AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“So.” Peter clapped my back and I almost choked on a mouthful of soup. “When do I get grandkids?”
My gaze darted to my sister.
“Don’t look at me.” Abagail giggled. “I’m only eighteen—you’re three years older.”
“Sometimes you act like you’re twelve.” I tossed a small piece of bread at her face.
“Hey.” Abagail tossed the same piece of bread back to me and I caught it with my mouth.
Peter chuckled and Abagail joined him.
Mother wiped her mouth with a cloth napkin. “Well … whoever he falls in love with will be special, just like him. And she’ll be the luckiest lady in the whole world. Just look at my son. He’s so handsome and strong.”
I patted my face and grinned, and laughter rang as we ate our meal. Several young ladies in town wanted me for a husband, but no one had ever stolen my heart. I wanted the kind of love Peter and my mother shared.
Besides, I had another problem. What human woman in their right mind would want a lover with wings sprouting from their back? Perhaps the kind who wanted to kill me and sell my blood to the highest bidder. But I was lucky to have found someone. I’d just needed to get the hard part out of the way and let her know I was a hybrid.
Morning sunlight slanted down from the canopy of leaves above. My spine prickled, my wings ruffling in warning. The leaves fluttered in the gentle breeze, but no sound reached me of horses trotting or wagon wheels groaning.
How long had I dozed off on this boulder?
I stretched my legs and arms as I glanced down to where I’d buried Peter next to the tree, giving me shelter. I felt his presence as if he stood next to me.
“Good morning.” I waved a hand to our home. The fire dwindled to sullen red embers. “You took the easy way out and now I have to rebuild it on my own. I’m just joking, of course.” I let out a soft chuckle. “I promise you I will build it back and I will rescue Mother and Abagail. And I’m sorry I was so stubborn and I stopped calling you … Father.” I choked on the word. “It’s my fault you’re gone. My fault your wife has no husband and Abagail is fatherless.”
On one knee beside the freshly turned earth of his grave, I let the tears fall until my breath shuddered in my chest. I was a little boy again, reliving the time Peter picked me up off the ground and carried me home after I fell from a horse.
He never scolded me. Never told me to be a man and stop crying. He said I should take the time to recover and get back in the saddle when I was ready.
He also said it was all right for me to cry, that showing emotion doesn’t make anyone any less of a man. Instead, it shows a person’s heart and humanity.
My feathers twitched, another warning. I wiped my tears and stood on the boulder. A wagon with ten demons in human form had parked in front of my house, or what was left of it, and Gorgo sprinted toward me.
The impulse to coil my fingers around Gorgo's neck and blame him for Peter’s death bubbled in my chest, but I stood my ground. Not his fault his brother was evil, but he did want me on his team to help bring Asmodeus down.
A mission that seemed more likely by the second.
Saving my mother and sister was all that mattered, and I needed help. Gorgo was the perfect being to get me into the castle. Even though Levia told me to arrive in five days, I planned to get inside earlier and find all the exit routes.
Gorgo’s long legs ate up the distance, his arms flapping like a bird. Quite comical. Under different circumstances I would laugh my ass off, but not today. My humor was gone.
He peered up at me. “I thought you were dead. If I had a heart, it would have stopped. What the hell happened? Why is your house burned? Where is your family?”
I jumped off and we both sat on the grass by the stream. I explained how his brother wanted me to lead his army and I had refused, and how Levia had burned my house, killed Peter, and taken Mother and Abagail as prisoners.
“That bitch.” Gorgo snarled.
“I’m going to kill her after I rescue my family.” I pried loose a pebble beside my leg and tossed it into the stream.
“I’m so sorry about Peter.” He flashed a glance to the grave marked with stones. “So what’s the plan?”
“Levia told me to arrive in five days, but I plan to be there earlier to scout the place. And you’re going to help me.”
Gorgo jolted up and brushed the grass off his pants. “Then we must go now. What are you waiting for?” He flashed those sharp demon teeth. “Does this mean we’re a team?”
“If you’re helping me, then I guess we are.” I rose.
So much had happened in such a short time. I didn’t know how to process everything. Peter’s death reminded me that life was precious and could be taken away at any moment.
