The sharp blade barely missed her nose. Thankfully, the years had made Selene nimble enough to bend over backward. A sense of trust filled her, a feeling she took advantage of as she swatted her opponent’s blade away and kneed them in the gut. It was never hard to break a rule of friendly fighting, especially when it suited her. Her opponent was just lucky she kept the blades in the heels of her boots sheathed.

Selene took a step back and stared at her opponent, assessing her next move. The purple-eyed Vampyre let out a low growl.

“You’re good,” said Conliana.

“Well, I don’t like to brag or anything, but I was Head Hunter for a few centuries.”

“Yes, well, I think my new blood will let me hold my own against you.” Conliana charged her. It was easy enough for Selene to see that she was going to feign left and strike from the right. The girl was predictable. Spinning to her right, Selene caught the blade with her own, twisting with all her strength, disarming the girl before she grabbed the girl’s arm and threw her to the ground, holding her own sword, closer than necessary, at the girl’s neck as she poised over her.

“Yield?”

“Do you?” Something pressed against her side. Selene was never caught off guard; that alone made her growl.

“Enough.” The male voice echoed through the training chamber. Selene stared at her brother and Jason as they entered, oddly enough, side by side.

Selene pouted. “But we don’t know who won.”

“You’ll have other opportunities.” Eris extended his hand to her. Selene stared at the empty hand, noticing the dirt under his fingernails and the fresh new skin on his knuckles.

“You’ve been beating the ground,” she said, finally taking his hand. She didn’t need the help to stand, but it was more for him, a sign of trust. As much as she wanted to continue hating him, she couldn’t. Jason was alive.

“Well, beating the ground seems the best way to unleash all my pent-up rage.”

“You could just challenge me; you’ll end up with less bruising.”

His eyebrows arched, and he stared at her, wary. “When has that ever been true?”

“Good point.”

“Will no one help me up?” Selene ignored Conliana’s comment and pulled her hand from her brother, crossing her arms. Jason made his way to her, helping her up. Always the gentleman, except it wasn’t him. She noticed how he walked, his head held high, his arms crossed. Pietro had walked like that; Jason had been more casual, more open, less guarded. There was even a crooked grin on his face that was reminiscent of Pietro. No, right now, he was Pietro.

“I’ve got you.”

“Thank you, dear.”

The way she said dear made Selene’s blood boil. She hated how the girl looked at him, hated how she acted towards him. If Selene didn’t know better, she would assume they were having a love affair.

“I’m going out,” she said, spinning on her heel, each stomp of her boot clicking against the marble floor as she walked.

“Okay.” Selene wanted to thank Eris for leaving her alone when it was evident that she wanted to be alone. After all this time, it seemed like he was learning how to be a proper brother. Jason, however, was following her, calling out her name.

“Selene, where are you going?” he asked when he was on her heels.

“For a walk.”

“I’ll join you.”

“I’d much rather be alone.”

“Oh, come now, Selene, what’s wrong?”

“Jason, go away. Go back and play with that look-a-like.”

His obnoxious laughter stopped her in her tracks. Looking behind, she saw him leaning against the wall of the hallway, his head down, laughing, laughing at her. Her jaw tightened.

“You’re jealous!”

“Why is that so funny?”

“It’s adorable, actually.” His teal eyes filled with mischief while his lips curled into a smile. It made Selene angrier.

“You are a pompous jerk.”

“I thought that’s what you liked about me?”

“Not anymore.” Selene stormed off, her hands clenched at her sides. What had she ever seen in Pietro? What had made her fall in love with him when she had been drawn to another? He had seemed so different with her, had cared about her. Pietro had not always been some pompous brat.

Finally out of the cave, she collapsed, falling down onto the hard ground. The entrance to it was bare, the ground killed by the undead going in and out on nightly hunts. Tracing her hand in the bare sand ground, with the waterfall nearby filling the air as her thoughts spun in circles.

Why had he changed? Not just Jason but Pietro as well. Why had all the memories woven themselves together? Why did he have so much to remember? Burying her face in her hands in the dim moonlight, she felt incredibly foolish. She knew his life and who he had been would affect him; Miranda had been the proof of that. Selene’s own face had haunted her, and all her memories had set the events in motion.

And after three hundred years, it was fair that Jason and Pietro would converge, which meant he had to remember being stabbed to death, had to remember his ending just like Miranda had. Didn’t matter if you were Reborn or a reborn Witch; it seemed, one’s memories always came back to haunt the living. And Pietro had never been entirely stable; despite how caring he had been, he could be equally cruel.

“Stop drinking,” said Selene as she stood in the middle of Pietro’s office.

“Oh, don’t tell me what to do.” Spit flew from his mouth, filling her with revulsion. She watched him stumble to his leather armchair by the fireplace, the blaze the only light in the otherwise dark room.

“Pietro, please stop drinking; you’re turning into a drunk.”

“See, that’s where you’re wrong, my dear; I’m already a drunk.” He laughed while he drank, causing some of the dark liquid to slide down his chin. Selene averted her gaze from the pitiful scene.

“You’re an ass,” she whispered.

Pietro didn’t respond, just continued to drink, distracted by the fire. “Do you think that if I burned this place down, I would upset my parents enough to force a divorce?”

“You might die. She might die.”

“So? Let her die, her and her dark thoughts.”

“Enough! That woman is your wife; she deserves some respect.”

That roused him from his seat, his drunken eyes wild with rage. “Respect! You have got to be kidding me?” Suddenly he threw his glass and the remainder of his drink into the fireplace, enlarging the fire. Selene jumped back. Very few things could kill her, and fire was one of them.

“I don’t care what darkness is in her head,” she began, regaining her composure. “There is darkness in yours as well. And maybe if you listened to me and stayed out of her head, things would be different!”

“Oh, Selene, can’t you understand!” he grabbed her shoulders, forcing her to look into his bloodshot eyes. The madness in them scared her more than anything. “I love you! I want to be with you!” With that last statement, he forced his mouth onto hers, forgoing all tenderness. Bruising her lips, drying them, he wrapped his arms around her waist, holding her close. In the distance, she could hear thunder, and much more.

“Pietro?” Selene jumped back, ripping herself from Pietro’s arms as the door opened. But it was too late; Katherine had already seen the forced embrace.

“What? What do you want? I’m busy.” His harshness against the girl made Selene hate him, made her pity the girl who stood in the doorway, twiddling her thumbs in the thinnest white nightgown. Her gaze dropped to the ground, and her voice cracked as she spoke.

“Oh, it’s–it’s nothing, I was just won–wondering when you were g–going to come to bed.”

“I won’t be, not tonight. Go away.”

“V–very well.” Her hands fumbled at the doorknob, struggling to close it behind her. Selene heard her sobs as she made her way down the hallway. She hadn’t asked for this marriage either; it was arranged, and he took out all his rage and frustrations on the poor girl.

“Now where were we?”

“I was leaving,” she said, stopping his advance this time with her hand on his chest. He stared at her, confused and remorseful, as she made her way to the window. But Pietro was close behind, grabbing her wrist. Selene jerked away at his touch, but he didn’t seem to notice as she stood poised to jump out the window.

“Selene, she is nothing.”

“She is your wife! For the love of all things good, you judge her too harshly for her dark thoughts and look at you! Look at how you treat her, look at how cruel you are. Who are you to judge when you have your own dark thoughts? You blame her for your unhappiness. This marriage was not her doing; she didn’t ask for it either. Her only crime is falling in love with you at first sight. And considering the way you treat her, can you blame her dark thoughts?”

“Selene—”

“Shut up. Pietro, this is goodbye. You’re married, and to see you in this maddening state sickens me. You make me hate you, and I love you too much to have these memories of you.”

“Over her? You’re leaving me because of her!”

“No, don’t find another reason to blame her, to hate her. I am leaving you because you are a mortal man, a mortal married man, and I am a Vampyre. Blake and Anita may find a way to make it work, but I can’t, and I won’t. She loves you, and you chose this. You chose your own vanity and greed over poverty, over me. You chose her in the end. Goodbye.”

That had been the last time she had seen Pietro alive. Selene wished she could forget that moment, especially after he died after she had seen what Katherine had done to him. She didn’t try to forget for love but fear. A fear that she would forgive the poor girl in the white nightgown, the fragile girl who had twiddled her thumbs. All she had wanted to do was hate Katherine and remember her as she had last seen her in the carriage, her hands chained, her white nightgown stained with blood. When Selene had ripped the door off its hinges, Katherine had greeted her with a smile, her hair a tangled mess.

“I knew you’d come for me. The girl he always wanted, the girl I wasn’t.”

“You killed him.”

“I butchered him, yes, because he was a cruel bastard, and no, I will never be sorry.” Selene had shaken with anger, had forced the pity she had felt for the girl who just sat there grinning, blood on her face, on her hands. His blood. Selene didn’t remember much after that; she had let her rage and her blood hunger take control of her. That was the memory she tried to remember, not the one that inspired pity for Katherine and hatred for him.

“Selene?” Selene opened her eyes and sat up.

“What do you want?”

“I came to apologize.” He took a seat across from her.

Selene stared at him, wondering which face was apologizing to him. He smiled at her, and Selene saw Jason, not Pietro.

“Oh?”

“I shouldn’t have been such a jerk in there; I shouldn’t have laughed at you, and I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me.”

Smiling, Selene leaned forward and cupped his face in her hands. “Don’t worry about it. Water under the bridge.”

“You sure? Cause I was a big jerk.”

At that, Selene laughed. “Yes, silly, you’re forgiven.” Her hands moved around his neck, and he pulled her close, reminding her of why she loved Jason and not Pietro.