Fractured Souls(96)

He shrugs, rolling up his sleeve. “I had to do it some way, since his damn soul refused to take to Sophia’s gift, the unus quisnam aufero animus. Such a beautiful thing, watching someone’s soul getting detached,” he muses. “But I never could figure out why it wouldn’t work on Alex,” he says as he rolls up his other sleeve. “Other than maybe he was in love with you and too weak to succumb to it.”#p#分页标题#e#
“That doesn’t make him weak. It makes him strong,” I say, staring at the mark on his arm. It’s strange looking, not quite like Laylen’s Mark of Immortality, but similar. The lines are just a little more angled and the black bleeds out on his skin.
He laughs as he turns his other arm over, revealing the black and red triangle inked on his forearm. “We’ll see who’s really weak here in a few moments, won’t we?”
I quickly step back, but crash into the sizeable pile of steel cubes. I skitter out of the way as they clatter down to the ground, then dodge to my left and sprint across the dirt, winding through the loads of metal objects and bolting for the hill. I climb up it and then slide down it before racing off toward a section of antique cars are wasting away. It’s like a maze where every turn leads to another turn until I finally reach a dead end. The ravens are thick and cloud the sky as more feathers rain down.
“Oh, Gemma,” Stephan calls out and his voice sounds like it’s everywhere; beneath me, above me, behind me. “You and I both know how this is going to end. We’ve both seen how this is going to go.”
I swallow hard as I sprint in other direction toward a mid-sized car with a concaved roof. I pry open the door, then duck inside, lying down on the torn leather bench seat and then maneuver the door shut. The fact that Stephan knows about my nightmares and knows what I’ve been seeing makes me wonder if Nicholas has been tapping into my future and replaying it to Stephan.
“If you’d just come out, it’d be simpler,” Stephan says and I hold my breath at the nearness of his voice. “I’ll make it quick. I promise.”
My chest heaves as I struggle for air and fight to remain still. Nervous energy is charging through me and my heart is beating so loudly I’m worried Stephan can hear it.
“You know, it could be beneficial,” he tells me, his footsteps loudening. “Feeling evil is a lot easier than feeling things like love. Although, I know you don’t understand that emotion yet.”
I throw my hands over my mouth as I spot him through the window with his back turned toward me. How does he know that I haven’t felt love yet?
“You’re probably wondering how I know you haven’t felt that appalling emotion that only belongs to the weak minded.” He angles his neck back and stares up at the ravens in the sky, a halo of black feathers around his head. “How could I possibly know that you haven’t been in love with anyone, even my son… although, I think he’s probably getting there with you." He turns to the right and starts walking toward a small dirt hill rolling in the distance. “See, here’s the thing. You two were never meant to be with each other.”
I touch the scar on the palm of my hand, telling myself that he’s wrong, that he has no idea what he’s talking about. Forem. We belong together. Forever… maybe.
“But just because you weren’t meant to be together,” he says. “Doesn’t mean you weren’t going to try. Let me tell you something, though, love is way overrated. It makes humans weak and stupid.” He starts to climb up the hill, his voice growing louder as he brings himself higher toward the grey sky. “It makes you do stupid things like go against everything you’ve been taught. Alex giving you that locket was very wrong of him and made it impossible for me to get to you, at least for a while.”
What the hell is he talking about? Impossible to get to me for a while. Why?
“It doesn’t mean I couldn’t try,” he says, standing on the hill with his arms folded. “Although, trusting the Fey to bring you to me might have been a stupid mistake. They always did like to dither around. Keeping you at his house like that; I should have had you here days ago. I knew where you were, but Alex’s sacrifice—taking the impact of the memoria extracto like that—made it impossible for me to get near you.”
I have no idea what’s going on. Alex’s sacrifice kept Stephen away from me. How?
I can’t see him anymore and it’s making me even more nervous, especially since he’s stopped talking. I can’t even track his voice. I remain as still as I can, breathing through my nose while trying to stay calm as raven’s caw and litter the land with feathers. Then I hear the car door opening, metal bending and cringing, and then a hand grabs my ankle. I scream as I’m jerked out of the car and land heavily on the ground.