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The trek up the rest of the mountain was not easy. Stace could have at least left me with a jacket.

At last, my hand grasps the frosty front door handle of the cabin, prying it open. The heat emanating from the fireplace envelops me immediately, having me practically falling into it. I want to fall into the fur rug that I've kicked snow into, but I restrain myself, looking around the small cabin for any sign of the immortal.

Sure enough, he rounds the corner and into the small living space, taken aback by the sight of me before him, in only a short-sleeved shirt and pants.

"Amolet...What are you doing here?" he questions.

"Can I sit down? I feel like I'm going to collapse," I breathe, looking toward the plush couch that I would never imagine would look so appealing. I'm so cold everything is numb in and in pain, but the relief of the warmth of the fire is so satisfying it feels like my entire body is finally relaxing.

As I reach for the couch, my legs finally giving out from under me, and I fall onto the rug. Desperation is the only reason I managed to get up the hill in the freezing cold, so now that it is gone, my body is starting to feel the effects of everything.

Cian is at my side with immortal speed, wrapping a blanket over my shoulders, helping guide me back to the couch.

"Are you okay?" he asks softly, the tenderness in his voice soothing my nerves, but it's also surprising hearing him be so gentle with me, looking at me with his dark eyes like my health genuinely concerns him.

I'm just grateful he isn't angry that I'm here.

"I just walked up that hill," I shiver, wrapping the blanket closer around me. One of Cian's hands is pressed against my back over the blanket, the other on my knee. Even though I can't feel his skin, the weight of his touch does make my body alight with a confusing mess of feelings.

"How did you find me?" he asks, tilting his head to look at me. I try to ignore the way his dark hair flutters down his forehead, the golden roots shining beneath the light that swings above us.

"Don't ask," I sigh, not wanting to get into everything involving Stace. "Why are you here? You freaked out right in front of me then just left..."

Cian sighs, getting back up to his feet. The glow of the fire highlights him from the back as he stands before me, looking as though he doesn't want to divulge anything personal to me. I don't have to know, but I'm curious.

"You just dropped all that information on me," he mutters, rubbing the back of his neck.

"You should have stayed and talked to me about it," I tell him softly. I'm not sure what that would have looked like, Cian and I having a normal conversation seems like a strange, faraway concept, let alone speaking about Noah's dead mate who he apparently cares deeply about. Why else would be react the way he did?

"No, I needed to come here to decide what to do next." He paces back and forth, suddenly anxious. I just sit here, the blanket still wrapped over my shoulders as my body slowly begins to warm again.

My voice drops to a whisper. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to kill Noah," he mutters flatly.

Even though I anticipated that answer, my blood still chills. It's predictable, but why? If Cian didn't actually kill Abella, and expected someone else was behind it, why would he try kill Noah now, instead of when he killed Abella as well? Things are starting to not make sense in my head suddenly.

"You can't do that..." I tell him slowly. If he kills Noah, a whole host of issues are going to come up in place of it. Including the fact that I will no longer have an Alpha.

"Sure I can," he shrugs, straightening. All of a sudden, he looks more like an immortal sin than I have ever seen him. It's in his eyes, those obsidian pools of darkness. "In fact, I could go there right now and kill him with no issue. I'm just trying not to make enemies."

And he could to. But that I don't want to think about too deeply.

"Why would you kill Noah? He's done nothing wrong?" I question, wanting a deeper look into what he is thinking right now, how he is rationalising this. Not only that, but I'm still confused about what is going on, since I can't decide whether Cian actually killed Noah's mate or not.

Cian steps from foot to foot. "Other than for lying to you about me killing Abella?"

"Did he lie, though?" I ask softly.

Cian closes his eyes for a long moment, trying to find the right words to respond with to me with. I steady myself, ready for any kind of manipulation he may attempt. I have to remember he is a sin, one who will do anything to get what he wants.

"Why would I kill Abella?" he asks.

"I don't know, you hate Noah maybe," I say. I hadn't even thought about the why. I just assumed that he's an immortal sin who can do almost anything without consequences, killing Abella being part of that. Now I feel guilty for even thinking it, but so far that's the only justification I have.

"Abella was my mate," he breathes.

Suddenly everything in my body goes ice cold. Everything that had been going on inside my head has now vanished, replaced with only one thing...Abella is Cian's mate. And I've been so blind and stupid.

"Wait...What?"

"Abella wasn't from this realm, but another, where it is more common to have two mates," he explains quietly, although not much of what he is saying is making any sense to me in my confused state. "Noah and I tried to stay out of her life, but eventually I couldn't help myself and I broke the deal we had between us."

"Why didn't you tell me this sooner?" I whisper.

"Because she rejected me. She went through the whole process of choosing Noah over me," he explains grimly.

My heart sinks. I can't even begin to imagine that kind of pain. Having to put up with your mate having another would be hard enough, but for them to eventually reject you. No wonder Cian has never spoken to anyone in the facility he was in. Had that happened to me, I don't think I would be able to live on.

"Cian...I didn't know," I say, feeling so stupid and foolish I want to rip my hair out.

"After it happened I allowed Stace to put me into that mental facility. He thought I was a danger, and I was so broken that I just agreed so that I didn't have to face the world anymore," Cian admits, his voice breaking.

"Cian.." I breathe, not knowing what to say, how to make it right.

Even though this isn't my fault, that I couldn't have known Abella was also Cian's mate, I feel terrible guilt. I could have signed myself up to have him killed...A man who may not have even killed her. It makes me wonder if Stace knew, if this entire time he didn't think Cian killed her.

"Noah is lying to you, which means he's probably behind whatever happened to her," Cian mutters, sweeping his hands back through his hair, the golden roots glittering wildly.

I let the blanket slip off my shoulders. "What do you think happened to her?"

"I'm sure he has just hidden her away somewhere," he says, sounding as though he is trying to assure himself of that. It almost breaks my heart to hear that, knowing he wants nothing more than to convince himself that nothing bad has happened to her, even she is no longer his mate.

"What if she is dead?" I ask gently.

"I refuse to believe that," he tells me. I get to my feet, wanting to hold him still, his pacing making me anxious. "Not that it matters, the mate bond is gone with her, and can never come back."

"So now you're just mateless?" I question, genuinely curious. I'll admit, hearing that he already had a mate was strangely disheartening. The connection between us is a terrifying one, but one that is hard to run from.

"No, I've been told a new bond can be forged with someone new," he sighs, gaze locking onto mine, so intense I nearly stumble back.

Don't think about what it would mean to be his mate.

"Maybe you should concentrate on that," I say weakly.

"I will," he assures me, although the blankness in his expression speaks for itself. He's shut off from feeling anything at risk of feeling all the grief that would come with finding out Abella is actually dead. "After I kill Noah."

Swallowing, I walk forward and grasp either side of Cian's arms, fisting the material of his dark shirt in my hands. He freezes, looking down at me with wild eyes, shaking slightly beneath my touch. Part of me wants to hug him, to soothe the uncontrollable emotion that I know is surging under his skin.

"I want to tell you that's not the right thing to do, but I really don't know what's right at this point," I murmur, not breaking his gaze.

He releases a long, slow breath. "Let me take you home."

Pulling my hands away, I step back out of his reach, afraid he will make a grab for me and take me back home before giving me a chance to speak to him more. Even though I'm afraid of being apart of this entire mess, I'm too deep in it now to be cut out of it. If that happens, I'll spend the rest of my mortal life wondering why I've felt this connection with Cian.

"Wait...I need to talk to you about something," I blurt out, stumbling back a few steps as his bare hand nearly grasps my arm.

"What?" he asks warily.

I've decided that I'm suddenly compelled to tell Cian everything, about why I'm here and who sent me. I'm skeptical of this whole story now, Cian's reaction and the fact that Abella was his mate has made me realise that I'm not being feed all the right information by Noah, and now I officially don't trust him.

"I'm working for Noah," I admit sheepishly. Cian frowns, not looking angry yet, just confused. All of a sudden I'm not worried about him retaliating against me once he founds out what I've been doing behind his back.

"What does that mean?" he questions.

"I mean that he's hired me to get you to trust me," I explain to him, watching his expression carefully. "He didn't tell me what's going to happen after that, only that he would later call on me to do something..."

"He's trying to find a way to kill me," Cian mutters, turning away from me toward the fire. "He's hoping I'll tell you how."

I shudder. Surely I'm not the only person in Noah's grasp that is close enough to Cian to manipulate and get information out of. Cian and I aren't exactly close, and I doubt he would be willing to tell me how to kill him anyway. I'm just connected to the immortal because I managed to get him to talk to me in the medical facility.

"Now I don't think I can trust him," I admit, rubbing my arms. Even so, trust wasn't necessarily the driving force behind our agreement. Noah was always going to pay me handsomely, but now I doubt that any of that is worth it.

"You can't, Amolet," he mutters, turning back to look at me with a softened gaze. "Thank you for your honesty."

"What should I do now?" I question. Stace is going to expect me to return with information about Cian, or at the very least confirmation that he isn't about to go off the rails.

I suppose it's too late for that now.

"Whatever you please. Although I doubt his plan is going to work well anymore," Cian says, smiling slightly, although it doesn't reach his eyes. I can't tell if that's his way of warning me, of letting me know that if I try anything anymore, his reaction won't like be as understanding.

"I won't do it. Not anymore," I promise.

"Then maybe you can help me," Cian says darkly, the flicking light of the fire illuminated behind him casting shadows across his face.

I should cower at this offer, at the look in Cian's eyes. It would not be good to make a deal with a Sin, to become more entrapped in his life. But I know that I'm deep enough now that I doubt I can escape, even if I wanted to.

"Okay...Tell me what I can do," I breathe.

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Sophie_Midika

Midikacrane

~Midika 💜🐼