Page 3 of Harbinger

It wouldn’t be long now.

See you soon, goddess.

2

~Ariana~

It felt like a nightmare, but looked like a dream.

I’d been dreading this night for the last couple of weeks since my family had announced their intention to throw this over-the-top party on my behalf.

And what had once been my safe place had become something else entirely.

At least for tonight.

It didn’t even feel like our family home with the influence of so many others crowding the mammoth space of the castle-like palatial estate where my three dads and my mom resided, and where I had as well until I’d moved out to study at Maven Academy three years ago.

They’d gone all out.

It was what they did, what they’d always done for me.

They treated me like a princess.

My family had given me the best of everything.

My mom, Mia Snow, was the daughter of a Fallen—more commonly called an Immortal. My dad, Jaxon Silver, was a hybrid: half Alpha wolf, half Immortal Descendent.

That legacy came with baggage—his ancestor was a brutal tyrant who’d terrorized the realms just before I was born.

Then there was Pops—Ryker Morgan—the most powerful sorcerer alive, and Papa, Lucian Black, an Ancient Vampire.

Together, they’d raised me in a beautifully supportive quad, each of them loving one another without hesitation.

I’d seen other strong relationships, too—like Grandpa Gabriel Morgan and his partner, Grandma Calla Coretti. Both were centuries-old magic-wielders who had moved out when I was little, settling into Papa’s old penthouse in a city a few hundred miles from here.

And then there was Cornelius Martel—my maternal grandfather, and the most infamous of them all. Once head of the Guardian Movement, he’d passed the role to Pops right before I was born. He lived nearby with Gramps Warlow Boyd, a wolf–sorcerer hybrid.

I bore the name Martel because it was my mother’s true name—one she’d had to hide for years, along with her Immortal status, back when supernatural society wasn’t so inclusive. Snow had become a part of her, but naming me Martel was her way of making sure I’d never have to hide who I was.

It was a sweet gesture.

One that had turned out a lot harder to live up to in reality.

I’d grown up infused with and surrounded by their love. They’d always made me feel safe, protected, and worth so much.

Little had I known that they’d been overcompensating for what would befall me once I ventured beyond our home.

I was different.

Beyond that, actually.

I wasn’t just a little odd, or in a state of still trying to find like-minded individuals who would share my interests and outlook.

No. I was literally one of a kind. And not in a good or special-beyond-all-others sort of way. In a freakshow way. A detrimental way.

The first ever angel to be birthed outside the Celestial Plane. A True Celestial who wasn’t tethered to the Celestial Plane like all others.

To my family, that made me a miracle, a precious gift.

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