Bound by Forever (True Immortality 3)

He’d turned her into one of those annoying heroines who wanted to save the broken hero.

Damn him.

“What are you thinking so hard?” he asked, his voice rough and rasping across her skin.

Niamh tried to contain a shiver. Maybe she should have let the flight attendant force the wolf back to his suite after all.

“Niamh?” He frowned.

“Astra,” she blurted out. Concentrating on the bigger picture was a good distraction from this potent infatuation.

“Astra?”

Niamh nodded. Deciding the next part was way too important to be overheard, she rested her head on the pillow and spoke into Kiyo’s mind. Can I talk to you like this?

Kiyo showed no sign of discomfort at her use of telepathy. He gave her a subtle lift of his chin in agreement.

Seven of us were born on the same day of the same year to different human mothers. Although we’re fae, we do actually have our human parents’ DNA too. It’s complicated. Most of us were born not knowing what we are. But I was born with knowledge. Of who we are, of how Faerie’s interference in the human world led to the birth of supernaturals, of Aine, the Faerie Queen, and her spell. Over the years, a vampire named Eirik sought the fae-borne to kill them so they couldn’t open the gate. Eirik and his brother Jerrik were the oldest vampires in the world. So old, they remembered Faerie. They’d visited it often. Jerrik’s true mate was a princess of one of the royal fae houses.

Aine had begun to learn that fae and supernaturals were coming together in the true-mate bond. It alarmed her but not so much as when a werewolf bit his fae mate and she turned into a werewolf, losing her fae-ness and her immortality. Those who weren’t connected in a true-mate bond found that a werewolf bite was as lethal to a fae as iron. Until that point, there was nothing on Faerie that could kill them.

Kiyo flinched like she’d hit him. He hissed, “My bite can kill you? Why the hell did Fionn not warn me? I could have hurt you without even meaning to. The full moon is in four days.”

Niamh wasn’t concerned about Kiyo hurting her. The wolf had more self-control than any werewolf she’d ever come across. Fionn probably didn’t want you to know how dangerous you are to us.

“I’m going to kill him and now I know how.”

Sensing he was only semiserious, Niamh gave him a mock reproving look. Shall I continue, or do you just want to brood about what a sly bastard Fionn is?

When he didn’t answer, Niamh asked, “Well?”

He flicked her a dark, petulant look. “I’m thinking about it.”

She smiled despite herself. Let me choose for you … Aine said she was afraid for the human world, that a war was brewing, and she wasn’t wrong. But she was afraid for her own people. She hated the idea of them mingling with supernaturals, or worse, becoming like them. The fae are superior beings to her, and while it was okay to have sex with supernaturals, it was most definitely not okay to become one of them. She sent all supernaturals on Faerie back to the human world and closed the gate.

But Aine is a typical fae. Bored. Complex. Capable of kindness but apt toward wickedness. And she likes her games. She knew there were beings like Jerrik who would do anything to get back to Faerie, so she tormented them with the spell: seven fae children born in the human world with the ability to open the gate. No instructions for when they’d appear or how many were needed to open the gate or how they’d even open the gate. She just loved the idea of supernaturals chasing their tails trying to find the kids.

Eventually, we appeared. Niamh gave Kiyo a wry smirk. But as I said, most of us didn’t know what we were. We were vulnerable. Her smirk died as sadness filled her. Eirik killed Jerrik, who wanted to protect the children. Killed by his own brother. That’s how much he feared the gate being opened again. Over the centuries, Eirik created The Garm. Their sole purpose is to find the fae children and kill them.

They succeeded with a few. Jael was first. She lived in Jordan. Her powers came to her more quickly than the rest of us. As a baby, in fact. Her parents abandoned her, thinking she was cursed. An international relief organization took her into one of their orphanages. When she was five years old, Eirik tracked her down through rumors of the strange incidents that occurred around her. And he killed her.

“How do you know this?”

Because I saw it. I saw it before it happened. My knowledge of what I was and where we came from was just within me as a child. But Jael’s death was my first-ever vision.