Page 117

Her eyes glaze over, as if she’s in a trance, as if she’s lost in memory. “And I am going to be that person for you?”

I squeeze her body tight. “You are the one I love. So technically, it can’t be anyone else.” She pauses and doesn’t react. Her body grows limp in my arms and her body melts into mine. “Say something, pretty girl.”

Her eyes flash at that pet name, but she doesn’t comment on it—almost as if she understands Mikael is here with us. I pull her into me, and she snaps out of it.

“Where is my inheritance, then? If I’m related to this false god.”

I blink at her a couple times and merely say, “I never said our system wasn’t flawed.”

I press my lips onto her head. “I think it’s all ridiculous. Some crazy man decided to turn some old dusty book into a codex. He was a scammer. He took money for a promise of something better. He’s a shadowed myth of a god who doesn’t exist.”

She narrows her eyes. “But you marked me, anyway.”

I nod. “Yeah, I guess I did.”

Her hand slides over my cheek. “Are you real, Lincoln?”

I clasp her hand, even that name is foreign to me now. “Every part of me, Summer, and I’m not going anywhere. Please remember that.”

But my name isn’t Lincoln anymore. That name is simply not resonating.

I lose myself in the brightness in her eyes and she says, “The Order believed he was real. Your mother must have believed it, too.”

A tightness forms inside me, every memory of that night flooding into my head, almost as if those memories are not just his, but mine as well.

I grab her chin calmly, then run my finger over her lips. “Stop talking about her.”

“Lincoln.”

“My name’s not…” I pause and take in a deep breath. “You don’t get to speak about my mother, not yet.”

Her pupils flare and her breath lengthens. “Lincoln…you just called her your mother.”

Mikael hums through me; his anger momentarily cripples my ability to reason. Summer’s voice is like a dream, hazy and fuzzy. “Lincoln…what’s happening to you?”

I pull my hand away and turn from her. It’s as if she can see me disappearing from her very eyes.

“Summer. Enough.” I don’t recognize my voice.

She opens her mouth but snaps it shut. An agonizing few seconds go by as I do my best not to tear out her tongue.

Mikael’s laughter fills my head, and he shoots a crippling amount of love into my psyche as I stare down at the beautiful girl in front of me.

Summer stares at me, watches me, not hearing the war going on inside me, but she seems to understand exactly what’s going on.

I deepen my breath and compose myself as Mikael’s essence melts away. As if his evil merely slides into the walls where he belongs. And for the moment, I am my usual self again.

I nudge my head toward the hushed laughter in the other room. “Come on. Let’s get this over with.”

Summer’s eyes glaze over and she obeys. We continue down the dark hall. “Dr. Garcia will expect your dead body at the ReBirth Ceremony,” I say coldly, stepping in beside her. “She will collect your body, drain your blood, and give him your eyes. Now that Mikael’s claimed you, there is no stopping it.”

My words are malicious, but she needs to understand the predicament she’s in, and I’m not in the mood to care about her feelings.

“I’ll be the next full member, the first of this generation. All of this will become mine. And that, my love, is where your inheritance went.”

Her body shivers. The bare nipples beneath her shirt poke out. “But you said…you said you were created to protect me?”

“I was…”