Chapter 6

The jagged rocks tore at my fingers as I hauled myself up the cliff, saltwater dripping from my hair and clothes, blood blurring my vision from a split across my forehead. My muscles screamed, but I forced myself to keep climbing, the slick stone beneath me threatening to send me back into the ocean's unforgiving depths.

With a final, desperate push, I reached the top and collapsed onto solid ground, gasping for breath. The saltwater tasted bitter on my tongue as I spit it out, my lungs burning with the exertion. Blood oozed from my head, mingling with the seawater in a slow, steady drip.

A shadow fell over me, and I didn't need to look up to know who it was.

"You're stronger than you look," Kaius said, his voice laced with amusement.

I glared up at him, my vision still hazy from the blood and exhaustion, and managed to stagger to my feet, though I nearly toppled over from the effort.

"What the hell was that?" I demanded, my voice raw from the saltwater and the scream that had torn from me as I plummeted off the cliff. "You threw me off a cliff!"

"I did," Kaius confirmed, completely unfazed by my outrage.

I stared at him, incredulous. Was he serious? "Why?" I demanded, wringing out my hair and wincing as my head throbbed.

Kaius shrugged, his face a mask of calm indifference. "I wanted to test a theory. It seems I was right."

I blinked, trying to comprehend what he was saying. "You risked my life over some... experiment?"

"That is what I just said." His head tilted slightly. "You struggle with things that come easily to others, don't you?" My eye twitched with barely suppressed rage. "It's okay, pet. You weren't going to be the brains in this operation anyway."

I clenched my fists.

Kaius, satisfied that I wasn't going to collapse, turned and began to walk away, shadows rising around him as he moved toward the mouth of the cave. He was going to disappear. Again.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?" I snapped, limping after him.

He didn't bother to stop, his voice echoing back to me. "We're done here."

"We most certainly are not!" I shouted, trying to catch up despite the stabbing pain in my leg. "You promised me protection."

"And now you have it," Kaius said, not even turning to look at me. "You can't die."

I stopped dead in my tracks, my brain stuttering to process what he just said. "What?"

Kaius glanced over his shoulder, an arrogant smirk tugging at his lips. "Once you bound yourself to me, you gained my immortality as well. As long as I'm alive, so are you."

"That's why you threw me—" I broke off, my hand automatically going to the gash on my forehead. Or rather, where it was supposed to be. My fingers found smooth skin, the wound already healed.

I could still feel the wetness of the blood that had run down my face, but the injury itself was gone. "They can't hurt me," I whispered, the realization hitting me like a tidal wave. The pack, the Red Moon, everything—none of it mattered anymore. They couldn't kill me.

Kaius, of course, was quick to burst that bubble. "Oh, they still can," he said, a touch of amusement in his voice. "You can still sustain injury, like any mortal. Only you won't die from it. Your body will mend itself."

I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding, a strange mix of relief and frustration settling in my chest. "So I'm immortal but not invincible?"

"Precisely," Kaius said.

I opened my mouth to respond, but before I could, Kaius began walking away again, shadows swirling around his feet. "Wait!" I called out, my voice sharper than I intended. 

"Oh for fuck's sake," He let out, pausing just long enough to turn toward me again, a look of pure exasperation on his face. "You're an annoying little shit aren't you." 

"Only to asshole gods who refuse to give me straight answers," I shot back.

Kaius raised an eyebrow, clearly amused. "So I'm not the only one? You've been making deals with other devilishly handsome Fates behind my back, pet? For shame. I thought what we had something deeper."

 "Deeper than pure distaste?" 

Kaius took a step closer, towering over me in that infuriating way that only an eight-foot tall god could. I had to tilt my head back to look up at him, my neck straining. "There seems to be a general census surrounding your likeability, pet. Maybe your pack isn't the problem. Maybe you should start looking a little closer to home."

That hit harder than I expected. My fists clenched at my sides, but instead of giving him the satisfaction of seeing me lose my temper, I tried for logic.

"They'll keep coming after me," I said, my voice steady. "They won't stop with me. They'll hunt down every Shade they can find and kill them."

Kaius looked down at me, his expression unreadable. "And?"

"And you could stop them," I said, feeling the desperation rising in my chest. "You made a deal with me. You promised to protect me."

Kaius's eyes darkened, his smirk fading. "Aye, I did. And thanks to your reckless binding, you are siphoning off the very immortality that is keeping you alive. Which means," he said, stepping closer, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper, "my end of the bargain has been met."

I stumbled back a step, the force of his presence pressing down on me. "No, you can't—"

"I can," he said, cutting me off, "and I did."

Panic shot through me as I realized he was serious. "Wait!"

Kaius straightened to his full height, shadows swirling around him, rising like smoke. His form was growing darker, more distant, as if the very fabric of reality couldn't contain him.

"I will come for you soon, pet," he said, his voice echoing with the promise of something far worse than death. "Sleep tight."

"No!" I shouted, lunging forward, but it was too late. The shadows swallowed him whole, and he was gone.

The wind howled across the cliff, the ocean crashing far below, but all I could hear was the sound of my own heartbeat, pounding in my ears. My body ached, my mind raced, and the mark on my wrist—his mark—burned like a brand.

He was gone.

And I was left, once again, to face the darkness alone.