Grace deflated, sitting back on the bed, her mind spinning. Her antibodies were that strong? What the hell was it with being a Key? “I thought, deep down, that maybe—”

“Mating him, full on frontal nudity, would be the only answer to saving you?” Faith murmured, her gaze understanding. “I know. I’ve seen how you look at him.”

Grace sputtered. “Look at him? What are you talking about? I can’t stand him.”

Emma snorted. “Right. Ha. The same way you can’t stand an ice cream sundae with extra sprinkles. I may be lost in my own world a lot, working on these experiments, but even I can see that. You want that badass. Like bad.”

Grace frowned, lowering her chin. “You really don’t sound like a queen.”

Emma grinned. “Like I haven’t heard that before.” Her blue eyes sparkled. Once again, her mass of dark hair was piled high on her head, escaping in tendrils in every direction. “We also combined your cells with genes from a couple of unmated males, and the allergy sprang forth fast and bright. No option there.”

“Wow,” Grace said slowly. “My options are death, death, or…death.” She breathed out. Well, it was nice to have answers, right? No. Not right. “This sucks.”

Faith clasped her hands together. “Well, not death. Whatever is in your blood, in your cells from the Key marking, ensures you’ll live for a while. Maybe not consciously, but that would give us time to find a cure? Maybe?”

Emma shuffled her feet. “I really want to agree with you.”

But she didn’t. The most knowledgeable geneticist in the entire world, human or immortal, thought Grace was going to drop back into her coma and then die. Grace pressed her fingers against her eyebrows to try to stall the oncoming headache. “Okay. What I learned from the science class I took in college was basically how to listen to music and balance a checkbook at the same time. But if I’ve developed antibodies to Adare, can’t we get rid of those somehow?”

“No,” Faith said slowly. “There’s no way to get rid of antibodies. I mean, they can diminish over time, but you don’t have time.” She winced on the last. “Your only option is to mate Adare, Gracie. After your antibodies destroy his, you may recover.”

Grace let the words sink in. “You just said my cells destroyed his. If we mate, and I’m saved, what happens to Adare?”

Neither woman answered.