“No,” Cassius interrupted. “That’s all on you. I was told you set a timer for sexual intercourse?”
Guilt stabbed me in the chest. “It was logical… at the time.”
“For you or her?”
“Cassius.”
“You won’t die… not if you have sex…”
“And you know that because?”
“Because Timber made it so.”
“That bastard was here?” I roared ready to jump out of bed and ram my hand through his face.
An eerily calm expression washed over Cassius’s sharp features. “I let him take Hope.”
“WHAT!” My lungs burned from the scream. “Tell me this is your idea of a joke.”
“I rarely joke,” Cassius said with a deadpan expression. “She isn’t yours to protect, not anymore. Besides, what am I to do, when the very being she needs to be protected from — is her mate?”
“Come again?”
“You failed the elves before. You will
not fail them again.”
“History won’t repeat itself,” I snarled, “Not if you let me help. But it sure as hell is going to be bad if Timber turns her over to Bannik!”
“Timber would die for her.”
“But—”
“Would you do the same?”
“Seriously?”
“Honestly.” Cassius did that slow blink thing that somehow made me feel like he was searching my thoughts.
“Yes,” I finally choked out and then gulped. “I would die for her.”
“You hesitated.”
“I just met her.”
Cassius smirked. “No. You didn’t.”
“Talking to you is giving me a headache.”
“Reach your full potential, Alex. In order to do that, you must fall in love, you get that, right? What Bannik was trying to do to you? To get you to be desperate enough to mate with the woman of his choosing — and kill her.”
I shook my head in disbelief.
“The thing about sirens…” Cassius tilted his head. “Is that they do not understand how weak the heart truly is — and how desperate that same heart is, to be wanted by someone else. Love would not kill her — but your lack of love would eventually break her heart. And a severed heart means a dead elf. So yes, Timber saved her life, because she was falling in love with you, and you more with yourself.”
He disappeared from the room.
Leaving me in pain.