He roared his frustration.
“I see my beloved son has finally decided to come home.”
Calan pivoted on his heel and came face-to-face with the Lord of the Underworld. Over seven feet tall with power and stealth at his fingertips, Arawn was the ultimate warrior. He’d passed on his powerful genes to his children, but their human mothers gave them an even greater gift—a tie to the innocent species the gods tried to protect.
With stark-white hair, silver eyes, and deeply tanned skin, Arawn didn’t look like the devil many humans envisioned. He could be, though. With a mere thought, his darker side emerged—a hulking ten-foot monstrosity with leather wings, fangs, and claws. Today, Arawn stood before Calan in his natural form. However, the fury stamped on Arawn’s harsh features warned it might not last long.
Arawn shook his head. “And you’ve lost your mind. You had to have. It’s the only explanation for your foolish choice in a mate.”
“You know about Harley?”
“I might not be able to touch the human world, but my horses act as my eyes. Death told me of your mistake.”
Calan ignored the disdain in Arawn’s voice and led Death into the bowels of Hell. His sire followed, his snarls increasing in volume with each foot they traversed. At the end of the hallway, Calan stopped at the ledge. His holdings stood in the center of the valley below.
The stone fortress resembled a patchwork of blocks with jutting extensions and turrets. Gardens, overflowing with life, surrounded it. A bubbling brook snaked its way across the valley to the small lake at the end.
Although he couldn’t see it from where he stood, a meadow spread out behind the massive structure. His hounds lounged there and acted as guardians for the misplaced souls they’d collected over the ages. From time to time, the angels collected those ready to move on. Many stayed. Calan didn’t understand why, nor did he question it. They were welcome in the paradise fields. The rolling acres were beautiful. Peaceful.
He too longed to walk along the paths weaving their way through the valley as he’d done in ages past but wouldn’t without Harley by his side. She couldn’t come here until she accepted him. He would wait and endure as he’d done for eons and fill his time with his duties, including the one that brought him here today. The quicker he completed his task, the quicker he could return to Harley’s side.
He slapped his steed’s rump. It trotted down the corridor leading to the fields where the unfortunate humans would find peace. He waited until the darkness swallowed Death’s form, then faced his furious father.
“Mating Harley was not a mistake.” Calan propped his shoulder against the wall. “You know how easily love can strike. I stumbled upon Harley years ago. She held temptation at bay until she could return and free me.”
Arawn only raised a lip and let a trickling growl escape. Body tensed, he looked ready to strike.
Calan pushed from the wall and dropped his hands loosely to the side. “She will not become Unseelie as her father did. I will act as her shield, absorbing her rage and harnessing her strengths. She will soar under my influence and become more powerful than any fairy before her.”
Arawn stepped forward. The smack of his booted foot on the stone floor echoed in the small space. Another thump, and Calan’s anger flared. He would not be intimidated. He matched Arawn’s approach until they were inches apart.
“Are you so sure of that, my son?”
Calan dipped his head. “I am sure. I will unleash her from her damning heritage, even if she can never let it go.”
Arawn grabbed him by his shoulders and tossed him off the ledge overlooking the Huntsmen’s valley. The air rushed by, wafting the scent of campfires around him. It didn’t calm the fury building within him. Calan hit the hardened earth. His breath escaped in a rough grunt. He pushed up, leapt, and met Arawn midair.
Claws dug into Calan’s sides. The tearing of his muscles only fueled his rage. He pierced Arawn’s chest with his own talon-tipped fingers and tore him open, shoulder to gut. Arawn shoved him back. A second time, Calan hit the grass-covered ground. He hopped to his feet and crouched, ready for his sire’s next move.
Arawn hovered over him, black wings flapping soundlessly. A soft brush of wind danced over Calan’s skin, cooling the blood coating it. The wounds he’d sustained had already healed. Red eyes, no pupil, focused on him. With skin as black as the deepest abyss and blazing white teeth, Arawn resembled the human’s depiction of the devil.
“You’ve damned yourself, child.” Arawn landed several feet from him in a matching crouch, wings folded at his back. Saliva dripped from his extended canines. “And you’ve damned the Huntsmen.”
“Never. I have not endured for a millennium to fail now that I’m finally free.”
Arawn roared and punched him. Calan flew backward and hit the corner of his stone fortress. Crumbling rocks rained down on him. He stood and stretched his arms out to the side. “You want to punish me for falling in love, so be it. I won’t apologize for it.”
“Why did you have to mate her so quickly?” Arawn’s wings flapped, once, then twice more. “Why couldn’t you have waited until I talked to you?” His wings drooped. “Warned you of the danger she posed.”
He grew sick of defending her, first to Rhys, then to Arawn. She was Calan’s choice, not theirs.
“Why did you mate Minerva within minutes of meeting her?” He’d heard the story of their mating. Arawn himself had shared it when Tegan had asked how he’d known he was in love. “You just know,” he’d said.
Arawn’s black, winged
