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“Don’t,” he snapped, bunching his shoulders when she touched his back.
“What’s the matter?”
“Didn’t you hear Lazarus? He’s adraugr.”
She hadn’t realized anyone was listening. She also didn’t understand why he was so upset. “Yes, but there are ways to end adraugr. Lazarus is super smart and?—”
“He’s my father, Juniper.”
She took a step back fearful he was suddenly suffering a change of heart. “But you said you didn’t feel anything for him.”
“I don’t. That’s not my point.” His voice broke, and his eyes shimmered. “What if I’m like him?”
Her heart hurdled into her throat. “Oh, Dane?—”
“I don’t want your pity.”
“Empathy is not pity.” All of this talk about how awful Cerberus was, and she hadn’t once considered that he was a part of Dane’s DNA. Her heart broke for him. “We are more than genetic pieces of our parents. Our experiences matter.”
He looked away, his jaw tight with tension and his body vibrating with the effort to keep hisanger contained. “All this time, I was lying to myself—lying to all of you. I thought if I gave Gracie space, something would change, and we could end up together. It was me against one faceless guy. Turns out, I’m a soulless monster?—”
“Hey,” she snapped, yanking his arm and forcing him to look at her. “You have a soul, Dane Foster. All of those religious constructs, they’re just desperate ways to rationalize coincidence. That’s what religion does, it puts a pretty story over nature. It’s just nature. Just like instinct, hunger, and love. Having a little competition does not mean you drop out of the race.”
“You don’t honestly believe that.”
Her jaw twitched. “I have to. I love Adriel, but I’ll never be her called mate.”
“Oh, shit.” Realization and understanding flashed in his eyes.
“Yeah. There could be someone else out there, someone way more capable of stealing her heart.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t think of that.”
She shook her head. “It’s fine. It’s not like I’m going to give up. I don’t care what her destiny is. She’s mine. Even if I only get a handful of moments with her, I refuse to give up a single one.”
He finally pulled his hands out of his pockets and hugged her. “We’ll save her, June. You guys will have your chance.” He pressed a kiss to her head.
“The hour’s getting late.”
They turned to find Lazarus standing in the doorway. He held a tattered book in his hand.
“I’ll uh…get our stuff together.” Dane shot a thumb over his shoulder and slipped past Lazarus into the house.
Her gaze dropped to the book in Lazarus’s hand. “What do you have there?”
He stepped past the doorway and held it out to her. “The pages are delicate, and the ink’s mostly faded, but I figured you might want to read it.”
Juniper took the offering and frowned at the cover.
“It’s written in Akkadian, but there are several sections about thekitsune.It will help you understand.”
“Thank you.” Looked like she had a date scheduled with Google Translate. “I can’t wait to read it.” She wasn’t ready to go inside, so she sat on the step.
Lazarus joined her. “Something is weighing on you?”
She sighed as she stared out at the black night, the horizon slowly shifting into shadows as the dawn approached. “I just keep thinking we could all die today.”
“That, little one, is a truth you could tell yourself every morning.”
