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“Yeah. Giving her up is the only way we can save her.”
“I can’t do that,” Marina said and broke out of Harold’s arms. “I can’t give away my baby.”
“Think about it,” Harold said. “If she’s in the human world, she’ll have a human life and find a human husband, and her curse will never be triggered. She’ll never sleep with a shifter, and she’ll be okay. She’ll just benormal.”
“It’s not a curse!” Marina cried out.
Harold sighed. “That’s not how I meant it, but you know it’s not a gift. Being a rabbit shifter, as magical and powerful as they can be, without the right guidance... it’s a curse. I’m dying, Marina.”
“Don’t say that,” Marina said, and she started crying again.
“I’m not going to pretend it’s not true. I’m dying, and I can’t leave you with a little girl with more power than anyone understands. The alpha already thinks that everyone is out to kill him. If he sees you as a threat because of Kinley’s magic, then he’ll kill you and her. The only way to keep her safe is if we do this.”
Marina cried harder, covering her face with her hands as she sobbed.
“I wish we didn’t have to do this,” she said through her fingers.
“I know,” Harold said. “But, my darling, I wish a lot of things that we just can’t change.”
He took Marina in his arms again and pulled her tightly against him.
“I’ll find out what we can do to get the process going. The sooner she’s away from shifters, the sooner her magic will calm. When we leave town, and she’s with the humans, everything will be all right, and we can rest easy knowing that she’s safe.”
“I wish we could take her with us.”
“I know,” Harold said.
“I wish none of this was real. She’s the only thing I’ll have left of you, and now I have to give her up, too.”
“You’re going to be okay,” Harold said, but there was uncertainty in his voice, too.
In another room, a baby cried, and Marina untangled herself from her husband before she swallowed her tears. She wiped her cheeks and took a deep breath and left the room. I could still hear her voice floating toward Harold.
“I’m coming, sweet child,” Marina’s voice sounded. “I’m coming, my darling Kinley.”
I was suddenly alone in the dark room again.
My parents. The vision had been about my parents and what had happened when I’d been a baby. They’d given me up to save me; they’d thought it was the right thing to do.
I covered my face—just as my mom had—and cried.
For years, I’d wondered what I’d done wrong, if they’d given me up because of what I was. For years, I’d thought that there was something wrong with me. I hadn’t fit in, I hadn’t known what was real, and I’d thought I was forgotten.
Now, I knew that they’d given me up to keep me safe. Uma had suggested that at one time, and I scoffed at that idea. But it was true. I had been loved.
It hadn’t worked out that way, but I hadn’t been a problem.
I sat up. They’d thought Braxton would kill me if he found out about me, but that wasn’t true. Braxton was only misunderstood.
I knew something about that.
I had to get out of here and help him. I had to let him know what was happening, that Cal had betrayed him. I couldn’t let him get hurt because of me, the same way he hadn’t wanted me to get hurt because of him.
I looked at my hands, although I couldn’t see them.
My magic was different from any other shifter’s magic. Not because I had more power than everyone else, but because I could take their power away so that they had nothing.
If that was real, then maybe it could work on hexed rooms, too.
