The Seventh Immortal (Hearts of Amaranth #1) by J.M. Parry Read Free Book Online Page A

that
disappointment was vastly outweighed by relief. She wasn't alone in her strange
condition. She was also no longer guilty of murder. That was a nice
bonus.
    Christa Xander was the CEO of Fractal
Capital Management, a private equity firm that incorporated in St.
Louis around the same time as the rest of the immortals arrived in
the city—ten years ago.
    “ It has been over a hundred and fifty years since another
one of us has turned up,” Christa said, staring at Kait with cold
eyes. “You can see why you have caused such a stir. I'm sure we all
have many questions for you.”
    Kait fidgeted nervously with her hands. Even
though it was better than being outside, running from the police,
she didn't feel comfortable in Christa's office. She wished that it
was Silvi giving her this talk. The young woman was much
more...approachable than the intimidating CEO of Fractal Capital.
“I don't know how much help I can be,” she replied. “But I'd much
rather answer a few questions than be drugged in a hospital
room.”
    Christa smiled. Her teeth seemed sharp.
“Rest assured, Miss Selias,” she said. “That is not how we operate
on this side of the divide. We hold freedom and choice in very high
regard.”
    “ Good to hear.”
    “ So, Miss Selias, tell me... What are we? How did this
happen to us?”
    Kait reeled from the question. Her mind
raced as she tried to understand Christa's question. It felt
backwards. Christa shouldn't have been asking Kait what she was. It
should have been the other way around.
    After a few seconds of awkward silence, Kait
realized the horrible truth: Christa didn't even know what they
were. Silvi had promised—or at least suggested—that the Fractal CEO
could explain everything. In truth, she was just as clueless as
Kait.
    “ I'm... I'm sorry,” Kait said. “But I don't
even know who I am, let alone what I am.” Christa recoiled, as if
stung, and slumped down in her chair. “To be honest, I
thought you would be able to tell me what I am.”
    Christa considered this. She folded her
hands in front of her and leaned forward. “We are the last relics
from the age of fate,” she replied.
    Kait raised an eyebrow. Christa's response
was poetic, but it didn't really tell her anything. “Is that all
you have?”
    “ Read the books of old and they will talk of God as if he
were a tangible force—something that could be felt and heard.”
Christa stood up. She began to pace around her desk. “Think, Kait,
do you feel God in this room? Did you feel him out on the street
today? NO! You did not, and that is because he is gone. He has
passed from this world, but he has given a select few of us a gift.
It is the gift of his memory, and his voice. I remember what it was
like to know that God was there—to know that he was
real.”
    Kait was unsettled by Christa's sudden
fanatical turn. If she wasn't immortal, she might have been
frightened of the powerful woman. As it was, her strange condition
gave her surprising courage. “There's a problem with your theory,”
Kait said. “If we were given immortality to remember God, why have
I forgotten everything?”
    Christa smiled a sick, twisted smile. “And
there is the problem. When I heard about you, Kait Selias, I
thought you might be the one we've been waiting for. The one of us
who has been hidden since the beginning who could explain what
happened two hundred years ago, and what we are meant to do with
it.”
    “ Sorry I'm a disappointment,” Kait replied.
    “ You're worse than that. Not only do you lack answers, but
you have no message. You cast doubt on the one thing that the six
of us were absolutely certain of: that we we are the last
messengers of God. We are his final Gospels to the world, destined
to spread his word until the end of time. But what word can you
teach, Kait?”
    Kait's heart began to race. She finally
understood what the message in her passport meant. These six
immortals—Christa, Silvi, Eve, Grant, Thomas, and