Page 89 of Blood So Brutal

"What about you?" Nathan asked. "You're really ready to kill your own father?"

I looked him in the eye so he would understand me clearly when I said, "I’ve been ready to kill that man since he laid eyes on her."

Nathan nodded.

"Please tell me you know for certain that this will really end him. Archangels are tough to kill for a reason."

Nathan pushed himself back and began pacing the dark room. Orange light cast shadows on his dark face as he thought, hands tightening on his hips. "My people have gone to the damn edges of Vaehatis looking for the right answer. All our sources say the same thing. Huntyr's magic combined with the angel sword will do the trick."

Huntyr’s magic, we had, but the angel sword? There was only one I knew of in existence, and Luseyar wielded it himself. It was the same sword that sliced my wings from my body. How the rebels planned on retrieving it, I had no idea.

"And if you're wrong?"

He stopped pacing and looked at me. "If I'm wrong, we're all dead. But we’re running out of options here."

We stood for the next few minutes in silence. Nathan continued pacing near the back wall while I leaned against the cold stone with my arms crossed over my chest. Goddess help us if we were wrong about this.

The ways to kill an archangel were anything but common knowledge. Most of my life, I thought it impossible to kill them. They were stronger than angels. Older. More powerful. But the way my father was continuing had to be stopped. This evil could not continue in this world any longer, and I couldn't fucking live with myself if I let it.

"You protect her at all costs, Nathan," I said after a while. "She's the key to all of this. She has to stay alive no matter what."

He faced me with serious eyes. "She's our queen. All of us will gladly protect her with our lives, Wolf. Trust me on that."

I bit my cheek to stop the stream of threats that lingered in my mind. Hehadto keep her alive. No matter what happened, no matter if we succeeded tomorrow or failed, Huntyr would live.

Chapter 29

Huntyr

"You're kidding me." I stared at the dress—or lack thereof—with my jaw falling open. “This has to be a joke.”

"It won't feel so bad once you have it on, I promise." Wolf carried the dress to the bed and laid it out flat.

"Easy for you to say. You're not the one who has to parade around here practically naked."

He smirked. "I'll be wearing less clothes than usual, if you're looking for an excuse to see more of me."

I sighed. "This is hardly the time for jokes."

"But it might as well be." He took two steps toward me, hands out, almost as if he wanted to touch me, but he stopped himself. "The angels have much different traditions than the fae, or even the vampyres. This wedding will be…well, it will be unique, at the very least."

"And wearing this damn dress is something that's required of me?" Hells, I could see the dark color of the bedsheets through the dress.

"If I could stop this all from happening, Huntress, you know I would do it in a heartbeat." His softened tone made my chest ache.

"I know you would. I’m just not ready for this, I guess."

"But you are." My breath hitched as he reached out and brushed a knuckle against my cheekbone. "You're more ready than you could even know. You'll walk in front of a group of drunk people who only want to party and celebrate the equinox, we'll exchange some words in front of my father, and the hard part will be over."

"That seems painfully mundane."

"It is." He smiled. "That should be a relief. In vampyre culture, they drink each other's blood, you know."

My eyes widened, but he was already laughing. "Relax. My father would rather not have a wedding at all than bend to vampyre culture."

"Who knows," I added. “He tends to be a bit impulsive. What if he decides to kill us both at the altar?"

"Then he'll have no queen and no way to access the power of the blood kingdom."

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