Page 4 of Reap the Night
“You want me to back off. I get it.” Damn, my mouth was dry. “You need her to do her thing and break the curse. But he just ordered her to be killed. You heard that? And I…I stopped him because…because he listens to me. We have a connection. I’ve built a connection. I can help him. I know I can.”
What was I doing? I’d never wanted this responsibility. I could walk away now if I wanted. Why was I fighting to stay? Why did the thought of leaving tear a pit inside my chest?
“Orina, she’s the only person that can help him. That can save him,” Ordell said.
“Then why did you ask me to try? Why did you push me toward him,hmmm?”
Ordell pressed his lips together and looked across at Hemlock.
Hemlock crossed the room, grabbed my dresser chair, and carried it over. He leaned forward, forearms braced on his thighs, and looked me in the eyes. “We asked you to try because…because we thoughtyouwere her.”
They’d thoughtI was Ezekiel’s curse breaker, but I wasn’t. I was just his watcher.
Unimportant now that they had who they truly needed, and now…now they wanted me gone.
“She’s a woman from our past reborn over and over,” Ordell said. “Her name was Arabella. She was nanny to Ezekiel’s children after his wife Mary passed. Although his union with Mary hadn’t been a love match, he’d cared for her, and her loss left him bereft. Arabella filled the void with sunshine and laughter. She was sweet and generous with a wicked sense of humor when she allowed. She brought life to our home and to Ezekiel. He spent hours in her company, watching her with the children or planting herbs in the garden. He’d draw her incessantly.”
The woman in the sketches had been Arabella. “He fell in love with her, didn’t he?”
“Yes,” Hemlock said. “As did we all.”
I stared at him dumbfounded. “Youallloved her?”
“We did, but we agreed that none would approach her. That we would keep her for as long as we were able and be happy for her once she found a match.”
“We knew we couldn’t all have her,” Ordell said. “And it would cause dissention if she chose one of us while the other two pined.”
“But Arabella never found love,” Hemlock said, his tone bitter. “She was killed by Loviator.”
What? “How?”
“When Loviator took Ezekiel, Arabella tried to stop her. The brave, stupid girl grabbed hold of him just as he was pulled into the void. We lost them both that day. When we finally succeeded in pulling Ezekiel out, Arabella was dead. Something Loviator delighted in telling us.”
“She almost broke free with Ezekiel,” Hemlock said.
“Arabella?”
“No, Loviator,” Ordell clarified. “The bitch almost got out of her prison, but a great power intervened to stop her.” He paused and took a breath. “The white wings.”
I stared at him, stunned. “Mywhite wings?”
“One and the same,” Ordell said. “Three of them descended to force her back into her prison. There was a battle of power, light against dark, but the damage we’d done to the fabric of her prison meant that even if they put her back into her box, they couldn’t guarantee she’d stay behind the walls. They’d have to fight constantly to hold her there, and Loviator too would get no reprieve, and so they came to an understanding. They agreed upon a curse to decide both her fate and that of this world.”
“Ezekiel’s curse?”
“Yes. He was to forget his past and be a slave to bloodlust so that he might lose his humanity. They decided on seven hundred years. Seven centuries for him to find himself again. To find his humanity, and if he failed, then Loviator would be free.
“He would be truly immortal. Unable to die. Unable to find peace until the curse ended. But any battle between light and dark needs a compass. Arabella was that compass. Murdered by Loviator, her soul infected with darkness, she remained in limbo. She was chosen to decide Ezekiel’s fate, and thus the fate of us all.”
The white wings were involved. They’d helped forge this curse? It was a lot to take in, and Arabella…a woman reborn was the key. “Okay, so Arabella is born again and again and somehow finds her way here?”
“Yes. She’s drawn here. They meet, and then…then we hope. Every time we hope.”
Seven opportunities to save Ezekiel. Seven chances. “And she failed every time?”
They exchanged glances, and it was Hemlock that spoke. “Yes. We’ve been forced to kill her every time.”
“What the hell?”
