Page 61 of Infernal Secrets

It didn’t matter what Raelynn stirred inside me. I’d kill her if she ever threatened what Zeke and I had.

He could never know the depth of my devotion, or the council would separate us. Our dynamic had worked all our lives.

One little human wouldn’t ruin that. I wouldn’t let her.

The council only tolerated our closeness because Mom convinced them we’d formed a Phalinos Pact to bind our souls together and save my life while stranded in Moicae. To the council, we were soul-bonded, so our pull toward one another made sense.

Until Raelynn, Dad was the only one who ever addressed my feelings for Zeke. He reminded me of my duty: marry a woman and produce an heir to keep our bloodline’s council seat.

Ash knew my feelings. I never let him broach the topic after he caught me kissing the top of Zeke’s head as he’d fallen asleep on my shoulder—the same way he slept against me now.

I rested my head against the uncomfortable bus seat, watching the highway blur by. My eyelids grew heavy.

Zeke shook my shoulder, waking me. “We’re here.”

I rubbed my tired eyes, unsurprised I’d fallen asleep. Since arriving on Earth, I hadn’t slept well. I’d always found it hard to fall asleep, and even harder to stay asleep.

Raelynn offered us her spare room. I’d taken the bed with Zeke, while Ezra took the sofa and Ash the chaise.

But I couldn’t rest with her moving around across the hall.

Smelling her rose-and-plum scent while feeling the strange pull inside me kept me on the edge of sleep. The memory of her soft hands on my horns the night we met tempted me like a siren’s call, keeping me restless all night.

More than once, I woke to find Ash lingering in her doorway, watching her.

I wondered if he felt the same pull dragging at me—if the magic that brought us here caused the sensation.

Thanks to Zeke, we’d secured a ride to the burial site. Now we stood in the shadows at the graveyard’s edge.

“She looks sad,” Zeke said.

Ezra scoffed. “Of course she looks sad. Her grandmother’s body is in the coffin in front of her.”

Human practices surrounding the dead always confused me.

Why hold an elaborate ceremony after pumping a corpse full of chemicals, only to bury it where no one will ever see it again?

Either out of tradition or desperation, humans clung to the remnants of a life gone, despite knowing the person they loved no longer existed.

“I’ll never understand why they make such a big deal about death.”

Ezra looked at me. “They aren’t able to see what happens next. This gives them peace. Some believe a religious leader grants the soul passage into Heaven.”

Where humans believed they went after death differed from one culture to the next, but we knew the truth. They all found their way to Niemna.

“It feels different seeing someone who knows the dead person.” Zeke frowned, his voice low.

My gaze caught Zeke’s. “What do you mean?”

“It hurts Rae. I feel bad that her grandmother is in Kalthea now.”

Zeke wore his heart on his sleeve; the type who’d mourn a houseplant he forgot to water. So it didn’t surprise me that her grandmother’s death upset him.

We couldn’t change their fate, so I didn’t see the point of dwelling on the dead.

Ezra crossed his arms. “She wasn’t young. Most elderly humans are tired and ready for eternal rest.”

“Well, yeah, she was old, and Rae said she had it rough seeing our kind her whole life. But it still hurt her.” Zeke froze, looking at each of us in concern. “What if her grandmother’s in Cholian? What if she didn’t end up in Kalthea?”