Page 194 of Breathe Like Hell

I hated that I could see the design so clearly. I hated even more that, for the first time since I fell, Heaven had given me something I wanted badly enough to succumb to their plan.

There were always angels that Mason could find, ones he was meant to save.

All I had to do was convince one of them to exchange their life for hers.

Convince, or compel with my aspect.

It was abhorrent.

I knew that.

Dakota would know it, too.

But she’d have to forgive me.

There was zero chance she was going to remain human for the rest of her life. I would ensure that. This foreign concept was solving a problem I’d never allowed myself to think much about.

When I arrived home, Mason was preparing to leave.

He had questions in his eyes, but there wasn’t time to ask them now. I’d smelled the ichor somewhere along the route back home, and Mason needed to go take care of whatever was happening to the angel the ichor came from. He was out the door only a few seconds after I returned, leaving me and Dakota alone in the living room.

By the number of dishes on the coffee table, Mason had been feeding her just fine.

I walked over to her and scooped her up in my arms, sitting on the couch with her on my lap, her blanket still draped over her body.

“So, why am I pregnant?” she asked, peering up at me.

Hearing the word pregnant from her mouth was surreal. I took a steadying inhale.

“An angel touched you during your first year of life, which then changed you,” I started, brushing some hair off her forehead.

“I’m an angel?” She began to sit up more, panicked.

“No,” I said quickly. “Not at all. You have some qualities of an angel, like being able to smell kapnos, and being able to get pregnant. You’re still completely human, and none of this would’ve affected you had you not met me or Mason. It would just be unknown.”

“Why?” she questioned, her expression puzzled.

I hesitated.

The right thing to do would be to explain all of it to her.

Explain how Mason had been relying on her, even when he hadn’t known it. Explain how I knew she would become a Sigeian because of that. Explain the fact that she could become an angel at all—and such transformation would require sacrifice of the kind Mason could find in his line of work. Another angel’s life for hers.

But I couldn’t find the words to explain all of it.

She’d gone through so much already today, and I wasn’t ready to unleash all the bitterness and overwhelm in my brain on her in this moment.

“I’m not sure why. It just happens.”

“Oh.”

“Are you hungry for dinner?”

“I already ate a lot of stuff today.” She gestured to the plates and bowls. “I guess most of that is from Mason, but still. Maybe I’ll just eat mini pancakes for dinner.”

“If that’s what you want…” I leaned down to kiss her forehead.

“Yes. It is what I want.”