He hooked his index finger beneath my chin, lilted my face and gazed into my eyes. "You may pick which one of them lives."

"Excuse me?" I blinked rapidly, as if that would help me clear my head. I couldn't have heard what he'd said.

"You can pick which one lives." He shrugged elegantly. "Oh, they'll both die eventually. I need Nathan's soul to complete my ritual, and I'm sure my son will do something to rouse my anger before long. But at your word, one of them can leave this house tonight."

I looked to Nathan. What do I do?

I trust you. The reply didn't help me, but it was the only communication we could manage. The Soul Eater made a move…

I'm not sure what he intended to do. But in that second, Cyrus rushed forward, a stake drawn. He swung the weapon at his father, and before my eyes could track the Soul Eater's movements, he had Cyrus's arm bent at an unnatural angle behind his back.

"Why do you fight me?" Jacob sounded pained as he twisted Cyrus's arm. I heard the bones crack and saw the stake fall from his fingers as he screamed. The Soul Eater grimaced. "Why would you make an attempt on my life?"

"Because I know you're a coward! You'll kill her, just like you kill anyone else who threatens your power!" Cyrus shouted. The tears rolling down his face were from the pain in his arm and the grief he felt. Both sensations overwhelmed me, and I clutched my chest, crushed under the weight of his sadness and frustration. "You won't steal her from me!"

The Soul Eater looked taken aback. "She is worthless. You value her life above mine?"

"Yes, I do!" Cyrus cradled his ruined arm to his chest mouth frozen open in a silent cry of anguish as he dropped to his knees in defeat. "I don't know. I'm tired of this pain."

I wanted to go to his side and wrap my arms around him. But it was his father who comforted him, placing a hand on his head. "And I can take it from you. My son. I can take it all from you."

Don't listen to him, I begged him silently, but my thought bounced back to me with a desolate echo. Cyrus wasn't listening to me. He'd made up his mind.

"Let me help you, son." The Soul Eater knelt at his side. "Come home to me."

He's going to drain him! I screamed silently at Nathan. He's going to drain him and re-sire him.

Calm down, Carrie. Don't say a word.

If I'd been in the right frame of mind, maybe I would have recognized the sense in Nathan's words. But all I felt was unimaginable pain that my fledgling would be stolen from me, that my life would be meaningless.