Page 90 of The Star's Sword

“I can’t,” Samael said, grabbing Zadis by the front of his shirt and getting up in his face. “I asked you to help me, not to tell me what to do. You do not understand what would happen if I told Cleo.”

“She would be able to make her own choice,” Zadis said. “I understand you don’t want that, but it is her right.”

Samael hung his head. “She will hate me.”

“That too is her right,” Zadis said. “But look, she doesn’t get this. She knows it’s weird you’re suddenly letting me in. So does everyone. But most of us have heard the prophecy, so we understand why you’re doing it, even if all of us want to pretend nothing will happen. Things just got complicated with the vampires, and you can now see that even if we can both bond with her, my bond will never replace yours.”

Blood was rushing in my head, panic tightening all of my muscles, as I tried to piece together what was going on.

The way Samael had been acting lately.

The way he said no one has forever.

The way he said I should have other bonds, just in case.

His words from earlier in our journey floated back through my mind, haunting me.

“It’s not in the cards for me to have a mate.”

“You shouldn’t fall in love with me.”

I swallowed, my mouth suddenly so dry it was nearly impossible.

He couldn’t be saying what I thought he was saying.

Sam leaned forward over the roses, and I saw Zadis watching him carefully.

Sadness was filling me, but I couldn’t help seeing the sweetness of Zadis’s gesture.

And the hardship and pain of whatever Samael had been facing alone.

But everything was starting to make sense now. Somehow. The way he’d always pushed me away.

The way Cayne said he didn’t want me to be the Morningstar.

The way Simon kept drawing my attention back to the way Sam was pushing Zadis my way.

In fact, the way Sam was watching over Zadis’s every move with me. Almost like he was training his replacement.

Everything suddenly clicked in. His sudden lack of possessiveness. The desperation in his eyes whenever someone mentioned how close ascension was getting.

His sweetness, and the way he seemed to be trying to spend every moment with me when he wasn’t pushing me to Zadis.

Samael was afraid of something.

And I’d never known Sam to be afraid.

“You don’t understand,” he was saying now to Zadis. “If we told Cleo, she loves me. She’d decide not to save the world. So many would die, and I have had happiness. Light still needs to come to many.”

“As Zadis said, that is my choice,” I said, my voice ringing out in the night as I pushed the door open and walked forward.

Zadis’s eyes went wide, and Samael looked about ready to pass out, he was so shocked.

He ran a hand over his mouth, wiping it, and then stepped forward. “Cleo.”

I walked over to them and stopped a few feet away from Samael, my hands on my hips feeling like they were holding me up, I felt so faint from what I’d heard.

“Both of you tell me what’s going on, right now,” I said, as rage built.

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