Page 18 of Darkest Need

“Twelve!” Sariel roared, and the ground shook beneath our feet. “You were to destroy them all. Every. Last. One.”

“I did not.”

Sariel’s wings turned purple, the color of angelic royalty. He was about to pass judgment. “Then you will die. Blood must always be spilled. You know this.”

I nodded, unable to conjure any guilt for doing something that gave Eva happiness, no matter how temporary.

I took a step forward.

“No!” Eva shouted. “It was me.”

“Eva!” I hissed out her name and shoved her body into the nearest wall. She stumbled back and glared. “Stay out of this.”

“You will not die because of me.” Her eyes glowed green, and her fangs elongated past her bottom lip. Her gaze snapped to Sariel. “If you want a life. Take mine. I asked Cassius to save them. It is I who is at fault.”

“Very well.” Sariel nodded.

“You cannot be serious.” I charged Sariel, fists clenched. “She’s a Council member. She’s been around for centuries. You cannot simply eliminate her for one bad choice.”

“Oh?” Sariel’s head tilted to the side as he pulled a purple feather from his wing and held it out in front of him. The edge was black—the color of the Angel of Death. He meant to truly kill her. To make her no more. “We live by the rules, we die by the rules, Cassius. She broke the rules. She dies.”

“But—”

Her head held high, Eva pushed past me and got down on her knees, her head bowed toward Sariel.

“Sariel, think about this.” I knew reasoning with him would do nothing, but I couldn’t stop myself. This was Eva. My Eva. I’d had her by my side since my creation. She was the reason the darkness wasn’t so dark. Why I was always pulled back into the light. Without her, what was I?

“And there it is…” Sariel nodded. “She makes you weak. She makes you second-guess your decisions. Not that it matters. One of you must die for this serious lapse in judgment, and Eva is right. The fault lies with her. And I need you to lead the immortals. Therefore…” He held out the feather to me. “A life is taken.”

“Cassius,” Eva whispered, tears filling her eyes. “I love you.”

Sariel sucked in a breath.

Now, he knew.

I’d failed him twice.

Because I loved her back.

“Eva, I will always love you,” I whispered, taking the feather from Sariel and holding it over her head.

Sariel’s anger was tangible. “Cassius, you are their king. She pays for your sin…kill her.”

“I can’t.” My body was empty,soempty.

Eva locked eyes with me. “Cassius, promise me you’ll check in on John. Promise.”

At death’s grasp, and still she worried about the boy.

I didn’t understand that type of love. Maybe I’d never really loved, her after all. Had I?

“I promise.” My voice shook as I pressed the tip of the feather to the base of her neck. It slid through her skin, and she slumped against my arms as immortality left her body.

Right before my very eyes, my dear friend, my love, aged. She aged so horribly her tight skin became wrinkled and paper-thin. It lost all the glow of youth, and her hair turned ten different shades of gray before finally falling out of her head. The bones in her body were brittle, the muscles detaching from their correct positions. And as she took her last breath, I saw what it would be like to be human, to love a human and watch them die.

The pain was unimaginable.

Her frail hand reached up and caressed my face with the lightest of touches. “Cassius…you will always be more light than dark.”

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