Jake’s fingers tighten on my hip, but he doesn’t try to stop the Prince when he lifts the sleeve of my shirt. We just watch as slowly he rolls the cuff.
“Take it,” I say.
He continues to fold. “You don’t like my halo?”
“I hate it. I never wanted it.”
His fingers go still on my arm. “I thought we agreed to stop lying, Elle.”
“Don’t call me that,” I say through clenched teeth.
“If I take the halo back,” he says, “our deal is off.”
Behind me, Jake shifts. “It wasn’t your deal to make,” he says. “It was never within your power to promise.”
“Oh, look at that,” the Prince says, ignoring Jake, tucking my sleeve into the crease at my elbow. “This is out of my hands now. It’s already become a part of you.” He turns those pale eyes on me. “I’ve become a part of you.”
“What?” I look down at my arm. Jake leans over my shoulder to do the same.
“The halo’s grafted to your arm,” he says. He turns his attention to Jake. “But you? You tried to heal her, didn’t you? Here’s a lesson I bet your Shield never taught you. Some things can’t be healed. Some things must be cut away.”
“You can remove it,” Jake says.
“I can’t.” The Prince raises his hands. “I’m very good at getting into things, latching on. But the getting out, that’s never really been my thing.”
“So what do I do?” I don’t know why I’m asking him. He’ll only lie.
“Live with it,” the Prince says, his eyes like ice. “Appreciate that you don’t have to see pain and fear. That once I get this veil stitched up, you won’t have to see angels and demons either. You won’t have to see me.”
I can’t think of anything else to say. I have arguments, good arguments. That spiritual blindness solves nothing. But they’d be wasted words here. He knows that. He tricked me into this thing, and he’s not going to offer me a way out. But that doesn’t mean he’s telling the truth. That doesn’t mean hope is gone.
“Come on,” Jake says. “Let’s go. We’ll find another way.”
We start to back away, but the Prince’s words stop us. “Where’s the other halo?”
“Why?”
“Because you have no use for it. Blindness is your gift now.”
The truth of his words hurt; the cut they make on my heart is deeper than the one on my arm. But it doesn’t matter. I gave the golden halo away. It’s not mine anymore.
I turn my back on the Prince, on the celestial porthole behind him. And that’s when I see them. The Army of Light.
Despite the dark halo on my arm, I see them. With celestial eyes.
I don’t understand how, but I do.
They’re everywhere. They line the field between the old Miller place and my house, filling every inch of it. Warriors hover above those on the ground, bows drawn. I recognize the Peter Pan Warrior I saw a stop fighting.”
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Dark Halo (An Angel Eyes Novel) Page 24
