Chapter 127
"What do you mean 'someone'?"
"Jac, I need to tell you some things which you are going to be difficult to hear, but I need you to keep in control your temper. This ground shaking and spontaneous combustion stuff needs to stop. I can't tell you what's happened if you are going to freak out."
"Okay, I'll try," he said loosening his grip on me. "I'll try and keep calm."
Nervousness began to swell up inside me. This was it, I was finally going to tell him and see how he would react.
I was so scared my hands were starting to tremble...
I took a deep breathe in and began. "Jac, the reason why I shut you out of my head was because a couple of weeks ago I started to see the ghost of your sister-in-law, Celia. I didn't tell you at the time because Henrietta told me not to, she said you would reject me."
I looked at him expectantly for a denial or at least some comforting words for me but his had gone blank. He stared at me and shook his head softly. "No, no, no, no - that can't be right. You can't be like that."
"But I am like that. I can see spirits and they talk to me. Celia reached out to me because she was upset. She was the one in the bathroom that night, who slammed the door shut on Gina's arm. She's been following me and trying to communicate with me. There has been a terrible injustice-"
"Stop it, Kala," he snapped, cutting me off mid-sentence. "You must never talk of this again. Do you understand?"
"What?" I breathed. "Don't you believe me, Jac?"
He raked a hand through his hair and said, "I don't know what to believe, but I can't believe that."
"Why?"
"Kala, I can't have a necromancer for a queen. It would be impossible. If anyone ever found out the people of the city would go mad. I'll always love you, Kala, but is better that you take whatever secrets you have with to you to the grave than ever speak of them to me again," Jac said.
I could literally feel the tiny cracks splintering across my heart as he spoke every word. Henrietta was right. He would deny me. I stepped away from him, but he grabbed my hands and held onto me. "I still love you, Kala. I just can't have you telling people what you can do. It would be political suicide to marry a necromancer, even if she was my mate."
I tried pulling my hands out of his and shouted, "You are supposed to love me for who I am, Jac! I've come to accept you and your darkness so why can't you accept me."
"Kala, it's not the same!"
"Like hell it is! Let me go, Jac!"
"Never. I will never let you leave me again!"
"I thought you would love me no matter what."
"I do love you, Kala."
I fought to get out of his hold, twisting and turning like a frenzied wild thing in his arms.
Across the room, there was a bang followed by loud footsteps. Both of us paused and looked across the room to the source of the sound. A blur suddenly flew down the staircase and into the crypt. Surprised Jac pulled me back a few steps until the blur stopped a few feet in front of us. Jac stiffened and the walls around us seem to tremble.
Casper was standing in front of us with a dark expression. Squaring up to his older brother he growled, "Let her go, now."
Seeing Casper standing there, challenging Jac, was a punch in the gut. In the midst of the chaos and revelation, I had forgotten about Casper and now he was standing in front of us, chest heaving and fangs lowered ready to fight his brother. Jac's grip tightened around my wrist and he protectively dragged me behind him.
I tried to protest but it was pointless. They were like two territorial predators that had run into each other and now they were both preparing for a fight to the death. Whatever humanity or reason they had possessed moments ago disappeared and was replaced by animalistic aggression... which was bad, especially for Jac.
The ground around us rumbled and Jac began to radiate blackness.
"You will not touch her. I will not allow you to harm my mate in that same way as you did our brother's," he said darkly.
"I've not come to harm her, idiot. I've come to save her from you," Casper snapped back.
"I am her mate. She belongs to me, murderer."
"I'm no murderer. And I'm also not the person Kala is screaming at to let her go. I'll only ask you once again brother - let her go. She does not wish to be with you anymore.""LIAR!"
The concrete floor beneath us cracked and water began gushing up through it. I let out a cry of disgust as black stinking grave water began to pool around my feet. I tried stepping away but Jac jerked me back to his side.
Casper watched the spectacle and snapped, "For Christ sake, Jac, she's pregnant. Don't yank her about like that!"
"Shut up," Jac growled. "She's none of your concern."
"Like hell, she is," Casper yelled.