Prologue
“I am not going back,” I insisted for what seemed like the millionth time.
“You have to. Your mother-”
“I do not care what my mother says. And I do not care that she is the goddess of creation. I am not going back there.”
He sighed and ran a hand through his dark hair. The brilliant pearl white wings on his back fluttered anxiously. “She is insisting that I take you back to the City.”
His large hand grabbed my arm. I yanked away from his strong grip. “I do not care. I do not want to be immortal anymore. I just want to be…” I trailed off quickly.
“What?” He growled. “What do you want to be?”
“Human,” I whispered. “I want to be human. I want to experience love and happiness and even sadness. I want to be mortal, okay?”
He stared at me with wide, sad eyes. His grey eyes grew stormy so that not even I, who knew him better than anyone, could read them anymore. “You will never be like them. You will never be that mortal girl.”
“Yes I will,” I protested stubbornly.
He took my shoulders in his hands as if to shake some sense into me. “You are not mortal, no matter what you do. Even if you try to become human, you will still be reborn until you decide to give up your humanity.”
I gave him a sad smile. “This is the only life that I will remember who I really am. Whenever I am reborn again, I will not remember being the daughter of Thesis. I can have a human life. In fact, I can have an infinite number of them.”
“I will always come back for you,” he vowed.
I patted his cheek with my palm and gave him a sad smile. “I know, but I wish you would not. I will not even remember you. You can try, but you will never get me home. Not in this life or any other.”
He grabbed my hand as I was about to walk away. “You ran away not three days ago. What if one day you want to return home?”
I shook my head quickly. “Then you will try to convince me, will you not? I will see you one day. Good luck, my friend. I will miss you.”
I yanked myself free from his grasp. I drove the knife into my heart and died.
