How easy would it be to take a step forward and allow gravity to take hold of me? Would I fight to survive? Would my instincts kick in when I hit the water? I was no longer human, but would it still work the same? Was I still the same person I was a year ago? No, I wasn't the same. Nothing about me would ever be the same.

I had nearly lost Silas. Then I had nearly lost Ethan. I had started to hope. All those times we spend together. When we made love and the way he had looked at me. I thought that things between him and Avery were over and done with. I thought she was his past and I was going to be his future.

"Lara, step away from the cliff."

His voice made pain shoot through my chest. He was here, only a few feet away from me, but he wasn't here at the same time. Ethan had ripped my heart out and stepped on it before he tore it into a thousand pieces.

"Come on, sweetness. Please move away from there."

"The ground isn't very stable." It was a different voice, but I remembered him. "The grounds at the cliff get very unstable after so much rain. Step away from the edge, Lara."

I swallowed and took a step closer. My eyes darted down and my stomach turned when I realized how high up I was. Beneath me stormy waters hit big jagged rocks. One fall and I would die instantly.

"I'm sorry Lara!" Ethan yelled. "I made sure to take precautions. I made sure that something like this couldn't happen. I don't know how it happened. Please, Lara." His voice cracked. "Please come here. Let me explain."

"There's nothing to explain," I croaked. "You can't take it back. She's going to have your baby."

"W-what?" Silas muttered. "What's she talking about? Ethan?"

"Avery's pregnant, Silas." I called out.

I spread my arms out and tilted my head back. The wind blew my hair away from my face. If I died, would I feel like this? Would I be send to hell or heaven? Would I be able to look down at Silas? Would I be able to make sure that he got his happy ending? I was clearly doomed to have no happy ending.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?"

My body jerked when he suddenly spoke from behind me. A second later he stopped next to me and leaned forward slightly to look down. It took me a moment to recognize him. The man turned and gave me a crooked smile that never reached his eyes. I had spent days, maybe weeks locked in a cage next to his.

"My name's Obsidian," he said in his raspy voice. "It wouldn't be fair, you know."

He turned to glance back down at the water. My eyes lingered on his scared face for a few more seconds before I glanced back out at the water. I had no idea what he was talking about. Just as my mind started to wonder, he spoke again.

"What about your mates? What about your friends and family? How would they feel if you take a step?"

"I don't have family."

"You do. You have Silas and his parents. You have us."

My eyes snapped over to his but he wasn't paying any attention to me.

"You don't have to be blood related to be family."

The sudden longing to talk to Andrea filled me. How long had it been since we last talked? A year ago? The last time we saw each other was at her wedding. She never tried to contact me again after I left with Silas.

"You're hurting," he said softly. "I understand."

"Do you have a mate?"

"No." His lips tilted up slightly. "I don't have a mate."

"Then you wouldn't understand."

"I do understand, Lara. I—" He paused and shook his head. "Don't tell this to anyone."

"I promise."

His breathing sped up slightly. My eyes dropped to his hands when they clenched at his side. Whatever he was about to tell me was upsetting him a lot. Obsidian swallowed loudly and took another small step forward.

"He showed you what he did to the others." I nodded. "They did that to me but a lot worse. It amused them to watch me bleed and writhing in pain on the floor. I've been tortured and beaten, Lara, but that was okay. The worst thing they ever did to me—" He broke off and sucked in a sharp breath. "They considered us as toys. As things they could use. I was a thing to them and they made sure that I knew that."

"You don't have to—"

"I was raped, Lara."

My mouth snapped closed as shock washed through me. I could feel my knees weakening at the realization that this scared man had suffered a lot more that his scars made us belief.

"I've lived hell and I prayed that it would all end. Do you have any idea how humiliating it is to look Devrim in the eyes every day, knowing that he had seen it all? You have no idea how many times I wanted to end it all."

I blinked back the tears. "W-what made you change your mind?"

He raised his head and smiled up at the sky. "I saw her."

"You're mate?"

He nodded. "I knew it the moment she looked into my eyes. She was just a little girl then, the day I met her. I was out in the woods, ready to finally end it, when she stumbled upon me. I can't explain what I felt, but he urge to end it all just faded. I will never be able to have her like I want too, but I'm able to watch over her."

"Isn't it hell?"

He let out a low humourless laugh. "It hurts and it makes me angry and happy at the same time. I hate the fact that I have to watch her go out with men her age. But I love the fact that I get to have her close even if it isn't the way I want too."

"I'm sorry."

He growled. "I didn't tell you this to make you feel sorry for me, Lara. I told you this to make you understand that death isn't the option. You are lucky to have two mates who love you and would do anything for you. Do you have any idea what your death would do to them?" He turned towards me and looked me right in the eyes. "You're new to this so you might not understand things. There are thousands of people—human or not—who would kill to have what you do. Things might be a mess now, but maybe somewhere along the line it would start looking up."

"Ethan's going to have a baby with another woman," I whispered.

"So? You still have Silas. You still have a mate and that's the important thing."

My eyes darted over to where they had stood before. I caught a glimpse of them through the swaying trees. They were far away not to have heard what we were talking about, but close enough to keep an eye on us. Silas and Ethan were arguing and Devrim and Ezra stood close by watching them.

"Promise me that you won't do anything stupid, Lara. I've learned that things sometimes looked better in the morning."

I gave him a small smile. "Only sometimes."

"Sometimes."

My eyes darted back to my mates. I might be losing one of them but I still had another. Silas was hurt by Ethan too. He liked having his brother around. He liked when it was the three of us together. But now everything was going to change and it was all because of Avery. Once again she had managed to destroy them.

"Thank you," I muttered, smiling up at him. "You know, maybe you should take a leap of faith."

He frowned at me and pushed his hands into his pocket. "What?"

"It's kind of creepy hearing you say how much you watch her."

Uncertainty flashed across his face. "It's not, is it?"

I nodded at him. "Forget about what happened to you. Forget about every reason you shouldn't be with her. Take a leap of faith and just talk to her. Not as a mate but just as a friend or something."

His lips twitched. "Or something. It's not that easy, Lara. I'm no good for her and I never will be."

Turning back toward the cliff, I stared out at the water. Life wasn't simple. It would probably never be. I was no longer the old Lara I used to be. I was one of them now. Their blood ran through my veins and their marks branded my skin just like my mark branded theirs. Ethan would go back to Avery, but she would never have him. He was mine and although I couldn't have him by my side like I wanted too, he still belonged to me, and Avery would get to see that.

She might have him but he was mine.

"I think I need to talk to my mates."

"Yeah, you go do that," Obsidian muttered.

I gave him one last smile and then turned. But as I learned, nothing ever happened as it should. A scream fell from my lips when the ground suddenly gave way beneath me and then I was falling.