I met his gaze steadily, surprised by my own calmness. “It means I’m not leaving. Whatever consequences you want to threaten me with, whatever punishment assignments you have in mind, I don’t care. I’m staying with Charles.”
“Even if it means the end of your career?”
“Even if it means the end of everything.” The words came from somewhere deep inside me, from a place I hadn’t even known existed until this moment. “I won’t abandon him, Gabriel. I won’t leave him to face this alone.”
Gabriel went very still, studying my face with an intensitythat made me want to squirm. When he finally spoke, his voice was different—softer, almost wondering. “Close to three centuries of assignments, and you’ve never once said those words.”
“This is different.”
“Yes,” Gabriel said, and there was something that might have been satisfaction in his voice. “It is.”
I frowned at his tone. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means you’re finally starting to understand what this has all been about.” Gabriel’s expression was almost gentle now, which was somehow more unsettling than his anger had been. “What your real purpose has been all along.”
“My purpose is to protect humans. That’s what guardians do.”
“Is it?” Gabriel tilted his head, studying me like I was a puzzle he was finally starting to solve. “Or is there something more to it than that?”
“Stop talking in riddles,” I said, frustration bleeding into my voice. “If you have something to say, just say it.”
“Some lessons can’t be taught, Eamon. They have to be learned through experience.” Gabriel stepped back, his form already starting to waver at the edges. “You’ll understand soon enough.”
“Gabriel—”
“The next twenty-four to forty-eight hours are going to be crucial,” he said, his voice taking on an official tone again. “Carlo is desperate, which makes him unpredictable. Be prepared for anything.”
“What about backup? Other guardians?”
“You are the backup. We have no extra guardians available right now. Everything depends on the choices you make in the coming days.”
“That’s not exactly reassuring.”
Gabriel’s smile was enigmatic. “It’s not meant to be. The test isn’t over yet, Eamon. In fact, I’d say it’s just beginning.”
And with that cryptic pronouncement, he was gone, leaving me standing alone in the snow with more questions than answers and a growing sense that I’d been missing something important about this entire assignment.
I stood there for a few more minutes, trying to process everything Gabriel had told me. The NYPD operation was blown. Carlo might already be on his way. And somehow, my willingness to sacrifice everything for Charles was apparently part of some larger plan I didn’t understand. What the fuck had that been about? Why was it impossible to get a straight answer from Gabriel? The man had spoken in complete riddles.
Worse, I couldn’t tell Charles about any of this. Not just about my true identity, but also about Carlo and how real the danger had become now. We’d had such a perfect day, and how could I ruin that by bringing reality back into it? It would shatter what we had built in this safe little cocoon. I wasn’t willing to do that. Not until I absolutely had to.
When I finally went back inside, Charles was in the living room, curled up on the couch with a book. He looked up as I entered, and I saw the worry in his eyes immediately.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
“Fine,” I lied, settling beside him on the couch.
“You were gone a while.”
Charles was too observant for his own good. “I did a quick walk around the property as well. We’re good.”
He nodded, but I could see he wasn’t entirely convinced. “Is there something you’re not telling me aboutour situation here? You seem… I don’t know, more tense since this morning.”
The urge to tell him everything was almost overwhelming. To confess the truth about what I was, about the danger he was in, about the way I felt when he looked at me like I was something precious and worth protecting.
Instead, I pulled him closer, breathing in the scent of his shampoo. “Just being cautious. It’s what I’m paid for, remember?”
“Right,” Charles said, but he didn’t sound entirely convinced. “Your job.”
