My heart raced, neither of us moving, neither of us seeming to be breathing. The tension in the air was thick and almost palpable. I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end as Aaliyah's eyes narrowed and her face became dark and twisted.
"Indeed, he was. There are very few ways to kill an angel. I was merely thrust from one existence to another. After I lost my wings, I became subject to everything. Illness, disease, and even death, but not even a mortal death was my end. Because of you, I am cursed to roam the god forsaken planet, until the second you stop breathing.
"All Mathias as done by giving up his wings, is subject himself to the same fate. Never ageing, never finding peace, until your heart no longer beats.
"Scott may be fooled, but he knows nothing of the monstrosity you are. He's human, and blind to that which doesn't make sense." Her words were like knives in my gut.
I had cursed her, and Mathias, to walk forever, experiencing every pain, to the point of death, but never being able to rest in peace as every man deserved.
"Then again, I don't see Mathias following you around like a lost dog. Did he finally see sense?"
"He doesn't even know I'm gone." My tone was harsh, though I had no reason to be rude or unkind. She hadn't wronged me, nor had she been wrong to say I had caused her curse. I had no right to be irate, because all of this was my fault. I had accepted the mantle from my father, I had refused to fight the Huntress until now. My mistakes, my fault.
"No, I left of my own volition. To keep him safe, because I am no longer in control of myself. Not that you would ever understand, let alone care."
"Immortality disagrees with you Nina, you're looking haggard."
"And you look dulled." Aaliyah scowled in response as a door creaked and then clicked shut somewhere over our heads.
The silence once again grew thick with tension, our eyes never once looking away. Each of us had believed the other dead, and now here we were, both alive, both fighting.
There was noise at the bottom of the stairs and, simultaneously, we put on the biggest fake smiles.
"You're just going to love Esther, I can see it." Aaliyah spoke under her breath, a hint of sarcasm leaking from her voice.
I didn't know what to expect, but I do know that what I saw definitely wasn't anything near what I might have expected.
I had assumed that Esther was a child, Aaliyah's, or perhaps even Scott's, but she was no child. No, Esther was beautiful and petite, and... an O'Connell. She looked so much like her brother, so much like she had the night I'd killed her. Her hair was the same fiery orange of her brother's, falling in tousled curls over her slender shoulders, those eyes, burning spheres of green, I knew held all the animosity in world. I knew why she held such contempt against me, and yet I hoped against everything that she, like her brother, remembered nothing of her previous existence.
"Nina, meet our house mate. Esther O'Connell." There was a whisper of dark whimsy, entwined with each syllable.
Esther O'Connell, the beauty, the pride and joy, of the O'Connell pack, with her locks of fire and her eyes of emerald. While Rogan had been destined to be Alpha, his sister had been destined to stand by his side as Beta. Twins. One in strength and authority.
I remembered with a sickness in my chest, and with such lucid detail, the way she had begged for her life, the way she'd screamed in agony, and the way she had begged me to spare her lover from the same fate. I remembered the tang of iron, the aroma of pine and oak, of moss and fern, that leaked from her every pore as I had lowered my hood so that she could see my face as she met her fate.
