You Will Live Forever

Chapter 21: Man's Best Friend

Ian above.

I opened my eyes to Ian kneeling over me.

"Do you still love me?" He asked quietly.

"I... well I..." I couldn't say I did or didn't because I did love him and hate him all the same.

"Mixed feelings?" He picked through my thoughts. "At least it's not pure hatred."

He got off me and held out his hand to help me up. I extended my hand to grab his. As our fingertips touched, I felt a tingling sensation, but I fought against it as I grabbed his hand and he helped me to my feet.

I brushed the dirt from my dress and combed the grass out of my hair. I caught Ian's eye for a moment and he turned away.

"There's so much about our past life that I wish to tell you but simply can't. You wouldn't understand. Some of it you wouldn't believe." He said quietly. He turned to face me again. "But one thing is for sure consistent throughout my heart; I will never stop loving or protecting you. No matter what relations you have with other people, my brother included."

"But how can you turn against your own brother?"

"I'm not. He turned against me. I loved you first. He knew it. Somehow he managed to capture your heart better than I have. Though, I have always known that you had taken a liking to him... even when we were in love. Those short amount of days... we accomplished so much."

"Wait what?" My heart started beating faster. Where was he going with this?

"Our love was mainly passion... and don't worry, you're still a virgin." He said quietly. I gulped down the panic I was about to spew so he continued. "But that night, here, we took it almost to that point. Our clothes were off and we held each other close... daring each other to make the first move. But we knew we shouldn't..."

"Then why did you need the stones to get my love if you already had it?"

"It was an act. I needed to die. I needed to be erased from existence. With me there, nothing could be accomplished so elimination was necessary. Besides, you needed what was best for you."

I gave him a confused look. "It was fake? You purposely picked a fight with Seth because you wanted to die?"

"That's correct. I know it may seem like I caused a lot of evil but it was all for good intentions." He looked down, his lashes hiding his shameful eyes from me.

"But if you wouldn't have done that, we wouldn't be here now. I'd probably be with you in heaven."

He looked at me momentarily. "But that would've been too easy. You see, there were others competing. With me out of the way, you would've gotten over me and married one of the gods."

"But what about when I saved you?"

"You see that was a problem because only you could heal the death back to life... besides Hades but he's a stubborn one and you would've had to make a deal with him."

"Why did I save you?" I mumbled quietly.

"Did you not want to?" He questioned with a hint of sadness in his voice.

"No... I did. I mean... I do it's just why save you if I didn't want to be with you?"

Ian chuckled. "That's a good question but one I can't answer." He stepped closer and put both of his hands on my shoulders. He slowly turned me around. "Now no telling Seth about our convo, you hear?"

"Why not?"

"He doesn't need to know our business." I rolled my eyes as we started walking back towards the house. "And that whole mind-reading shit... there are loopholes." Ian grinned.