Page 199 of The Last Guardian

It was another reason the Order decided to have the Nur’thraa killed; if she were on the wrong side, if she chose chaos, everything would fall apart.

Zaidkiel thought that if it had been any of the others, she would have died long ago—this thought alone made him want to destroy the world. He wondered if, among all the possible scenarios, this one was the worst…

Alyana had somehow wormed her way into his heart, burrowing through his skin like an incurable disease, and touched the darkest part of his soul before illuminating it.

He shouldn’t have gone near her. He should never have let her get so close.

Her fucking beautiful hazel eyes.

He hated what she represented, what she brought inside him, how she made him feel.

And yet…

Zaidkiel’s soul was forever marked by hers.

She overwhelmed him. It drowned, burned, suffocated every single inch of him in the most delicious torture he ever experienced.

She was the blood coursing through his veins, the only air his lungs needed to breathe, the thing his soul needed to survive.

And now—she was beyond his reach.

Forever.

It was simpler that way. It was easier for her to hate him. Because what she was, everything she had just learned… would alter everything.

He should stay away from her now.

But rationality had never been within his character when it came to her. So he would stay by her side. Because he was a self-centered and possessive bastard.

And because he refused to let her face this fate alone.

ZAIDKIEL TRACKED NEFELI down the moment the sun set. He needed to speak to his sister and tell her what he had learned concerning their brother.

“How is he alive?” Nefeli asked, shocked, once they were in his quarters.

Zaidkiel poured himself a drink, the dark liquid flowing in the glass as he replied, “I don’t know.”

Nefeli focused on a candle’s flame. “Are you going to search for him?”

“No,” Zaidkiel sighed, sipping his drink. “Other pressing matters need my attention right now.”

“Like dragging Alyana before your cursed Order?” Nefeli glared at him with a snarl.

Zaidkiel glared back. A small silence fell between the two of them.

Alyana had not only touched his heart, but Nefeli’s too. His sister had come to see Alyana as a member of their own family. Nefeli had avoided him since the evening they fought in his quarters—before they all went to Myrh. When she had learned the truth about Alyana.

She’d visited Alyana just before and had seen the mark on her skin—the mark of the Order. Zaidkiel knew his sister was too smart for her own good. She pieced everything together the moment she saw the mark.

It was almost a miracle that she didn’t see it before. But Alyana had been so scared about that mark, about what Haedeon did to her when she showed it to him, that, of course, she didn’t share it with the others.

Since then, Nefeli had been so angry at Zaidkiel that she hadn’t visited once since Myrh.

Nefeli knew about the prophecy, but Zaidkiel hadn’t told her he was supposed to kill the human—the Nur’thraa.

Nefeli had been distant since the morning before the expedition. She had urged him to tell Alyana the truth because she didn’t want to keep this from her.

But after the night they had spent together… Zaidkiel couldn’t tell Alyana the truth.