Page 229 of May: Bloom & Bane

Eden, I push on. She’s really Anya. The original soul. The first one we ever loved, over three thousand years ago—she’s the one. She’s the REAL one. She’s who we’ve been searching for the whole time.

He reels inside of us. Our mate is a—she’s reincarnated?

“Ash. Quit ignoring me.” Eden pushes again, shaking us by the jaw, tears spilling down her beautiful, freckled face.

And the woman in the vision. Lumi. This is the one that guts me to say. We chased her, Sage. For two lifetimes. She carried a piece of Anya’s soul, and we couldn’t tell the difference. Lumi is… she’s Eden’s sister⁠—

We WHAT? His voice cracks, horror flooding through every word. We chased her SISTER? For two—Ash, STOP, I can’t—I can’t hold all of this, you’re going too fast, I don’t even—what does this mean, what do we do⁠—

“I know you’re talking to Sage, Ashán. Don’t you dare shut me out. Tell me what it is, what are you two⁠—”

We can’t tell her this now! Sage panics, scrambling inside our body. We need to think. If we drop this on her wrong, she could leave—please, please just give me a minute to⁠—

There is no minute, Sage. It’s not fair to her.

Sage’s don’t fills one ear. Eden’s tell me fills the other. The crushing weight of three thousand years is stuck in my throat, and there’s nowhere, nowhere, to put any of it.

Ashán? Sage pushes.

“Ashán!” Eden sobs.

Ash? Sage pushes again.

“Rahnové?” Eden pleads.

“We’ve done this before!” I cry out.

It explodes out of me. Eden’s fingers stiffen against the bone of my jaw. Sage makes a sound of pure panic and lunges for control of our body, wrenching our jaw mid-word.

Shut up, Ashán, shut up, shut up! He screams. You’re going to lose her! You’re going to make her run! This is not how we tell her!

He throws his entire weight against the back of our eyes, causing our head to snap out of Eden’s grip. He’s like a blind, frenzied animal inside our skull, throwing up walls, tearing down pathways, desperate to stop my confession. Our teeth slam together so hard bone rattles.

Eden stumbles back, her eyes wide as she watches us wrestle with… ourself.

“Sage! Ashán! Stop it. Look at me, please!”

I can’t. I am fighting him with everything I have left, the truth burning a hole in my throat.

She needs to know, Sage! I roar back through the static, my shadows rearing up behind us. If she finds out we kept this from her, we’ll lose her… again.

No! He shrieks, his hand wraps around our throat, completely choking off our airway. Not like this!

We drop to our knees with enough force to splinter the floorboards. Our chest heaves, the two halves of our soul ripping and tearing at the same raw seams until the room begins spinning around us.

She drops to the floor next to us.

“Sage, let go!” she cries out. “Ash, breathe! I’m right here! It’s going to be okay!”

Sage’s hand squeezes tighter around our throat. My words have to claw their way out through the gap.

“Another—” His grip slams shut. I wrench a breath. “—woman.”

“What?” Eden’s face pales. “What woman⁠—”

“We—”

Stop, Ash, STOP!