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Prologue

123 AD A hidden cavern near the waters of the Blue Grotto in Italy

Tamar shivered with her twelve co incantation An opening at the top of the cavern allowed the light fro their secret gathering and adding its oer to the unfolding ritual

Salt water splashed on her from a waterfall in the nearby pool They’d searched for the water of iend that had spread since before her birth Far and wide, people had spoken of water that could

But it wasn’t the water that conferred immortality It was the creatures that lived inside the water They were transparent and hard to see, with spongy tops and long tendrils on the bottoot too close They didn’t die Instead, they could age backward, reaching the end of their life, and then, without dying, start over again

"We’ll freeze to death if you don’t hurry" Talared at theto death while seeking ih

"The potion redients unless you want to co," Jacob said He was their leader and the best with potions

Tamar made a face, but huddled closer to her sister, Naomi, for warmth A circle of salt had been poured around thee stone had become a makeshift table upon which the coven leader worked The sea creatures had been pulverized and added to an iron pot He poured the herbal infusions into the potion

Jacob passed a sharp knife to the person on his left "Each of us ic is in this creature, but they have no blood Our blood must bond with this animal if we hope to succeed"

"Are you sure that’s necessary?" Nao the their blood seeether eternally?

"I a patience with their squeaic like this had a price, and they all knew it But the consequences always showed themselves when it was too late

One by one they sliced the center of their palms with the ritual knife and added their blood Jacob stirred the concoction with a wooden spoon; it soblet into the brew

"We each drink and then we chant," he said, passing the goblet

Ta pride at the chant she’d written When they’d all drunk, they clasped hands and turned their faces up to the ht The cavern echoed their words back to them "Da immortalitatem Renatus sine oblitus Numquam moriens Da immortalitatem Renatus sine oblitus Numquaen flooded into her body Solanced around at her co back to life one by one

"We’re all children"

Chapter One

Golatha Falls, Georgia The Present

Tam perched on the bar stool in her kitchen, still as death Her third cup of Earl Grey tea cooled on the counter, ignored Nor would comfort her today

She’d read her tarot cards, tea leaves, and scried with a bowl of water and sea salt Everything she tried gave her the sa, and though she’d told many others--sometimes truthfully, sometimes not so much--that the death card didn’t always mean death, she knew this card said her number was up

Jack--as Jacob was called noas back, and he was after her She fought to keep the tremor out of her hand as she raised the tea to her lips He wouldn’t offer her a quick death It would involve a cold stone slab, bleeding to death, and having vital organs reot the ic user’s power

Taht she was reborn in that cavern nearly two thousand years ago True to Jack’s word, each tier body, looking for all the world to be about twelve years old--an inconvenience to say the least Tae each tiotten lucky and been adopted by a well-to-do faood school The thought was nice, though pointless, given how h school

Cyclers kept their memories, their sense of continuity They were effectively immortal, just like the rare breed of jellyfish they’d discovered so long ago

Jack had only been actively hunting the other cyclers for a few centuries He’d gone power hungry, convinced he could stop the cycle altogether and achieve true ied differently--the er they could live But it wasn’t just that She knew hi more than a personal quest for iaining all that power couldn’t be good If he was going to get her anyway, suicide seemed the smarter option It would free her to be reborn the normal way and keep her safe from a more brutal death at Jack’s hands

But it wasn’t so simple There were tays she could die for real--and tays only: at the hands of another cycler, or through , such as a demon or vampire at least a few thousand years old Those were hard to co methods were usually too creative for Tam’s taste She wanted to break the cycle, not be tortured

Either way, she’d e Until now

The ie of the demon she’d chosen formed in her mind Cain The very first incubus If he couldn’t kill her, nobody could And he hated her It should be si she could find him She’d dropped him in front of his badass pals a couple of ti her death at this very ht knohere to find him, since she was mated to a demon, but Tam hadn’t seen her best friend in three months It wasn’t as if Tah to their dimension even if she did If Anna surfaced in the human dimension, Tam could do a spell to locate her, but who could say when that would happen? And would it be before Jack reached her?

Deep in her gut, she knew she was going to die--either by Cain’s hand or by Jack’s As arrogant as the bastard was, Cain’s an reaslah the portal point into Cary Town, Washington The filmy dimensional doorway shih the forest away from it He couldn’t believe he’d allowed hi Half-breeds

He’d thought his business with Anthony was finished when Cain had delivered his don’t ain or there will be a war speech the last ti, so standards of all the factions--and possibly their lives