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Wolf could barely look at me.

“No,” I mumbled, my body trembling. “It’s not possible. Angels cannot be half-vampyre.”

“Itispossible,” he pleaded, taking a hesitant step toward me. “Look at me, Huntyr. Look at what I am. I was not born this way, I was turned.”

Fuck.Wolf stood before me, rigid and terrified and raw, with pleading eyes that made me want to retch.

“Why would your father do that to you? Why would he turn you into this?”

Wolf shook his head. “He wants power. He thought that by turning me into one of them, we could control them. Scarlata Empire fell, Huntyr, but it won’t stay fallen forever.”

My breath escaped me. “Your father wants you to control vampyres?” Pieces fell together in my mind. I knew what it was like to have a man controlling you. But this? This was evil. This was wrong.

He nodded.

“Was he the one who planned the attack?”

Wolf took half a step forward. “It wasn’t supposed to happen that way, I swear to you.”

“How can I believe you? How can I believe any of this? I don’t trust you, Wolf,” I whispered. “You lied to me about everything!”

His expression fell further. “I don’t expect you to. I lost your trust. I accept that.”

“Then why bother? Why show me this? Why follow me out here and tell me all this when you know I’ll never trust you again?”

“I had to tell you the truth.”

“But why?” My words cascaded from a whisper to a roar of unsaid words, of hidden emotions. “Why tell me you’re avampyrewhen you know what I am? You know what I do, Wolf! You know what I was trained for my entire life, what I was trained to kill!”

I unsheathed Venom from my thigh, turning her in my palm.

Wolf’s eyes shifted to Venom, then back to me.

He fell to his knees.

“Wolf,” I breathed.

He raised his chin, exposing his chest. “If you have to kill me, kill me. I deserve much worse than death at your hands, Huntress.”

“Don’t you dare,” I whispered. “You’re a fucking coward for this, Wolf.”

“I’m a vampyre, you’re a vampyre killer. I knew what the risk of telling you this truth was, and I’m willing to pay the price.” His icy eyes glittered with intense lightning before he closed them. “Do it.”

“But it’syou!” My voice broke. I dropped to my knees in front of him, crumbling in surrender the same fragile way he did. “How am I supposed to look at you, beautiful and tragic, and shove this blade into your chest? How am I supposed to kill you when you’re the only fucking person who’s made me feel—” My words quivered, my hands rattled.

He blinked. “What? Who’s made you feel what, Huntress?”

A sickening numbness spread through my chest, radiating down my stomach.

He knew exactly what he made me feel; he had seen it in my eyes, in the half-truths and passing touches.

Wolf’s hands caressed my shoulders, his thumb moving to my chin, forcing me to look at him. With his other hand, he slid down my arm, shifting my dagger up to touch his chest.

All I had to do was apply the pressure. All I had to do was finish it, finish him.

I saw it in his eyes, too. He wanted me to do it. He had submitted to me fully, had given up on his side of the fight.

“A vampyre,” I breathed. “How could you have kept this from me? You knew who I was, Wolf. You saw me in Midgrave.” But my words weren’t angry anymore, they were barely audible. No, I didn’t have the energy to be angry.