For the first time, she wondered if what her angel had revealed to her had been a secret. She sat on her knees and leaned close, forehead to forehead, as they’d done in her dreams.
“He would unleash me. Make me more powerful than any other.” Recalling the words only her angel had spoken to her sparked her uncertainty. Harley tipped her head slightly to look into his eyes. “Raul told me the same thing the night he killed my mom. That he would unleash me, not Calan, and it was time to accept my heritage. Raul had even said the angels had watched over me.”
She narrowed her eyes and sat back. “How did he know?”
“I told him.” He held up his hand. “I had to, so you’d run. I could not allow Calan to mate you yet. It was too soon. All the players had not yet been led into position.”
“Players?” She frowned. “You make it sound as if I’m in a game.”
He curled his hands into white-knuckle fists. “Call it a game or a battle, but the fight that has been building for several millennia is nearly upon us.”
“What’s at stake?” By the growling tone of his words, she guessed something precious.
“Everything, Harley. The world, our souls, our future.” He stood. “And now it’s time for you to make the first move. I have done all I am permitted for you, sacrificed what I was allowed, and guided you to this moment.” He took a step back, his ethereal body growing opaque and indistinctive. “Free will, Harley. The choice is yours to make. Pick it wisely.”
With that, he faded. A breeze drifted through the room, dispersing the clouds and bringing with it the scent of rain…the scent of life and goodness. Everything I am not.
Harley dropped her head against the wall and went over what her angel had said. He was right. Everything was at stake, and it all came back to Calan and his love for her. Free of their mate bond, he would hunt Dar. If Calan found him, he’d be able to transfer the curse, but there was no guarantee Calan would find Dar quickly. And if Calan’s siblings went mad beforehand, Calan would be forced to bear the weight of the curse alone. And he would. She knew it as surely as she knew her angel wouldn’t lie to her. Calan would suffer eternally for her.
So I can have a chance at life.
But she would go mad knowing he suffered. Hatred would take root in her heart. She’d lash out at her father, and the outcome Calan had tried to prevent would become reality.
She would turn Unseelie. Worse than that, she’d be unworthy of the sacrifice Calan was making for her. She’d be unworthy of his love.
And without love, what is left for me?
Her neighbor’s wrinkled face flashed before her eyes. The slideshow started. Each and every death caused by Raul or his sluaghs danced across her vision. Once she joined her father’s court, she’d savor them all and hunger for more.
No. I won’t allow it to happen.
Harley pushed to her feet, then dressed in the outfit Calan had first seen her wear. She quickly scanned the bathroom for the item she sought, and her gaze settled on the dirty, ripped clothes in the corner. She dug through them and pulled out the dagger Calan had taken from his prison. Dried blood coated it.
Dar’s blood.
She rinsed it off, slipped it into her boot, then left everything behind. Duty called.
And it’s time to finally embrace my heritage.
Chapter Thirty-Two
“I am sorry, child,” Arawn said.
Calan held the small vial up to the light. A rainbow of colors danced through the shimmering liquid. “What is this?”
“An angel’s tears.”
Calan turned and caught his father’s gaze. “What did you sacrifice to get it?”
Because it had to be something precious. Only the Archangels had a physical form, and those warriors were as vicious as the Huntsmen. More so, actually. Many believed them unfeeling, unforgiving vigilantes. Calan had thought the same thing until one had helped him save a human and the half-breed fairy child she carried all those years ago.
Arawn shrugged. “Does it matter? The sacrifice has been made. There is no taking it back.”
Calan pressed the vial to his chest. Warmth emanated from it. “I’m hoping one of my brothers will fall in love with Harley as I have and mate her.”
“She’ll make a fine mate.”
Calan tilted his head and studied his father’s face, but the blank mask he wore gave nothing away. “You do not know her.”
Arawn pushed from the wall near the entrance to the Huntsmen’s sanctuary. He turned and headed back the way he’d come. At the fork in the corridor, he glanced over his shoulder. “You love her. That is enough to convince me she is worth any sacrifice.” Arawn motioned him forward. “Now go, the sun will set soon. You must call the Hunt. Time is running out.”
Calan nodded and stepped through the portal. It closed behind him with a soft whoosh, leaving him in the overgrown butterfly garden where he’d first peered into Harley’s eyes.
He waited until the stars brightened the sky before he withdrew the vial. His hand trembled. He ignored the disturbing sight, unscrewed the cap, and chugged the thick liquid. Fire raced down his throat. He grabbed his neck and clawed at his skin, but the inferno spread, igniting every inch of his body. His skin pulled taut, his lungs collapsed, and his heart stopped.
The air around him charged, and an invisible force slammed into him, lifting him and throwing him across the garden. He smacked into a bench, the wood collapsing under his weight. A heartbeat passed, then another. The pain receded.
It was done.
Calan pushed his body into a sitting position but couldn’t bring himself to move, let alone call the Hunt.
For the first time in his life, the familiar rage that fueled his Huntsman form
