A Shade of Vampire 81 A Bringer of Night - Bella Forrest Page 0,57

follow your progress, as you know. Death had taken an interest in your operations. When your mission to retrieve Thieron became apparent, she told me to do whatever it took to help you all.”

He paused to take a deep breath, while my throat started closing up. I wasn’t sure what he was about to tell me, but given his clear discomfort and the fact that he’d kept it to himself for so long… it had to be serious.

“When the Widow Maker told you that one of your crew would have to die, I had to… I had to intervene. You were all ready to make that sacrifice, but every one of you was valuable to the mission. Some more than others.”

“What are you trying to tell me, Seeley?” I asked, my voice trembling.

“I analyzed you all individually. Your strengths, your weaknesses, your odds of surviving the rest of that wretched quest,” Seeley replied, his eyes finding mine. “You and Acantha had the lowest odds. Either of you could step forward for the sacrifice, but I gave Acantha a… a bit of a nudge.”

I stopped walking, and Seeley turned to face me. “You made her sacrifice herself?” I croaked, my whole spirit running cold as ice.

“No. No, she wanted to do it. But so did you, and I couldn’t bring myself to let you die,” he confessed, running a hand through his silky dark hair. “You were more eager than Acantha, but I didn’t want you to go.”

“I’m confused. What did you do, Seeley?”

“I whispered in her ear,” he said, exhaling deeply. “I told her to save you. I told her that her sacrifice would save you all. She knew that already, but I suppose my influence helped.”

I froze, staring at him, speechless.

“I didn’t kill her. I didn’t manipulate her in any way, Nethissis. That needs to be clear. I merely acted as a voice of reason in favor of something she was already determined to do,” Seeley said.

The ghouls stopped behind us. Lumi and Sidyan were a couple of yards ahead and staring our way. Even Rudolph and Maya had grown still, eyeing us from the tall grass. The silence was deafening. It had to be broken, if only I could find my words.

“You helped her make a decision about something that you shouldn’t have been involved with in the first place,” I concluded. “Acantha died because… because you gave her a mental nudge?”

Seeley didn’t reply, but the faint nod clarified things for me. Anger was quick to swell up like a blaze, burning through me as I understood the implication of his actions.

“Acantha died because you didn’t want me to die,” I murmured, tearing up. It broke me to know all this. “You… You should’ve kept this to yourself, Seeley.”

“It didn’t seem right to hide it from you. I’ve been holding it in for too long,” he said.

I started walking again, leaving him behind. Lumi raised her eyebrows at me, but I couldn’t even formulate a coherent response. The look in her eyes told me everything I needed to know. She’d heard Seeley’s confession. The grief was impossible to overlook.

“You helped Acantha die because you… you what, exactly? And why me? Why not her?” I was shouting, but I didn’t have the courage to look at him. Confusion wrestled with anger inside me, and I struggled to make sense of it all.

Sidyan and Lumi were still as I passed them, quickly followed by Seeley, who pulled me back. “Because I liked you, okay? I… there was something special, something different about you. It was a difficult situation, but I had to do it.”

“No, you didn’t have to do it. You chose to do it! You chose her life over mine!” I said, trying to pull my wrist from his hold. I couldn’t. His grip was firm.

“And I would do it all over again if I had to!” he replied. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry it went the way it did, but I do not regret my decision to interfere. Someone had to! You were all so ready to sacrifice yourselves without fully understanding your odds of survival at the time.”

“And you considered yourself capable of making that call?” Lumi asked, though she was surprisingly calm given what she’d just heard. She’d loved Acantha like a daughter. She’d loved Acantha as much as she loved me.

“Like I said, I had to. Nethissis was about to die,” Seeley insisted. “I’m sorry it had to be Acantha, but I’m not sorry it wasn’t