Read Online The Seventh Immortal (Hearts of Amaranth #1) by J.M. Parry - Free Book Online

her in every
moment. “It's not so bad, is it?” Kait asked.
    “ I never said it was,” Thomas replied. “But do not be caught
up in such things. We are here for a reason, and our condition is
as much of a punishment as it is a reward. I didn't even understand
the extent of it until almost three years later, when I was pushed
into the ocean and woke up three weeks later on the shore of a land
I'd never even visited.”
    “ You didn't know you were immortal until three years after
it happened?” Kait asked. “How did you figure out when it occurred?
Christa gave me an exact date and time. How--”
    Thomas began to walk towards the doors
leading out onto the street. Squinting, Kait, could see Paul
standing on the steps. He was staring up at the building, as if he
was considering coming inside. Kait knew that would be bad. Like
Thomas said, he was only being kept alive as bait.
    “ The man out there—not your friend, but the police chief—was
shot in the head on the night it happened. He suffered a terrible
injury that, if he was already a Gospel, would have healed within
minutes. If he did not become a Gospel within a short time after
sustaining the injury, he would have surely died. We were all in
the city of Kurgan on that night. Once we all met each other, it
was easy to piece together.”
    “ You think I was there, too?”
    “ It only makes sense. But... Who knows? Maybe whatever
happened that night happened elsewhere as well.”
    This was almost too much for Kait. She
thought back to the message scrawled on the inside of her passport.
Weren't the Gospels supposed to answer her questions? It seemed
like they were just as confused as her. They been alive for
hundreds of years, and they still didn't know what they were.
    “ So, what kind of injury was it?” Kait asked. “What happened
to Grant L'Enfante?”
    “ He was shot in the face,” Thomas said bluntly. “When we
became... When we were transformed into Gospels, our bodies were
preserved. If injured, they will be reformed just how they were on
that night. For him, that means he will always have that bullet in
his head. Right behind his left eye.”
    Kait remembered the video feed from outside
the building. She'd seen his ghostly eye, and now shuddered knowing
the reason for the deformity. “So, that's what I'm dealing
with?”
    Thomas chuckled. “If you go out there, they
will shoot. They will kill him and incapacitate you. We can't die,
but we sure as shit can be knocked out for a few minutes.”
    “ So what's my other option? Give in to
Christa? Pledge my allegiance to Fractal and--”
    “ Stop using the vox dei . Stop calling to him and hope that
he walks away and never thinks of you again.”
    Kait glanced through the glass. It was dark
enough on the outside that he wouldn't be able to see her from the
steps, but she could watch him. “How? How do I do it?”
    “ You want him to go away, don't you?”
    “ I...” Paul was now circling around the side of the
building, trying to find another way in. The front doors were
locked, on order from Christa. He looked so lost. “I'll never see
him again. If I let go of him now--”
    “ Then you've already killed him,” Thomas
snorted. “If you cannot control your selfishness, you will never
control the vox dei .”
    As if on cue, Paul found a door that wasn't
locked. Kait's heart started to race. The police outside began to
move to that side of the building. At least for the moment, they
didn't have a reason to shoot him.
    Grant would find a reason. He would use the vox dei to convince the
police under his command that Paul had a weapon, or that he was a
threat, or just that the world needed him dead. It didn't matter
what suggestion Grant would use. The police would follow it, just
as surely as Paul had followed Kait downtown.
    There was only one thing that Grant wasn't counting on. He
wasn't the only one with the vox dei.
    Kait rushed to the door to meet Paul before
he could come inside. Thomas