CH.78

"So you're telling me," Meredith began slowly, carefully enunciating each word as if still struggling to wrap her mind around the concept, "That you actually had to go back through the stream of time itself and basically...cock-block yourself from being with your true mate? All just to save her life?"

Despite the gravity of the situation, Enzo's full lips twitched ever so slightly in amusement at her rather crass yet succinct phrasing.

"Well, when you put it like that..." He flashed her a wry smirk. "It does sound fairly ridiculous, I'll grant you that. But essentially...yes, that's precisely what I had to do." His expression sobered once more, his ageless gaze boring into her with an intensity that seemed to strip away the layers of centuries between them.

"I had to stop myself from completing the sacred mating bond and marking her as mine for all eternity," Enzo continued in a low, gravelly tone thick with lingering emotion. "It was the only way to prevent her from suffering that same tragic, fatal end."

His penetrating stare shifted to Meredith then, holding her unwavering. "You were there that night, weren't you? When she found me with a whore, mere hours after we had consummated our own union. Although incomplete?"

Meredith could only manage a solemn nod, her throat constricting as the agonizing memories bombarded her.

She could still hear the devastated princess’s anguished screams echoing through the cavernous halls as if it were yesterday, the haunting wails of a soul being utterly shredded and torn asunder.

"I'll never forget those cries," she murmured as unshed tears burned in her eyes. "The utter devastation and heartbreak in her screams. It was like someone had reached inside and ripped out her very essence." She shuddered involuntarily. "I'd never heard such torment, such undiluted suffering, before that night."

Enzo looked down in shame. "That's because in a way...I did eviscerate her heart and soul, grind it into cosmic dust so she would never want to complete our bond. So she would turn away from me and instead give herself to Valerian."

His expression twisted in self-disgust and remorse. "I knew that arrogant prick had always coveted and desired my mate. Her beauty, her status, her power as the crown princess of her kingdom. I...made her available to him, so to speak."

He exhaled a derisive snort, shaking his head slowly. "By betraying her in the most unforgivable way, by shattering her trust and love for me into a million jagged shards, I ensured she would take Valerian as her king and husband instead of me."

A stunned, weighted silence fell over the room like a thick shroud as the full extent of Enzo's sacrifice gradually became clear to everyone present.

To damn himself to an eternity without his other half, his true mate and destiny...all to rewrite the timeline and save her life. It was perhaps the most noble yet utterly heart-rending act of selfless love imaginable.

"Shit..." Killian exhaled roughly, shattering the heavy quiet and shaking his head in disbelief. "I don't know whether to be in complete awe of you or just think you're the biggest masochistic bastard to ever walk the earth."

Enzo didn’t pick any offence at his words. Instead, a melancholy, self-deprecating smirk quirked his full lips at the young man’s candid assessment. "A fair evaluation, I'd say. Believe me, there have been more nights over the endless centuries than I can count where I've questioned my own sanity and motivations."

“How did you manage to survive the alteration of time?” Seven asked.

"The price I had to pay was carrying the burden of never being with my fated mate, never being able to experience the exuberant delight of being in love, or ever bearing a child with another. Our past transgressions determine the price we have to pay for our future.” Enzo’s expression sobered once more as his fathomless gaze drifted to the frighteningly still form of his grandson lying so motionless on the simple bed, caught in the throes of an internal war between light and dark.

"It's also why I understand his torment so innately," he continued in a low, rumbling baritone. "I've walked that same path, lived that same waking nightmare of having the fragile human side and the feral, predatory beast locked in constant combat for dominance over the soul."

Enzo's thick lashes slipped closed and tilted his head back with a weary sigh.

Memories bombarded him in a dizzying rush - of the insatiable hunger, the maddening thirst that had clawed at his insides like a ravaging beast. Of the times he had nearly surrendered himself over to that lurking, primal darkness and its rapacious urges.

"Which is why, come hell or high water, I won't let that girl be killed or harmed. Not until she's given my grandson an heir at the very least." Enzo's tone hardened to steel, unyielding and resolute as he opened his eyes once more to pin Meredith with a piercing stare. "I'll be damned if I let Knox suffer the same soul-shattering loss and anguish that I did. He and that girl are bound by destiny, their souls intertwined in that most sacred way, same as my Minerva and I were."

The weight of the man’s conviction seemed to saturate the air, filling the room with a heavy, near-palpable tension.

It was clear Enzo had already traversed the fires of hell once before to save his mate, and he would do so again without a shred of hesitation to shield his grandson from that same all-consuming torment.

"If there is even the slightest chance, the most minuscule sliver of hope, to save them both - to stop this darkness from fully eclipsing and devouring Knox's soul while still sparing that girl's life... Then I will move heaven and earth, rewrite the laws of time and space themselves if need be, to make it so. I won't let history repeat itself, not on my watch. Not again!”

Seven had been quietly observing everything unfold with fascination. However, the one burning question he desperately needed an answer to was still gnawing at him - just what exactly were Knox and Enzo? What unfathomable secret tied their existences together in ways that clearly transcended mere immortality?

"Okay, I get that you're some big bad ancient prince and all that mind-blowing shit," Killian said, shifting his stance as he pinned Enzo with an intent stare. "But what does any of this have to do with Knox? Or you, for that matter? What exactly are you two?"

A look of contemplation flickered across Enzo’s harsh features. He knew the boy required a deeper explanation, one that would undoubtedly shake the very foundations of everything he thought he understood about the supernatural world. In order to provide that, Enzo needed them to comprehend a part of history that most had long forgotten or dismissed as mere myth and fable over the millennia.

The only way to truly make them understand was to show them, to unveil the full, terrible truth of what he truly was at his core.

"Any of you remember the old tale about the first immortal to walk this earth?" Enzo's deep baritone rumbled out. "The one also known as the Fallen Angel...or the Fallen God, as some ancient civilizations called him?"

All three of them - Seven, Killian, and even Meredith - nodded slowly in recognition, clearly familiar with the story that had been passed down through oral traditions and tattered tomes over the centuries.

It was said that the first true immortal, the being known as the Fallen Angel, had been cast down from the heavenly skies after a vile betrayal orchestrated by his own celestial brethren out of petty jealousy and greed.

"Yeah, I know that one," Killian piped up with a casual air, leaning back in his chair as he propped one bare foot up on the table.

His grey eyes danced with a hint of mischief as he launched into his own blunt retelling. "Dude was supposed to be next in line for the big throne up in the sky realm or whatever. Basically, the heir apparent to the whole celestial kingdom and unlimited power, yadda yadda. But then some shady shit went down, and he got framed for treason by some jealous pricks who wanted his spot at the top."

Killian shrugged one broad shoulder, flashing Enzo a grin. "Next thing you know, his ass got kicked right out of paradise and cast down to earth as a cosmic 'fuck you' from the big guy upstairs. Probably hurt like a bitch, I'd imagine."