“It’s easy enough to guess,” he says. “But with you... It’s more than a guess. One of my abilities is sensing what you feel.”
